The drive towards separation and distinction brings individual things into being. By contrast, the drive towards generalisation, with its effective ‘democratisation’ of its object (of the holy, of art, of the beautiful), has the effect of destroying its object as a living force.
Hierarchy as a form or measure of distinction?
The drive toward generalisation, through conglomerates of abstraction result in self. It makes the object easier to comprehend via an effectively heuristic process of definition. This may lead to false definition due to innacurate generalisation and the innacuracy of abstraction. In the extreme, nothing can be trusted to be authentically distinct due to the inherent moment of abstracion and sumblimation to an even broarder generalisation.
The alternative extreme is an indecipherably infinite forest of distinction and individuation.
consider the zooming in and zooming out meditation of the headless way.
