Paul David Adkin's Blog, page 41

STANDING BEFORE A GOD: OUR SYSTEM-SUBJECT PARADOX

Our relationship with the spiritual is also paradoxical. Whilst we seem to be destined to be searching for some kind of relationship with the without, the other that is without is incapable of satisfactorily confirming itself to us. The only thing that seems capable of solving this paradox is the concept of faith, which boils down to a belief in that which is impossible to confirm.

Yet this is not just a spiritual problem. It also describes our political and social condition. The Other can be a God, can be the Universe, can be the World, or it can be the politico-economic System that we are immersed in. It is the big Other from our perspective but it is also the Subject with a capital S, which is the subject that is always there even when we are no longer around. Each one of us is a small subject, subjected to the Subject, but what must our subjection entail, especially if what the Subject claims to offer is freedom for the individual.

The Subject must be freedom loving because that is the only way that we subjects could really feel comfortable with it. But in the idea of freedom within the Subject/System there resides another paradox: the individual can only become free by subjecting oneself to the discipline of the System. And, of course, subjection is the opposite of freedom. So, how can this be?

The Subject/System liberates by providing the liberating infrastructures that satisfy needs. Thus God or the Universe has given us the World. As for the social Subject/System, that provides protection from the hostile elements in the world that the Subject-God-Universe failed to eradicate for us. The individual in the System therefore can free him or herself of a need for shelter by obtaining a dwelling made possible by the System���s infrastructure. But, in order to earn that entitlement one must make sacrifices. In order to obtain things from the System we must subject ourselves to the System���s mechanism of reward (money) obtained through the sacrifice of production (work). The simple idea of rewards given according to sacrifice is the basis (the basic contracted form) of the System. What is expected of the individual subject is his or her subjection to this contract.

The governance of the System is therefore expected to design a relationship in which the interchange of reward and sacrifice is ensured and perpetuated. Governance falls down when it is unable to satisfy this expectation. Democracy should ensure an equitable relationship or an equilibrium in the design of this relationship so that anyone who is prepared to sacrifice for the System will be rewarded accordingly.

But when this relationship breaks down, or is not attainable or simply dysfunctional, who is to blame? The System-Governance-Subject or the individual-subjected-subject? From the subject���s point of view the result is either self-criticism (a masochistic guilt complex) or a critical condemnation of Governance (rebellion). In either case the individual/subject finds him or herself unable to grasp the Subject/System which has become absurd through its dysfunction. The result is a feeling of alienation and absurdity caused by a fundamental disconnection with the System it lives and breathes in, that comes about because the subject is not allowed to sacrifice itself to the master in a truly productive way. The rewards that are necessary for the individual���s survival are either given reluctantly or withheld completely. Confusion sets in: ���What does the Subject/System want of me?���; ���Why has it forsaken me?���; ���What can I do to win back its love?���

Freud tells us that the ego will rebel when the demand of the master becomes too much to bear. Nevertheless, the ideology inherent in identity not only keeps us in our place through the sense of belonging or being part of the group, it helps make the unbearable bearable by making the alternative to belonging seem even more unbearable. The Subject has given us the World, and we cannot survive without it. It is through Identity that the individual is dominated by the Master-ideology. Submerged in Identity the individual is pulled away from that which her or she is not. In this way Identity has a double-edged gravity that draws us into a reality and pulls us away at the same time. Drawing us into a reality we are pulled away from the reality. By creating sense for us, identity also makes nonsense of our true relationship to the world.

NEUROSIS: OUR PARODIXICAL REALITY

The power and meaningfulness of paradox is embedded in the unity of its own greatest contradiction: Paradox is something that reveals and conceals at the same time. But this could also be a definition of reality itself. Reality is something that reveals and conceals and hence, reality has a paradoxical nature.

It is certainly true of the reality propagated by the System. The System reveals and conceals. Watch the nightly news and that which is unveiled is at the same time concealing just as much information, if not more. In the same way, at the same time that we discover things we also repress our awareness of other things. Concentration opens our eyes to minute details by blurring the forms around it. This is not a contradiction but rather a paradoxical reality.

To find another example let us examine the psychological or psycho-pathological state of our society and consider the existence of neurosis. At the subjective level, neurosis is a removal of the individual���s narrative from public communication. However, on the social or macro-psychological level, it is the public communication that has become senseless to the individual. Alienation is the cause of neurosis and an alienating society will breed neurotics. Nevertheless, in the case of neurotic illness quite the opposite takes place: society sees the neurotic as ill and the neurotics will see that ���illness��� in themselves because the ��society reflects it at them. But whose fault is it when someone feels disconnected from society: the fault of the neurotic or of the system that creates neurosis? In our System, it is a neurotic splitting of discourse from meaning that alienates the individual, not a particular moral weakness or infirm nervous system in the neurotics themselves. Nevertheless, the fact that society creates neurotics is not considered an important criticism of the structure of society itself. There are no political party agendas dedicated to the eradication of neurosis, because, in order to do such a thing a complete rethinking and restructuring of the fabric of society would be required. The existence of neurotics condemns the failures of society and yet the condemnation is covered up and loaded upon the victim. The truth concerning neurosis is therefore embedded in the mystification of its paradoxical nature and only by looking for the paradox that encloses the problem are we really able to see it.

It is the discovery of the paradox that allows for the unveiling of the real. Always search for the paradoxical nature of things, even when, or especially when, things seem perfectly straight forward.

HOW TO FIND YOUR TRUE VOCATION IN LIFE?

Imagine a future civilisation in which our technologies are so advanced that money has been rendered obsolete. Work, as something that one needs to do to earn an income which will pay for your survival or improve your standard of living, no longer exists. Now think: in such a scenario what would I do with my time now that I have all day to do what I want? Try and imagine something that you could spend most of your time doing without really needing to do it. If something comes immediately to mind that is probably your vocation in life. If nothing does then you���ll have to look harder for it. Or perhaps you can think of many things, in which case you probably have a holistic vocation that does not limit itself to specific areas and you���ve got a Renaissance soul.

What this also gives us is a measure of progress. The standard of living in a society improves when we can all actually do what we really want to do. Only when we have liberated society from the money system will we be able to make it a vocation-driven one.

Ideology/Identity and Nihilism

Ideology/Identity tries to contain thought within an enclosed space that is the reality-that-is for those within it. It may be dynamically charged with the concept that it is also the reality-that-should-be or the best reality for everyone. In the latter case the Ideology/Identity runs the risk of exploding into a surge of imperialism (e.g.: the West, on one hand, and the Islamic Nation on the other). In the case of the West, despite its grand ideology of ���freedom��� the spaces enclosed by Ideology/Identity are consciousness-restricted spaces that are determined by dogmas and xenophobias as opposed to any authentic lust for liberating awareness and opportunities. The borders of the USA, for example, enclose an enormous conglomeration of Identity ideologies and the idea of the nation-state system working in harmony and bringing all these ideologies together within the same enclosed space is promoted as a magnificent example of what the Global-economy Ideology of Freedom can do. But, in truth, Ideology/identity can only be obtained by promoting the opposite of freedom. It requires false consciousness or even unconsciousness.

As for the Islamic Nation it has no borders and its Ideology/Identity is firmly rooted in the idea of Islam, which means submission to Allah, or, in practical terms, to those who profess to know how to interpret Allah correctly.

Seen as freedom versus submission the West and the Islamic Nation are antithetical forces which offer very little to each other in terms of creating any Yin Yang type harmonious separation. Nevertheless, both systems do have a common ground based on their shared anti-human nihilism created by a dualism of believers or non-believers. The nihilism of the non-believers versus the nihilism of the faithful; the nihilism in the belief in the paradise beyond the earthly versus the nihilistic faith in the fact that nothing we do in our lives makes any sense other than that we make the most of our limited time here on earth.

This nihilism is a direct result of the process of Ideology/Identity formation. As if the last thing we should consider is that we are human beings and that humanity has an authentic purpose in itself. It is a process of separation and segregation through the creation of enclosures. Separation breeds ignorance and ignorance is a kind of slavery for Sapiens. A fetter holding humanity back from uncovering its real destiny as a species.

Our Naked System

Marxist doctrine argues a need for an emerging working-class self-consciousness capable of comprehending the aggressive nature of the capitalist system in order to liberate itself from it. But reality now demands that we look beyond the confines of any ideologies and their separations���whether class, cultural, linguistic or territorial���in order to become conscious of how the system infects us all, and how it uses the separating forces inherent in all ideologies to perpetuate its own selfish interests.

 

The best way to bring the oppressors down is to reveal the true nature of their nakedness. Like the Emperor parading his new clothes, the system is really quite naked of principles once we allow ourselves to open our eyes to what it tells us is there but in reality is not there at all. And once that nakedness is seen the next brave act would be to confront the emperor with the awkward truth of his real, pathetic condition. We risk stirring the emperor���s rage, but perhaps his shame will be so great that he will abdicate.

 

The world-view of the system, despite its globalising, empirical apparel, cannot tolerate any singular world-view that would be antithetical to its philosophy of dynamism. For this reason it demands separation and seems to move in a constant direction to ensure that borders will remain in some form or other. From the worldview perspective of the ideology/identity system, separations evolve into relativisms that are tolerated because they can maintain the spirit of separation and not alienate ideologies from the global empire in its entirety. But, relativism is also a step on the downward ladder to scepticism and from there to pessimism, which is always a numbing energy that invites a depressive fall into unconsciousness.

 

Of course the system ultimately fails again. It engenders a lethargy rather than a dynamism. But what the system calls crisis is essential to its own metabolism, and with the collapse, and the great misery resulting from that collapse, the system itself, driven by renewed needs and a renewed grasp of reality, will be able to catapult itself back into the dynamism that capitalism demands. A dynamism fuelled by the fantasy of perpetuity: continual growth is impossible within the closed system that is the Earth. And this is the ridiculous nakedness of the system. A farce that is no longer funny anymore, it has become emphatically dangerous.

KNOWING THE LIE ��� CONSCIOUSNESS (3)

Self-consciousness for the Sapiens is knowing that one truly knows, which means that one has been able to look through the isolating veils of the ideological masks of reality in order to see the true human, collective condition. Real self-consciousness is to be able to see the meaningfulness of saying ���I am a human being���.

Consciousness comes from a need for consciousness. The system is only questioned by the individual when the system ceases to satisfy the individual���s needs. From the dissatisfaction comes the need for knowing. It is impossible to imagine the existence of consciousness in a Garden of Eden in which everything is satisfied and nothing seems to be lacking. The Fall was a discovery, or perhaps merely a suspicion, of lack. If we are to define Homo sapiens according to our consciousness, then our species needs lack in order to define itself. Our reason for being is to discover, uncover, rediscover and preserve reality ��� but never to make it unmovable. Preservation implies a consciousness of past rather than a stagnation in what is, which is a prolongation. Preservation is not prolongation but discovery. Consciousness must move backward as well as forward. Discovery can also be rediscovery.

When we see truth as that which is uncovered then we see that truth is something that we can only stand before, it is not something which can be born or borne. There can be no bearers of truth; no possessors or creators of it. Truth is that which is contemplated but never owned. In this way truth is seen as a kind of public spectacle. We can say ���come and look what I have uncovered���, but we mustn���t sell tickets for the spectacle or try to sell it, or claim any ownership of it.

KNOWING THE LIE – CONSCIOUSNESS (3)

Self-consciousness for the Sapiens is knowing that one truly knows, which means that one has been able to look through the isolating veils of the ideological masks of reality in order to see the true human, collective condition. Real self-consciousness is to be able to see the meaningfulness of saying “I am a human being”.

Consciousness comes from a need for consciousness. The system is only questioned by the individual when the system ceases to satisfy the individual’s needs. From the dissatisfaction comes the need for knowing. It is impossible to imagine the existence of consciousness in a Garden of Eden in which everything is satisfied and nothing seems to be lacking. The Fall was a discovery, or perhaps merely a suspicion, of lack. If we are to define Homo sapiens according to our consciousness, then our species needs lack in order to define itself. Our reason for being is to discover, uncover, rediscover and preserve reality – but never to make it unmovable. Preservation implies a consciousness of past rather than a stagnation in what is, which is a prolongation. Preservation is not prolongation but discovery. Consciousness must move backward as well as forward. Discovery can also be rediscovery.

When we see truth as that which is uncovered then we see that truth is something that we can only stand before, it is not something which can be born or borne. There can be no bearers of truth; no possessors or creators of it. Truth is that which is contemplated but never owned. In this way truth is seen as a kind of public spectacle. We can say “come and look what I have uncovered”, but we mustn’t sell tickets for the spectacle or try to sell it, or claim any ownership of it.

KNOWING THE LIE ��� CONSCIOUSNESS (2)

We have seen how Identity and its ideological masks is in essence a separating force, dividing humanity. In the same way it shackles consciousness and freedom by enclosing reality and restricting the progressive need of movement, of becoming. Becoming also needs consciousness so we get a circular situation in which becoming depends on consciousness as its motor and consciousness needs becoming as a car needs a road. Becoming is the space that opens up in existence, allowing us to move freely through it, changing it, and being changed by it. The very act of knowing that consciousness performs is at the same time an act of becoming. Reality is therefore transformed by being known into something else. Knowing and consciousness are themselves the prime movers of human reality, whilst ideology and identity are static elements continually slowing reality down. In this way we can link ideologies and identity to consciousness���s antipathies, i.e. unconsciousness and false-consciousness.

Identity and ideology, of course, are kinds of consciousness. A very strong self-consciousness. So, does this mean that we are essentially always deluded when we tell ourselves that I am this? And yet, if this were the case, how could we possibly exist in society without defining ourselves and the world around us? Doesn���t language, the basis of all Sapien knowledge, imply the necessity for constant naming and definition? How can this apparent contradiction or paradox be resolved?

In order to do this we must remind ourselves that identity/ideology is a separating process whereas consciousness and language are communicating, uniting mechanisms. Again we see that the two categories are opposites. The difference lies in what ideology does with language: it encloses it, making it immobile. Consciousness, on the other hand, tries to open the landscape up for language. The problem therefore is not the process of naming, but the ends to which the naming is carried out. To separate (identify) or to bring together (consciousness). Knowing implies a break down or transcendence of secrecy and privacy. It implies there has been communication. Ideology/identity is a misapprehension of taking part for the whole, whilst consciousness is an awareness of the whole, or at least a striving for such an awareness.

KNOWING THE LIE – CONSCIOUSNESS (2)

We have seen how Identity and its ideological masks is in essence a separating force, dividing humanity. In the same way it shackles consciousness and freedom by enclosing reality and restricting the progressive need of movement, of becoming. Becoming also needs consciousness so we get a circular situation in which becoming depends on consciousness as its motor and consciousness needs becoming as a car needs a road. Becoming is the space that opens up in existence, allowing us to move freely through it, changing it, and being changed by it. The very act of knowing that consciousness performs is at the same time an act of becoming. Reality is therefore transformed by being known into something else. Knowing and consciousness are themselves the prime movers of human reality, whilst ideology and identity are static elements continually slowing reality down. In this way we can link ideologies and identity to consciousness’s antipathies, i.e. unconsciousness and false-consciousness.

Identity and ideology, of course, are kinds of consciousness. A very strong self-consciousness. So, does this mean that we are essentially always deluded when we tell ourselves that I am this? And yet, if this were the case, how could we possibly exist in society without defining ourselves and the world around us? Doesn’t language, the basis of all Sapien knowledge, imply the necessity for constant naming and definition? How can this apparent contradiction or paradox be resolved?

In order to do this we must remind ourselves that identity/ideology is a separating process whereas consciousness and language are communicating, uniting mechanisms. Again we see that the two categories are opposites. The difference lies in what ideology does with language: it encloses it, making it immobile. Consciousness, on the other hand, tries to open the landscape up for language. The problem therefore is not the process of naming, but the ends to which the naming is carried out. To separate (identify) or to bring together (consciousness). Knowing implies a break down or transcendence of secrecy and privacy. It implies there has been communication. Ideology/identity is a misapprehension of taking part for the whole, whilst consciousness is an awareness of the whole, or at least a striving for such an awareness.

KNOWING THE LIE ��� CONSCIOUSNESS (1)

One cannot be free unless one has the power to change one���s circumstances in a positive way. One cannot change one���s circumstances unless one can see what needs to be changed. Consciousness is therefore an a priori necessity for freedom. Dictatorship can be achieved by simply making the people it oppresses unconscious of the reality that really dominates them.

Consciousness has to be an alert force, if it is not alert it cannot be consciousness. Its power lies in its ability to see through the veil of systemic mystification. Consciousness allows us the right to be critical, sceptical, or even cynical.

Of course consciousness can also be false. False consciousness lacks clarity as it is muddied by its own ideologies: ideologies that stem from identities. For consciousness to be clear it needs to transcend all ideology-mask identities.

False consciousness could also be called misguided consciousness ��� a consciousness looking for a reality which is simply just not there, and probably never will be, is a misguided one. Consciousness needs to see through the masks, but that does not mean it must cut through all still surfaces. The cutting open can have negative results if the process itself does nothing but churn already clear waters and makes them no longer transparent.

Can we say that reality should be that which needs to be? What about want it to be? If we accept the validity of both possibilities, which is stronger: want or needs? Desires must be subject to needs. Desires can only be gained when needs are satisfied. Likewise, in order to uncover reality and therefore find truth, consciousness must be guided by needs at first and desires only when those needs are satisfied or safeguarded. The first thing consciousness must look for is necessity.