Existential implications -- of a qholeq in conventional reality?

Unthought as Cognitive Foundation of Global Civilization (Part #7)

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Nothingness: Fundamental physics, together with astrophysics, has given great credibility to the sense in which nothingness in the main characteristic of both matter and outer space (Emerging Significance of Nothing, 2012). The possibility of "dark matter" has been hypothesized to give coherence to theories regarding the nature of the universe. This suggests the further possibility that some cognitive form of "nothingness" may underlie that to which the senses so readily attribute substantive reality. This possibility has long been affirmed in various Eastern religions through insights such as the "emptiness of form". Engaging with that nothingness is necessarily a cognitive challenge -- as readily avoided and denied as is the effective denial of the current insight of physics.

The nature of that "nothingness" becomes more mysterious when recognized as a "hole", as remarkably discussed by Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi (Holes and Other Superficialities, 1994) -- with respect to the borderlines of metaphysics, everyday geometry, and the theory of perception (as they summarize in the entry on holes in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Emptiness: As a human condition characterized by a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation and apathy, emptiness is framed by Western sociologists and Christianity as a negative, unwanted condition. A sense of the emptiness of life is recognized as accompanying dysthymia, depression, loneliness, despair, and other mental/emotional disorders, including borderline personality disorder. The feeling is also part of a natural process of grief, separation, death of a loved one, or other significant changes. The sense may well be felt to justify suicide. Associated with despair, a personal sense of emptiness may have wider implications (Implication of Personal Despair in Planetary Despair, 2010).

"Non-existence": In societies cultivating class and other distinctions to some degree, many may be effectively condemned to a condition of "non-existence" as "nobodies". It is well-recognized in the case of the treatment of servants, as has always been the case with slaves. The attitude has long been evident in relation to treatment of women in many cultures (Elise M. Boulding, The Underside of History: a view of women through time, 1976). Such behaviour may strongly reinforce lack of self-esteem and the sense of emptiness described above. It may itself have collective equivalents, as separately explored (Collective Memory Personified: an Analogy, 1980). The behaviour has been widely condemned with respect to racial and ethnic discrimination.

Addictive behaviour: It is readily acknowledged that substance abuse, most notably in the form of alcohol and drugs, is widely used to compensate for an experiential sense of emptiness in life. The extent of such use is frequently cited. Other forms of addictive behaviour, used for similar reasons, may include gambling and online gaming -- again a topic of frequent comment. Whilst the addictive nature of the behaviour is typically denied, any articulation of the existential reasons for engaging in it -- a sense of emptiness calling for remedial compensation -- may be less evident, as in the case of smoking or sexual abuse.

Aging, senility and dementia: In a society in which youth is widely glorified, the process of aging is a source of great anxiety -- especially the physical evidence of it and the progressive loss of libido. This alone elicits a sense of emptiness -- even of "hollowness" -- and considerable resources may be devoted to alleviate that impression, if only in the eyes of others. The experience of progressive diminishment, with the prospect of senility and the associated loss of all personal dignity, is likely to enhance any sense of emptiness -- again encouraging consideration of early demise. Any evidence of dementia, and its progressive emergence (Alzheimer syndrome, etc), evokes further consideration -- to the extent that this remains possible with diminishing faculties and competence.

Death / Mortality: Much the strangest form of unthought thought concerns the acknowledgement of personal mortality -- of ceasing to "exist". The experience of the death of others, whether through personal exposure or through the media, is "well-packaged" in a range of categories. The packaging ensures a distance from the reality of death -- possibly reframed through the traditional quest for some form of immortality -- recently reinvigorated by the possibilities of cryogenics and mind downloading (2050 - and immortality is within our grasp, The Observer, 22 May 2005).

Life can be lived through various conventional frameworks, careers and philosophies. Then there is death -- for which there is a statistical probability at any moment of life -- despite what amounts to a cognitively well-organized denial of it (Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, 1973). Many authors cited in this document are "dead" -- or will soon be -- perhaps after being entangled for years in a condition of dementia. Should that imply more than it conventionally does?

There is therefore a degree of existential exposure to death, but with the heaviest of cognitive insulation from the experience of its nature -- a collapse of the imagined possibilities of continuing to live conventionally. Religion may propose beliefs for a life hereafter, but these also constitute a form of cognitive insulation from an experience of which people are typically terrified, as separately discussed (Thinking in Terror, 2005). This is given sharp focus in the current period by the assertion on the part of jihadis that they are "not afraid to die" -- in contrast to the worldview of those who endeavour to constrain them.

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