Paradoxical correspondences and complementarity

"Big Brother" Crying "Wolf"? (Part #13)

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The argument above deliberately endeavours to frame the sterile polarization which characterizes the framing of an enemy -- who simply returns the favour. This calls for a counter-intuitive, self-reflexive reframing which contrasts with linear thinking, as discussed separately (Consciously Self-reflexive Global Initiatives: Renaissance zones, complex adaptive systems, and third order organizations, 2007; Sustaining a Community of Strange Loops, 2010)

Archetypal figures from folk tales have been used (above) to that end. These may well disguise the fundamental shock of recognizing oneself in the enemy -- horrifically mirrored -- especially when that relationship is characterized by violent fatalities, as may well be the case in some forms of sibling rivalry. The relationship between Israelis and Palestinians has often been cited in that regard.

Another approach is to recognize the strange complementarity and correspondences in the current situation (Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking, 2007). From this perspective it is extraordinary to note the quest of NSA and its PRISM collaborators for:

• hyper-transparency everywhere -- contrasted with the emphasis on enforcing hyper-secrecy regarding that process and the knowledge gained thereby (including gag orders on requests made for such secrecy)
• a form of "voyeurism" with respect to everyone -- effectively "grooming" everyone into a form of "exhibitionism" (through the lens of Google/Facebook/etc.)
• a transformation into a form which would have been the envy of previously declared enemies of the USA -- whose initiatives were formerly framed as totally abhorrent (KGB, Stasi, incarceration of opponents, secret courts, etc)
• extreme assertion of legality and the rule of law -- contrasted with increasingly sloppy "justice" through legitimating the elimination of suspects without due process
• commitment to total security -- now associated with ever increasing levels of insecurity (exemplified by systematic use of drones to engender fear in civilian populations indiscriminately)
• cultivation by the military of the highest honourability in their defence of security -- contrasting with their reputation in relation to detainees, to sexual abuse of women in the military, and to reliance on unmanly combat vehicles (Petraeus scandal, Tailhook scandal, Guantanamo, The Invisible War)
• defending faith-based principles enabling access to heaven (consistent with Manifest Destiny) -- contrasting with the deadly competition with an "enemy" claiming a similar fundamental preoccupation (and mandate from heaven)

This transformation is otherwise recognized as the process of enantiodromia, through which the deprecated values of the other are eventually embodied. Like the US, "we the peoples" of the world may be our own worst enemy. In the style of the subtitle of this document, rather than "werewolves", the implication of "we're wolves" now merits attention. Rather than Robert Baer's above-mentioned recognition that "They're coming after us", it is a case of "We're coming after ourselves" -- and for an identity to be otherwise understood.

Missing from such "enantiodromia" is any reflection on the nature of the requisite "existential turnaround" -- the enabling function provocatively explored with respect to ECHELON as the program underpinning the operation of PRISM and the Five Eyes agreement (From ECHELON to NOLEHCE: enabling a strategic conversion to a faith-based global brain, 2007).

Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf (image reproduced from Wikimedia Commons)

A depiction by Gustave Doré.

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