Conclusion

Cultivating Global Strategic Fantasies of Choice (Part #11)

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Strategic concerns with "global" initiatives are undermined by misapplication of otherwise fruitful metaphors. These reinforce confusion and tendencies to oversimplification. They fail to challenge reliance on both linear thinking and the role of a plan view (with respect to planning and explanation). These confusions are evident in assumptions made in taking advantage of the spherical form of the planetary globe to obscure the challenges of "universality" within which each perspective claiming validity necessarily holds alternatives to be misguided or "wrong". The use of the globe as a metaphor could therefore benefit from new thinking to highlight the real possibilities of integrative, "global" conversation (Future Generation through Global Conversation: in quest of collective well-being through conversation in the present moment, 1997). However, it also follows from the above argument that such renewed understanding of the metaphor should provide for the sense that those considering themselves "enlightened" by a particular model of reality necessarily recognize that those favouring alternative perspectives are variously "endarkened". The cyclic movements of the Earth readily integrate and reconcile such otherwise inexplicable (and unacceptable) paradoxes (Engaging with the Inexplicable, the Incomprehensible and the Unexpected, 2010).

For an individual, the above argument suggests that, if a model "works for you", and "tickles your fancy", then "grab a hold of it and fly" -- as advocated in the Woody Allen comedy (Whatever Works, 2009). Become a "dragon rider"  and team up with others of your kind. It is this kind of team building and magical bonding  that interactive online gaming facilitates. This contrasts with the primitive and unimaginative team building developed by such means through Pentagon-NATO gaming, notably for recruitment purposes (Army Game Project). Part of the challenge may be communicating the nature of any richer sense of identity. In that respect the comment by Kenneth Boulding is relevant with regard to the use of "metaphor", could be usefully replaced by "fantasy" in the following:

Our consciousness of the unity of the self in the middle of a vast complexity of images or material structures is at least a suitable metaphor for the unity of a group, organization, department, discipline, or science. If personification is only a metaphor, let us not despise metaphors - we might be one ourselves. (Ecodynamics: a new theory of societal evolution, 1978).

On the collective and global scale, there is a case for attentive exploration of how fantasy "works" where conventional modalities so clearly fail and are increasingly lacking in credibility (Relevance of Mythopoeic Insights to Global Challenges, 2009).  How indeed will collective and swarm intelligence work in the 21st century? One exploration emphasized the relation between Twitter and swarm intelligence (Re-Emergence of the Language of the Birds through Twitter?, 2010). The intimate relation between fanstasy and the dynamics of "spin" suggest that insights into the latter through the whirlpools and tornados of nature may offer a vital key (Enabling Governance through the Dynamics of Nature: exemplified by cognitive implication of vortices and helicoidal flow, 2010).

The need for a preoccupation with the role of "strategic fantasies" at this time is very "realistic", as suggested by John O'Sullivan ('Everything Changed': Would That the Cliche Were True, 16 September 2002):

It would be comforting to report that American conservatives had criticized and opposed this State Department drift [of favoring European integration]. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, they have accepted the false picture of a Europe already unified in opposition to the U.S., denounced it in apocalyptic terms, and gone on to advance strategic fantasies of replacing NATO with an anti-Islamic alliance built on Turkey (an Islamic country), Russia (which just signed a trade deal with Iraq), India (which is violently hostile to America's client, President Musharraf of Pakistan), and Israel. It is, of course, an achievement of sorts to have produced a foreign policy even more unrealistic than that of the U.S. State Department.

Reference is also made to "strategic fantasies" by Sergey Karaganov (Strategic Havoc, Russia in Global Affairs, 9 April 2010) with respect to the recent call for setting a specific goal of ridding the world of nuclear arms and for launching a massive campaign in support of Nuclear Zero. Google -- with a corporate motto of Don't be evil -- currently offers 814 hits in response to the query "strategic fantasies".

The current strategic fantasies follow those of an earlier period, as noted by Patrick Deer (Culture in Camouflage: war, empire, and modern British literature, 2009):

The interwar years saw a massive effort to make strategic fantasies a reality; if the technology of imperial air power or mobile armoured warfare did not yet exist, culture could be mobilized to shore up the ramshackle war machine.

Ironically, the fundamental importance attached to the dragon in Chinese culture -- framing themselves as the "descendants of the dragon" -- suggests that more attention should be given to the widely popular fantasy of the dragon dance. Through it teams of up to 50 people embody a dragon -- even two or nine dragons, requiring complex choreography to explore their intertwining. The dance might then even be understood as framing the intertwined relationships between contrasting fantasies -- such as those of Al-Qaida or the Tea Party movement, or perhaps of the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Although any notion of "dragon" by modern military forces might now be considered ridiculous, it is most curious that the military has already indulged in this fantasy to a high degree through the naming of many forms of weaponry and mission, whether in the specific case of "dragon" (eg. B-23 Dragon, HMS Dragon) or other such entities and their associated artefacts (X-47 Pegasus, HAI Pegasus, Operation Pegasus (1968), Trident (missile), Operation Mars, Supermarine Scimitar, Centaur tank, etc). Which mythical entities have not been used in this way and why? It would not be surprising to discover that the comprehensive manuals of Dungeons and Dragons were used as a resource. A number of intergovernmental organizations follow this pattern in using names of classical deities and their symbols. The process is notably well developed in the fashion industry where the names of most classical deities are now brand names.

Librarians have a tale regarding the misfiling -- under "urban planning" -- of the City of God by St Augustine of Hippo. Might the reverse now be appropriate, namely filing any isolated "global plan" under fantasy -- especially if based on a "universal declaration"? This would be consistent with what Peter A. Clark has described as the "the strategic fantasies of formal, written mission statements" in contrast with a "can do emphasis" (Organisations in Action: competition between contexts, 2000, p. 214).

Rather than sterile "plans", shifting metaphor, there may indeed be a case for "magic carpets" in which contrasting thematic threads are interwoven in braided discourse (Interweaving Thematic Threads and Learning Pathways: Noonautics, Magic carpets and Wizdomes, 2010). The implication of such magic carpets for governance have been separately explored (Magic Carpets as Psychoactive Systems Diagrams, 2010).

The apparent degree of abandonment of the "rational" regarding matters global, in contrast with "local" technical detail, does in fact open opportunities for forms of reconciliation which would be impossible in a purely "rational" context. This point is made, by Robert Sapolsky with regard to possibilities of exploiting the brain's tendency to confuse reality and literalness with metaphor and symbol (This Is Your Brain on Metaphors, The New York Times, 14 November 2010). Citing the work of Robert Axelrod, a political scientist and game theorist, he argues that this neural confusion about the literal versus the metaphorical gives symbols enormous power, including the power to make peace and to facilitate conflict resolution. How then best to cultivate global strategic fantasies of choice?

Symbolic representation of strategic fantasies
1965 Logo of UN International Cooperation Year	Dragon dance in quest of the Tao	Tao embodying the dragon dance	1971 Logo of UN International Year for Action to Combat Racism

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