Requisite strategic attitudes in anticipation of change?

Alternating between Complementary Images of Coronavirus (Part #7)

---

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]

---

The adaptation of Carlos Trigoso's risk/trust cube to incorporate a focus for confidence/identity implies a higher dimensionality which necessarily eludes explication. Fortunately there are clues to the requisite attitude towards risk in entrepreneurship, the martial arts, and in forms of aesthetics calling for presence in the moment.

In the case of some traditions of Eastern martial arts this attitude is entangled with aesthetic insight (Ensuring Strategic Resilience through Haiku Patterns: reframing the scope of the "martial arts" in response to strategic threats, 2006). It is especially evident in the challenge of improvisation in music and song, most obviously in antiphonal duets (Improvisation in Multivocal Poetic Discourse: Basque lauburu and bertsolaritza as catalysts of global significance, 2016; Evoking Castalia as Envisaged, Entoned and Embodied: the great game informed by the bertsolaritza cultural process? 2016).

There is therefore a case for reviewing the 8-fold pattern above in the light of the requisite nimbleness, aesthetically understood -- namely the capacity to "think on the feet" or to "think on the fly" -- rather than to depend on prescripting. With respect to any higher dimensionality of the Trigoso adaptation, this could be associated with the animations, whether of the tesseract or the Schatz cube -- the inner cube then paradoxically mirrored dynamically with the outer and framing a locus with which any meaning of "being centered" is associated.

Reframing the challenges: A possible reinterpretation of the 8-fold set of images, and their complementarity, might then take the following form:

1. Surprise: recognized as a primary characteristic of achieving competitive advantage in military strategy, business and and many games. It is cultivated in drama and comedy and celebrated in courtship. It is a feature of successful debate and legal argument. In all such contexts skill is required in the anticipation of possible surprise. This is echoed to some degree in governance in the form of emergency preparedeness. A notable example of the requisite attitude is evident in the improvised exchange cultivated by the bertsolaritza of the Basque culture.
• what degree of surprise is to be anticipated on any stage or in debate?
• what underhand moves can be anticipated of an opponent?
• to what extent should off-script discourse be anticipated?
  
  
2. Fear: ensuring a degree of fearfulness in others is a characteristic of those seeking dominance in many competitive situations. It may be experienced or sought in terms of respect and awe. Expressed as threat it may be valued in ensuring that others conform to some requirement. The experience of fear and terror is notably cultivated in many forms of entertainment and recreation. It is difficult to render these attractive without a dimension framed as "terrifying" or "thrilling". This may take the form of fear of losing, cultivated in some extreme sports in terms of the risk of fatality.
• how fearful is it appropriate to be in anticipation of a performance before an audience -- long described in terms of stage fright?
• what degree of fear is appropriate (even healthy) when engaged in extreme sports or intervention by special security forces?
• what forms of terror, and of what degree, are esteemed to be seductive? (Epistemology of Terror in the Moment, 2005)
  
  
3. Evil: typically an essential framing to inspire strategic action and to mobilize collective response, as evident in a tendency to portray any opposing force in such terms, whether elsewhere or internally. It is cultivated as an essential feature of many religions and, by extesnion, in the affirmation of values which non-believers fail to uphold, as in the case of the dynanmics between political systems. Manifestations of evil are typically essential to successful drama and entertainment -- to be vanquished through the triumph of the good. Victors in military conflict cultivate representations of the vanquished as expressions of evil.
• what kind of focus does an evil framing offer?
• how does evil "bring out the best" in those who perceive it?
• what form could drama take in the absence of the challenge of evil?
  
  
4. Biological phenomenon: most evident in the curiosity about new expressions of life, whether in nature (as extesnsively presented in documentaries) or in personal experience of wildlife in the wilderness. The appreciation is especially evident in the engagement with pets. The curiosity is celebrated by some in the quest for alien life and its portrayal in science fiction. A variant is evident in the efforts to create realistic lifeforms, as with robots (and their extension to sex dolls). The challenge such non-human life poses is evident in the experience of zoos and safaris -- beyond that of domesticated animals.
• what forms of life are "naturally" considered to be repugnant -- especially given the tendency to frame some as sub-human or inhuman?
• given the challenge of terrestrial "aliens", would Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto apply to extraterresrials?
• how unusual could alien life be expected to be?
  
  
5. Structural pattern: most obviously appreciated in expressions of creativity and innovation, whether in the arts or technology. Such innovation may take both static form in new designs and patterns (possibly governed by patents) or through dynamic expression (most obviously in dance forms).
• what is the nature of the challenge between traditional, conventional and emergent modern patterns?
• how are traditional patterns to be appreciated, given the attraction of emergent patterns?
  
  
6. Abstract concept: as with the emergence of new ideas, paradgims and meme -- possibly appreciated for the manner in which they reframe an existing order (inherited from the past) and heralding new ways of thinking and behaving. Especially intriguing, potentially, may be the revelation or discovery of unsuspected hidden dimensions of a more fundamental nature -- and a challenged to conventional modes of thinking.
• as with structural patterns?
• how are more subtle and complex patterns to be comprehended and rendered communicable?
  
  
7. Catalyst for social change: recognized as a trigger revealing hitherto unsuspected opportunity for change and transformation. For some this may take the form of recognition of loop-holes, whether or not this is framed as exploiting a situation -- however creatively. The catalyst may be of a form which frames and evokes new questions -- and questions of a new kind.
• what forms of change are to be appreciated or regretted?
• what loop-holes are indicative of negligence, irrespective of the strategic insight required for their detection?
  
  
8. Aesthetic material: as a source of inspiration for a reframing current experience in support of new possibilities. This is most obvious in humour. It is exemplified by the so-called "crazy wisdom" of Tibetan Buddhism, but otherwise evident in the recognition of "divine madness" in other religious traditions. Aesthetic use of such "material" is more evident in its "appropriation" by poets, song-writers and musicians -- exemplified by rap.
   • what use of what "material" evokes deprecation -- and by whom?

Existential depths and implications of any challenge: Whilst disparate attitudes can be readily distinguished and exemplified, as suggested above, their appreciation is clearly a matter of degree in practice. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic it might then be asked:

• how much of a surprise did it constitute for global civilization?
• what degree of fear, terror and threat did it engender in the peoples of the world and their governments? (Terror as Distractant from More Deadly Global Threats: bewitching world of definitional game-playing, 2009)
• how evil could such a pestilence be framed to be, most notably by religions in quest of end-times indications?
• to what extent has COVID-19 been recognized as a biological phenomenon -- a manifestation of life, as with others in the biosphere, held to require their eradication as threatening to human well-being?
• how many insightful patterns are relatively neglected and dangerously misunderstood, as exemplified by the form of the coronavirus?
• how fundamental are the cognitive implications of the coronavirus pattern, as it might engage the attention of philosophers?
• for whom does a pandemic serve as a catalyst for change -- whether advantageous or surreptitious?
• how do aesthetics offer integrative inspiration, to what degree, and what is excluded from such appreciation -- especially in relation to engagement with COVID-19?

---

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]