Collective activities potentially offering global self-remediation

Transcending One-eyed Global Modelling Perspectives (Part #9)

In considering ways of eliciting collective insight into remedies for the current condition of global governance, it is worth speculating on the possibility that "recreational" sport has always offered unsuspected clues through its "popularity". Whether unconsciously or not, are "we the peoples" cognitively self-remediating (rather than self-medicating) as a collectivity through sport? (John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995). This "therapeutic" dimension, appropriately associated with "recreation", enriches insight into the nature of the quest for collective intelligence and self-organization (Consciously Self-reflexive Global Initiatives: Renaissance zones, complex adaptive systems, and third order organizations, 2007).

It is intriguing, given the worldwide focus on the Olympic Games, that the Olympic symbol bears an interesting geometric relationship to the configurations above. Do particular sports highlight particular cognitive skills as explored speculatively in relation to football (Understanding Sustainable Dialogue: the secret within Bucky's Ball?, 1996).

Olympic symbol

The five Olympic rings represent the interconnectedness of the five continents of the world involved in the Olympics. In the above argument they are also suggestive of the currents effectively delineating those continents. It is also tempting to consider an implied reference to a set of "five sports" which together reflect the variety of insights corrective of global systemic imbalance and vital to the "health" of the world.

As might be expected, the classification of sports in general is a controversial matter (see Wikipedia's Outline of sports). Many sports are not included in a current Olympic programme, although considered recognized sports by the International Olympic Committee. Other "sports" are not so recognized. Some of the sports are understood to consist of multiple disciplines.

For the speculative purpose of this exercise, a rough classification might distinguish sports as follows:

martial arts (combative sports)
ball sports involving teams
marksmanship sports (archery, shooting, golf, etc)
water sports (swimming, diving, etc)
endurance sports (athletics, mountaineering, caving, etc)
vehicle-based sports (cycling, riding, sailing, gliding, etc)
etc

The question to be asked is how these sports demonstrate particular skills and variously engage attention -- and what is the "therapeutic" effect on the collective psyche. As a channel for collective hope, do they enact distinct cognitive modalities for psychosocial systems, somewhat analogous to the function of vitamins for the human body (Implication of Personal Despair in Planetary Despair, 2010; Cognitive Implications of Lifestyle Diseases, 2010)?

Being activities rather than categories, do they offer clues to navigating the psychosocial system as a whole, as with the currents discussed above (Navigating Alternative Conceptual Realities: clues to the dynamics of enacting new paradigms through movement, 2002)? What is the significance of the "inner game" promoted as an attitude vital to appropriate engagement with some at least of these sports?

The variety of emerging assumptions and questions regarding the WikiLeaks embassy cables suggest that a complex remedial system is kicking into action, whether five-fold or more. This is reminiscent of the case made by Arthur M. Young (The Geometry of Meaning, 1976) for the number of independent "observations" required to control a helicopter -- which he generalized into relevance for learning/action cycles, as discussed separately (Characteristics of phases in 12-phase learning-action cycle, 1998). In the recent commentary of Andrew Gavin Marshall (Wikileaks and the Worldwide Information War Power: propaganda, and the global political awakening, Global Research, 6 December 2010), the following contrasting perspectives relevant to remedial systemic insight are noted:

those who accept what the Wikileaks releases indicate at face value, largely due to the misrepresentation of the documents by the corporate-controlled news.
those who see the documents as authentic and simply in need of proper interpretation and analysis.
those, many of whom are in the alternative media, who approach the leaks with caution and suspicion.
those who simply cast the leaks aside as a 'psy-op' designed to target specific nations that fit into the foreign policy objectives of the USA.
those who deplore the leaks as 'treason' or threatening 'security'.

The challenge is to weave five such contrasting insights into any global model as "five eyes" each with its particular function. Marshall's essay aims to examine the nature of the Wikileaks releases, suggesting how "should" they be approached and understood. The question would then be whether rejected perspectives, valued by some constituencies, should then be "designed out". A healthier approach would, for example, take advantage of the insight of Ray Kurzweil in designing speech recognition and other applications using a set of modules with complementary functions. This is consistent with recognition of the challenging interplay of five modules of the human brain or of the need for distinct, but complementary, languages to order experience of richer significance (Antonio T de Nicolas, Neurobiology, Communities, Religion: a bio-cultural study, 1998).

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