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Conclusion
Unthought as Cognitive Foundation of Global Civilization (Part #11)
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The argument with respect to the unthought has suggested that underlying the conventional reality of global civilization is a cognitive modality of unknown and largely unexplored implications for the further development of that civilization. The global financial crisis can be understood as emerging as a consequence of an incompetent lack of vigilance of a very high order -- reinforced by arrogance. This is a failure of governance to "keep an eye on the ball". This failure exemplifies a characteristic of the unthought. Of far deeper concern, however, is what else may be buried in the depths of the unthought -- as disruptive and denied as have been the factors engendering the financial crisis.
The implications of the unthought may well be "terrifying" to ordinary awareness -- suggesting that the worldwide preoccupation with "terrorism" may well be a form of surrogate with a prefigurative function. The sense of a "hole" is also remarkably indicated by the current worldwide preoccupation with the global financial crisis and recognition of underlying budget deficits of unprecedented proportions. The repeatedly demonstrated incapacity of governance to engage effectively with this deficit offers further indication of the cognitive significance of the "hole". As with the "dark matter" and "dark energy" of astrophysics, the nature of the "hole" is beyond conventional capacity to "grasp" it. A major dimension of the current tragedy, and intrinsic to the psychodynamics of that cognitive hole, is the manner in which those implicated variously understand what ought to be done to engage with the deficit -- whilst clearly exhibiting no capacity to admit to their limited understanding of its complexity or to the need for another order of insight to enable their differences to be reconciled.
Leviathan: Through the metaphorical frames offered by myth the unthought could be understood as "monstrous" in some way. It could then be compared with the Leviathan, common to the mythologies of the Abrahamic cultures, or to the variants in other cultures. The term has been applied to Islam itself by Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr (Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the making of state power, 2001). This usage follows the influential early work of Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan: Or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, 1651) of which edited revisions have been recently published. Of potential relevance to this argument is the focus of the last part of the book, On The Kingdom of Darkness:
This considered, the kingdom of darkness... is nothing else but a confederacy of deceivers that, to obtain dominion over men in this present world, endeavour, by dark and erroneous doctrines, to extinguish in them the light... [Chapter XLIV]
Subterranean threats: The Leviathan is recognized in myth as a monstrous, twisted sea serpent -- the gatekeeper of Hell. Such a chthonic primordial role merits attention to the extent that similar roles have been accorded to the deep sea monsters of other cultures, notably in relation to symbolism relating chthonic serpents to a Tree of Life. It is strangely consistent with the concerns of the current period preoccupied as it is by rising sea levels, in addition to the occasional threat of tsunamis provoked by earthquakes. The subterranean threats are also evident in concern with volcanoes and the possibility of supervolcanoes. Both volcanoes and earthquakes are associated with movements of the Earth's tectonic plates -- held to be significant (metaphorically) to the challenges of the times, as cited above (Robert Davies, The Shifting Tectonic Plates: facing new community challenges to business in a fragile world of risk and opportunity, The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, 2002).
Twistedness and self-reflexivity: Especially intriguing with respect to the "serpentine" nature of the Leviathan is its relation to the twistedness of Hobbes "deceivers" -- now to be recognized in the "spin" of news management, as well as in the nature of "covert" operations. This suggests the requirement for corresponding modes of engagement with the unthought (Twistedness in Psycho-social Systems: challenge to logic, morality, leadership and personal development, 2004; Engaging with Questions of Higher Order: cognitive vigilance required for higher degrees of twistedness, 2004). This could be readily understood to imply a higher order of self-reflexivity, whose absence contributes to the problematic nature of what is then "unthought" -- as variously explored by Douglas Hofstadter (Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: computer models of the fundamental mechanisms of thought, 1995; I Am a Strange Loop, 2007) and separately discussed (Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops: comprehension and engagement through aesthetic ring transformation, 2010). The requisite vigilance is evident in the separate discussion of Knight's move thinking in relation to abuse of confidence (Swastika as Dynamic Pattern Underlying Psychosocial Power Processes: Implicate order of Knight's move game-playing sustaining creativity, exploitation and impunity, 2012).
Imaginative anticipation of surprise: The sense of the "monstrous" continues to be significant to modern imagination, most notably to the younger generation -- as cultivated in games of various kinds (Dungeons and Dragons, etc). The myth has been cultivated in science fiction, most notably in the apocalyptic work of John Wyndham (The Kraken Wakes, 1953) with reference to the deep sea monster of Nordic mythology (the Kraken), and that of H. P. Lovecraft (The Call of Cthulhu, 1928; etc) with respect to a fictional entity Cthulhu -- trapped undersea, but expected eventually to return (and now the focus of the Cthulhu mythos in popular culture). In this sense the monstrous offers a culturally tolerable framing of the possibility of strategic surprise, as explored with respect to black swan theory by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable, 2007). In historical terms the encounter of a culture with such a surprise may be compared to that of the Aztec Empire, under Montezuma, leading to the Spanish conquest in 1520.
Symmetry "monsters": The cognitive challenge of the monstrous emerges quite differently in the reference by mathematicians to the Monster Group -- a surprising discovery of fundamental significance in their group theory explorations. The group is one of two principal constituents in the mathematical conjecture known as Monstrous moonshine, as discussed separately (Potential Psychosocial Significance of Monstrous Moonshine: an exceptional form of symmetry as a Rosetta stone for cognitive frameworks, 2007). Although the beauty of visual renderings of such symmetry may readily be associated with deity (Lie groups, etc), the challenges to its comprehension are truly "monstrous", as noted above (Dynamics of Symmetry Group Theorizing, 2008). This polarizing ambiguity might well be recognized as characteristic of reference to the serpentine nature of the mythical variants -- framing the challenge of self-reflexivity in engaging with it, again suggested by the mythical encounter of Perseus with the Gorgon.
Social unrest: As a deep sea monster, the myth echoes both current preoccupation with threats from the sea -- and the symbolic connotations of water in relation to the unconscious -- as well as widespread recognition of emergent social unrest. The latter is readily reframed in terms of an "eruption" of volcanic proportions -- for which security services are increasingly preparing in the light of ever more powerful simulations (as mentioned above). As such phenomena illustrate, however, the trigger for the "eruption" of one may well be of little concern to another. One group's inspiration may well be deeply "unthought" for another.
Black holes? In its use of astrophysical metaphors, the argument referred to the potential cognitive implications of "black holes", increasingly used with respect to global financial indebtedness of what might well described as of "astronomical" proportions. As noted, the metaphor is also valued with reference to a sense of individual or collective despair. The concern here is however with the cognitive implications for a global civilization of a massive "black hole" underlying the conventional worldview -- perhaps to be compared with a supermassive black hole, hypothesized as being at the centre of most galaxies. How might the cognitive implications be understood -- as a challenge to the very process of conventional understanding? How might these accord with the framing offered by Elizabeth A. Grosz (Of Futures Yet Unthought, 1998)? In a special sense, the "future" is possibly intimately related to the "unthought", namely as the "yet to be thought".
Dynamic implications: The above discussion has been unfortunately biased in accepting the conventional consideration of the "unthought" as a substantive -- with only incidental reference to a dynamic associated with "unthinking". There is however great potential in considering the "unthought" as inherently dynamic, perhaps as implied by David Bohm's consideration of the holomovement associated with implicate order. The potential is evident in the cited proactive uses of "unthinking" -- evident in references below. As with the magma at the Earth's core, it is the associated dynamic -- especially its fluidity -- which points to the potential of this dynamic to "reform" the modalities of conventional thinking, even disruptively through "shifting tectonic plates". This argument may be related to that of reconsidering fundamental human values in dynamic terms (Freedom, Democracy, Justice: Isolated Nouns or Interwoven Verbs? Illusory quest for qualities and principles dynamically disguised, 2011). It is also relevant to the obligation to live, in some sense, "between" the Olympian and the Chthonic cognitive realms (Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds: global implications of "betwixt and between" and liminality, 2011).
Engaging with the netherworld: The reference by Hobbes to a "Kingdom of Darkness" (noted above) of which the Leviathan is a guardian, suggests the merit of further consideration of the role and dynamics of a cognitive "netherworld" in Roman and Greek cultures -- and the necessity of according it appropriate attention, as separately discussed (Designing Global Self-governance for the Future: Patterns of dynamic integration of the netherworld, 2010).
| The Quest Of Merlin |
Relentlessly we fulfil. |
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