Unexamined derivation and provenance of strategic preoccupations

Unthought as Cognitive Foundation of Global Civilization (Part #5)

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

Curiously there is a well-recognized, so-called Law of Unintended Consequences. However this recognition has not elicited due diligence with respect to the mindset from which the "consequences" derive and by which they are engendered. The approach might be described metaphorically as "downstream thinking" -- a failure to determine "provenance" with due diligence. It is however even more curious that a major factor in enabling the recent, and ongoing, global financial crisis has been the complex repackaging and mis-selling of so-called financial derivatives. Emerging "under the radar", the associated vulnerabilities and problematic consequences went seemingly unexamined by those acclaimed for the highest expertise in this regard.

Their judgment, and that of their advisors, has not been questioned in this regard. None has been formally accused of criminal incompetence. Protests have focused on the manner in which those implicated continue to be generously rewarded with public bailout funds.

Other examples of relevance include the following.

Resource overshoot: Failure to explore the systemic processes engendering the recognized challenges of governance has encouraged preoccupations of governance to focus in a blinkered manner on particular instances of "shortages" -- without any sense that they derive directly from a notable "longage", systematically unexamined. This was a theme of a review of The Royal Society report People and the Planet (Scientific Gerrymandering of Boundaries of Overpopulation Debate, 2012). The review challenged the failure to take account of what might be described euphemistically as preoccupation with another "hole" -- charged with psychological significance.

Public debt: The manner in which  public debt (aka "government debt") has increased to an unimaginable degree is now recognized as increasingly amazing -- especially since this entails repayment by future generations of taxpayers, thereby instituting a form of debt bondage. Yet it is only in the past year or so that this has emerged as a matter of dramatic concern, with major political implications. The manner in which the public has effectively designed itself into this condition -- seemingly unawares -- suggests a particular lack of vigilance, a form of unthinking neglect with which national and international institutions have been remarkably complicit. Frequent reference is made to the "hole" in public finances -- echoing the "holes" in the budgets of corporations, groups and individuals.

What is the "unthought thought" which enabled this?

Encroachment: Many forms of "encroachment" may be recognized as essentially unthinking on the part of the perpetrators -- negligent of the consequences for those who are victims of them, and whose "habitats" and livelihoods are thereby affected (Varieties of Encroachment, 2004). This is most evident in the case of movement of peoples, whether in the form of colonialism, immigration, or refugees. It can be explored in relation to preoccupation with terrorism (Errorism vs Terrorism? Encroachment, Complicity, Denial and Terraism, 2004). In the characteristic claims to innocence by those accused of encroaching, reference is typically made to a "right" to do so, even to a "God-given" right -- irrespective of the degree to which reference to "God" is deprecated by some.

There is seemingly little sense that there might be some form of "hole" in this logic enabling the process.

Waste accumulation: The planet is faced with an exponential increase in the quantity of waste, of which only a proportion is susceptible to disposal with currently foreseen technology and budgetary provisions. Most of this waste accumulates "elsewhere" -- beyond human ken. Examples include:

• marine debris: most notably in the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• landfill waste:
• waste in areas of scientific interest, with notable examples including that left by scientific expeditions to the polar regions
• waste in wilderness areas, most notably in the case of the Everest area of the Himalayas
• agricultural wastewater:
• radioactive waste
• space debris: this includes satellites that have ceased operation, but it is estimated that the vast majority of the estimated tens of millions of pieces of space debris are small particles, less than 1 centimetre diameter

The degree of consciousness of any act of littering offers a particular insight into the interface with the "unthought thought". There is a curious widely-held assumption that there is some kind of "hole" into which waste may be freely deposited.

Overconsumption: The process of consuming in excess of need -- as the converse of the act of littering -- offers another kind of insight into the interface with the "unthought thought" (Harry Beckwith, Unthinking: the surprising forces behind what we buy, 2011) . This is especially evident in compulsive buying disorder. It is similarly evident in compulsive overeating, despite evident vulnerability to obesity and diabetes in increasingly resource-constrained circumstances.

Reference is occasionally made to the manner in which such behaviour "fills a hole" -- readily identified in the case of food -- although the underlying cognitive "hole" is necessarily more elusive.

Corruption: The gradual emergence of widespread acknowledgement of corruption has been a curious phenomenon of recent years. Any implication of "corruption" or "malfeasance" was previously treated as "unthinkable", especially with respect to those of the highest authority. One consequence was the manner in which any evidence of its existence was officially denied by those institutions which might otherwise have been concerned at its consequences -- notably intergovernmental development agencies. Evidence to the contrary was treated as exceptional.

Recent years have offered many indications of forms of behaviour and malfeasance by those in highest authority, including elected representatives of the people -- to a degree suggesting the unthought thought that this may well be systemic, as many have variously alleged. It is increasingly recognized that purportedly socially responsible institutions engage systematically in "dirty tricks" and "covert operations", which might otherwise be considered "unthinkable" -- as they endeavour so vigorously to claim.

Again it is in this sense that lack of due diligence on the part of the IMF is so remarkable in relation to its most recent scandal (Pre-Judging an Institution's Implicit Strategy by the Director's Private Behaviour: remarkable parallels in the case of the IMF and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 2011).

Implication of "peace-keepers" in exacerbation of conflict:There is a curiously unexamined contradiction between the acclaimed mandate of the UN Security Council, as guardian of global peace, and the role of its Permanent Members as the major manufacturers and distributors of weaponry worldwide -- susceptible therefore to interpretation in terms of crimes against humanity of the most systemic kind. The contradiction is obscured by the suppression of information regarding the origin of weaponry used in ongoing conflicts -- Syria is but one example, the Congo is another. Both conflicts are deplored by the Security Council, without mention of the provenance of the arms used for the purposes of massacre -- a further example of the pattern of "downstream thinking". The issue is further discussed separately (Identification of Bullets: human right and human responsibility? 2009). Avoidance of the issue is of a kind with the strange dependence on placing weaponry in civilian hands by the society most anxious to promote democracy worldwide (Arming Civil Society Worldwide: getting democracy to work in the emergent American Empire? 2003).

Abuse within institutions: Whilst abuse by institutions is widely recognized, if variously deplored, that within institutions is incompatible with conventional assumptions regarding their nature, self-image, and self-promotion. Any evidence to the contrary is framed as relating only to exceptions. There is however increasing indication that abuse within institutions is tolerated, even encouraged, and could well be systemic -- however much this is denied, especially in democratic societies claiming to uphold the highest of values, even those of religious inspiration.

That sexual abuse by Catholic clergy should have been demonstrated to be so systemic is therefore "unthinkable". That prison violence, notably male rape, should be so widespread is dissociated from conventional understanding of humane incarceration -- whether or not those incarcerated are otherwise considered to merit such "supplementary" punition, unforeseen by penal code provisions (Michael Tonry, Unthought Thoughts: the influence of changing sensibilities on penal policies, Punishment and Society, 2001). Similar examples could be cited in relation to those in institutional care (elderly, handicapped, etc), or in educational institutions, or in the military -- hazing rituals being characteristic of the latter.

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