Conclusions

Transcending One-eyed Global Modelling Perspectives (Part #10)

In the quest of paradigm shifts: At the time of writing, national, regional and global governance are variously faced with stresses for which there is little new thinking. In the specific case of the financial crisis of the eurozone, Jean-Claude Trichet as president of the European Central Bank, has called upon the 16 members of the currency union for "a quantum leap in the governance of the eurozone". An editorial in The Guardian immediately thereafter was titled Eurozone crisis: New panic, old thinking (3 December 2010). Seemingly there is indeed no new thinking on the horizon in a week characterized by the worldwide release via WikiLeaks of US diplomatic cables -- and the title in the same medium How WikiLeaks altered the way we see the world in just a week (The Guardian, 4 December 2010).

Given the imaginative creativity of physicists and the unconventional thinking they cultivate, it is curious that Trichet should employ the metaphor of "quantum leap" and be quite unable to benefit more creatively from it.

Implications of "real" secrets: Both the ongoing financial crisis and the revelations of the embassy cables make the case for the need to look at the world in another way (Robert Booth and Haroon Siddique, How WikiLeaks altered the way we see the world in just a week, The Guardian, 4 December 2010). The revelations reflect only the low "noforn" level of secrecy, otherwise termed "unclassified" and accessible to some 2.5 million US officials. The rest of the world is then free to speculate on how understanding of their world might be even more radically transformed by the "real" secrets of the US, "classified" and necessarily accessible to only the very few:

Top secret, which, if publicly disclosed, would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security.
Secret, whose release would cause "serious damage" to national security -- most classified informationis of this kind
Confidential, being defined as information that would "damage" national security if disclosed to the public.

As with many major institutions, including the UN and the Vatican, the quantity of documents so classified is immense. The reasons for such classification are at least questionable. Repsonding to an interviewer's question as to whether WikiLeaks should be declared a foreign terrorist organization, Noam Chomsky argues:

I think that's outlandish. The materials -- we should understand (and the Pentagon Papers is another case in point) that one of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. (WikiLeaks Cables Reveal "Profound Hatred for Democracy on the Part of Our Political Leadership" Democacy Now!, 30 November 2010).

The "world knot":Clearly this reinforces the need to include the role of secrecy and ignorance into any future models of global governance, if they are to be meaningful and relevant. How else can the real condition of the world become the subject of reflection by other than the select few -- who seem so successfully to have mismanaged the challenges faced by global governance and are unable to justify their apparent incompetence by reference to relevant classified information?

The argument above is framed to focus on the connection between surface-currents and under-currents. That connection can be formally and metaphorically described as a knot. However it is the cognitive and experiential transition between the two "contradictory" realities that calls for attention -- especially given its paradoxical nature. As a question it might be framed as: What is the knot whereby systemic "loose ends" are tied? Symbolically this might be associated with the Ouroboros -- the dragon or snake "biting" its own tail. But, as illustrated above, the theory of knots highlights a whole spectrum of possible understandings of that link. As implied by the Olympic symbol, the world cannot (yet) be understood as a "one-ring circus". As previously argued (Relevance of Mythopoeic Insights to Global Challenges: cognitive integration implied by the Lord of the Rings, 2009), some may of course aspire to the mythical:

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

The rope-like flow of the ocean currents, looping around the world, can readily be understood and described topologically as a form of knot -- the "world knot". What insights might emerge from an effort to describe the world system of communication flows in such terms? Of relevance is the specific case for a topological approach to global modelling previously made in relation to the methodology of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential as (Global modelling perspective, 1995).

Reference to the "unknot" in a topological context (see above) -- usefully understood as the possibility of an "unknotted" comprehension of a global system -- highlights the challenge of comprehension of paradox. Mnemonically there are insights from the interplay between "knot" and "not" -- to the extent that "knottedness" of comprehension derives significantly from what is "not" recognized. The Möbius strip provides an accessible example. The tentative set of images above suggests the possibility of structuring phases of comprehension of the challenge of governance as a form of visual story. The best example of this is the classic set of 10 Zen ox-herding images, adapted separately to the framing of world problems (Integration of perceived problems, 1995).

Cyclopean vs. Poly-ocular vision:The fundamental mistake at this time would seem to be the confusion of comprehensive unity -- associated with simplistic uses of "universal" and "global" -- with the challenge to comprehension implied by the "unknot" or the Ouroboros. This might be termed the "cyclopean syndrome" -- the implication that depth may be comprehended through one eye.

Aside from the physics of stereoscopic vision, a number of authors have explored its significance as a metaphor (cf John A T Robinson, Truth is Two-eyed, 1979). This binocular approach has been extended to a poly-ocular approach by Magoroh Maruyama (Polyocular Vision or Subunderstanding? Organization Studies, 25, 2004, pp. 467-480), notably considered as relevant to agriculture, as admirably described by Egon Noe, et al (A semiotic polyocular framework for multidisciplinary research in relation to multifunctional farming and rural development, 2005). In poly-ocular vision, the differences between several images enable detection of invisible dimensions, which cannot be obtained by adding several images (Maruyama, 1978).

The argument has been developed separately (Cyclopean Vision vs Poly-sensual Engagement, 2006). In relation to Polyocular strategic vision (2009) reference is made there to the much-cited tale regarding Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) against the Danes. At a critical moment, when his superior signalled he should retreat. Nelson ordered that the signal be acknowledged. He informed his flag Captain: "I only have one eye -- I have the right to be blind sometimes," and then holding his telescope to his blind eye, said "I really do not see the signal!". By his continuing the engagement a British victory was achieved. Presumably, in ignoring feedback from their constituencies, the leaders of the world expect to emulate Nelson, raising to the "blind eye" any devices capable of correcting their defective vision.

A Potemkin knowledge-society: Promoting a Potemkin vision of global society -- through the conventional one-eyed focus on "surface-currents" -- works to the extent that "we the peoples" are blind and gullible, a primary motivation of secrecy. Then indeed, "in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". WikiLeaks has enabled people to recognize the need to see "in depth" -- with two eyes -- confirming widespread recognition of both the surface-currents and the under-currents. Incorporating both into future global models, and exploring the manner in which they are connected, is the challenge for the future.

Global modelling is currently inappropriately invested in the promotion of selective "Potemkin realities" -- as in the case of climate models or economic models. The Olympic symbol suggests the possibility of at least "five eyes" essential to self-remedial global governance by "we the peoples".

Beyond impoverished metaphor: Such arguments suggest that cognitive closure on the nature of the relationship between formal and informal, surface- and under-currents, positive and negative, is not (yet) appropriate. There are fruitful paradoxes to be explored and richer metaphors to be found to enable more fruitful comprehension of relevance to global governance (Metaphorical Geometry in Quest of Globality, 2009).

The irony remains that the focus of "recreation" on ball and other sports may be invoking a degree of comprehension of the nature of self-remediation processes. This is reflected in the use of sporting metaphors: "catching the ball", "running with the ball", "making points", pursuing a line of argument", "taking sides". Arenas can even be understood as loci of "upwelling" of collective hope -- in contrast to the "downwelling" associated with widespread collective despair and individual depression.

Self-defeating demonisation of individuals: It is in this context that, as the instigator of WikiLeaks and the target for official recrimination, Julian Assange has every probability of being "fast tracked" into martyrdom as the "Che Guevara of cyberspace", as noted in his home country by Martin Flanagan (Is Julian Assange the digital age's Che? The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 2010). There is every probability that the US will "arrange" for his assassination, as is its wont and sense of legitimate defence of national security within a cultivated politics of fear. Thereafter only the extremely gullible will believe that such arrangements were not made by the US -- rather than by "al-Qaida", as the ultimate under-current of the current period. In the eyes of history, this will seal the fate of the US as the embodiment of the betrayal of universal values (Neal Ascherson, WikiLeaks cables are dispatches from a beleaguered America in imperial retreat, The Guardian, 4 December 2010; Tanya Cariina Hsu, The Beginning of the End of the American Empire, excerpt from "The Global Economic Crisis", Global Research, 4 December 2010). Ironically it is therefore the US that has the most interest in preventing his assassination.

The dilemma has been most sharply presented by John Naughton (Live with the WikiLeakable world or shut down the net. It's your choice, The Guardian, 6 December 2010):

What WikiLeaks is really exposing is the extent to which the western democratic system has been hollowed out. In the last decade its political elites have been shown to be incompetent (Ireland, the US and UK in not regulating banks); corrupt (all governments in relation to the arms trade); or recklessly militaristic (the US and UK in Iraq). And yet nowhere have they been called to account in any effective way. Instead they have obfuscated, lied or blustered their way through. And when, finally, the veil of secrecy is lifted, their reflex reaction is to kill the messenger.... What we are hearing from the enraged officialdom of our democracies is mostly the petulant screaming of emperors whose clothes have been shredded by the net.

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