Metaphorical clues to radicalisation of existence and identity

Radicalisation of Existence and Identity (Part #3)

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Catalytic role of metaphor: It is not to be assumed that it is possible or fruitful to assert definitively how any radical thinks or feels, but metaphor may be used to gain some insight -- potentially to be used as a cognitive surfboard (Metaphors as Transdisciplinary Vehicles of the Future, 1991; In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics, 2007).

To the extent that radicality is intimately related with existential experience of the daimonic, the art of indication as to its nature would seem to lie in careful indirection. The very nature of the daimonic would appear to preclude its enclosure in any definition of "what it is". Any such statement can be challenged by other assertions. This suggests that it is preferable to see it as requiring a form of "unsaying", as in the case for apophatic discourse (Michael A. Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying, 1994).

It seems that there are cognitive modalities whose nature is most succinctly indicated by the much-cited first line of the Chinese classic, the Tao Te Ching: The way that can be named is not the Way. This work is one of the most important in Chinese philosophy and religion, especially in Taoism, but also in Buddhism -- and the most translated publication after the Bible. Should the insight not be applicable to the framing of any viable global strategy?

It is curious to note the current hope and investment in the international fusion research project known by its initials ITER. Acclaimed as offering humanity access to the unlimited energy of the Sun, its viability depends on the ability to design a highly unconventional container for nuclear plasma. The properties of the latter are such that any contact between the plasma and the walls of the container denatures the plasma, destroying the container via which the energy is engendered. The challenge is reminiscent of the original alchemical quest for a container for alkahest -- a hypothetical universal solvent, having the power to dissolve every other substance.

The commitment to ITER suggests that there may be a cognitive analogue to be discovered. This could be a paradoxical container for the radically daimonic, transcending conventions of description. This would be a key to the increasingly mystical quest for sustainability, as separately imagined (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006). The experiential implications are appropriately emphasized by the vital function of "plasma" in its biological senses as blood plasma and cytoplasm.

In the promotion of ITER, the point is made that "iter" is the Latin for "the way". China is also a participant in ITER and that culture will undoubtedly help to frame the challenges of fusion in new ways (as clarified by Susantha Goonatilake, Toward a Global Science: mining civilizational knowledge, 1999). These and other such insights are of relevance to articulating the methodology of a possible cognitive ITER-8 (cf Hyperspace Clues to the Psychology of the Pattern that Connects in the light of 81 Tao Te Ching insights, 2003).

In the light of repeated global strategic failure, why is it so readily assumed, that the challenges of the times can be negotiated using a mode of discourse which may well be completely inappropriate to the complex subtlety of so-called wicked problems? To what extent might this be compared to the orderly arrangement -- with the greatest expertise -- of the deckchairs on RMS Titanic? The point can be argued otherwise (Vigorous Application of Derivative Thinking to Derivative Problems, 2013).

Strategic solutions framed by "think tanks", as with current recommendations for eradication, typically result in the extensive use of tanks by the military. Is there the remotest possibility that such strategies -- characteristic of thinking "inside-the-box" -- are partially determined by the metaphors they embody, as discussed separately ("Tank-thoughts" from "Think-tanks": metaphors constraining development of global governance, 2003; Enhancing Sustainable Development Strategies through Avoidance of Military Metaphors, 1998).

Creativity and technomimicry: Given the significance variously associated with symbol, there is a case for exploring the conceptual articulations of the disciplines and the artefacts of technology as having a potential mirroring function as metaphor. Such conceptual constructs are increasingly used as such -- with borrowings from one framework assisting thinking in another. Technology can indeed be considered in this light (Robert Romanyshyn, Technology as Symptom and Dream, 1989; Erik Davis and Eugene Thacker, TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, 2015; Susantha Goonatilake, Merged Evolution: long-term complications of biotechnology and information technology, 2013).

The argument for this approach can also be made in terms of biomimicry and technomimicry, with each offering a complex of patterns in support of imaginative reflection, as argued separately (Engendering a Psychopter through Biomimicry and Technomimicry: insights from the process of helicopter development, 2011; Reimagining Tesla's Creativity through Technomimicry: psychosocial empowerment by imagining charged conditions otherwise, 2014).

The point to be emphasized is the need to recognize that much creative thinking, if not the most radically imaginative, has been invested in patterns understood as objective externalities The argument with respect to the relevance of metaphor to creativity has been developed by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander (Surfaces and Essences: analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking, 2013), as a further development of Hofstadter's earlier work (Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, 1995).

These externalities, understood as "surfaces", may well reflect humanity's somewhat mistakenly displaced effort to give form to "essences". These are patterns intuited internally and subjectively, as variously suggested by reference to mirroring of inner reality by any sense of outer reality (Robert Romanyshyn, Mirror and Metaphor: images and stories of psychological life, 2001; Joseph Campbell, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: metaphor as myth and as religion, 1986).

Comprehending the daimonic paradox: The question here is the radical imaginative engagement with such resources in relation to subtler comprehension of the process of radicalisation of existence and identity. Consideration of the nature of the daimonic also points to a paradoxical understanding of the dynamic relation between the extremes of dualities such as subjective and objective, as separately explored (¡¿ Defining the objective 8 Refining the subjective ?! Explaining reality 8 Embodying realization, 2011).

Assertions, necessarily questionable with regard to "what is" the daimonic, include:

• As noted by Stephen A. Diamond (Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: the psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity, 1996): The damon was the spiritual power that determined one's destiny... and manifested as a sort of [fate] that spurred one on toward good or evil. The word daimon does not mean demon. It is a term developed by classical scholars such as Homer, Hesiod, and Plato as a synonym for a form of personified deity.
  
  
• For Rollo May: The daimonic is [that] unique pattern of sensibilities and powers which constitutes the individual as a self in relation to [the] world (Love and Will, 1969, p.125).
  
  
• Sandra Lee Dennis associates the daimonic with alchemical understanding of quintessence and with numinosity, arguing: Anyone exploring this terrain now faces the challenge of attempting to translate the messages by following the imaginal stream to its meeting with the cellular body. How do we communicate knowledge gained in the atmosphere of the nonverbal, irrational body through the medium of the rational, written word? (Embrace of the Daimon: sensuality and the integration of forbidden imagery in depth psychology, 2001, p. 104)
  
  
• In a helpful review of a variety of perspectives, Richard Dagan notes: As the ordinating principle of self, the daimon or genius cannot be defined or delineated. It inheres in psychodynamics, manifests in action, and also presents in dreams. It can be experienced in the act of doing (Daimon, Genius: character, calling, and transcendence, Matters of Interest, 2015).

Some of these pointers are consistent with the arguments of Mark Johnson (The Meaning of the Body: aesthetics of human understanding, 2007). Appropriately inspired by R. D. Laing, one exemplar of the skillful art of "not saying" -- encompassing the reality of terrorism -- offers vital pointers in a review (Brent Potter, In Defense of the Daimonic, The New Existentialists, 7 January 2013):

• The daimonic call becomes demonic when one becomes possessed, mistaking the timeless, immortal qualities of the daimon as one's own.
• What is divine is incomprehensible not because it so utterly transcends us but because it is so close, so near, so simple, so ordinary, and so specific to particular events and activities.
• All that is destructive to others, and ultimately, destructive to the self, arises from an unwillingness to recognize human limitations.
• The person obsessed with destructive fantasies is stuck in the literal, unable to experience psychological death. Conversely, when one is able to deliteralize such fantasies, psychic reality takes on a numinous and non-destructive quality.
• While debates over guns, psychiatric diagnosis, and psychotropic medication may all be appropriate, they are all responding to the literal. The demonic presence in human existence is the result of a confused and confusing relationship to the daimonic. Such incidents will continue until we find, within possibilities disclosed by our social-historical index, the appropriate relationship between the individual's existential finitude and the daimon's potential, between the transcendent calling and the person being called.

Pattern language of radicalisation and daimonisation? As with paradoxes in other domains, are there patterns which can carry understanding of the transcendence of duality -- which are of relevance to radicalisation of identity? Is there then a "pattern language" to be recognized in relation to progressive daimonisation? Given the conventional generic understanding of a pattern in systemic terms, it is itself indicative of potentially more radical interpretations -- with greater cognitive implications (5-fold Pattern Language, 1984).

Potentially of great significance in this respect is the exploration of higher orders of cybernetics -- beyond the first order cybernetics and second order cybernetics which are more readily recognized (Maurice Yolles and Gerhard Fink, A General Theory of Generic Modelling and Paradigm Shifts: cybernetic orders. Kybernetes, 2015). Is the higher the order, with its increasing self-reflexivity, indicative of an understanding of radicalisation -- both of existence and identity?

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