Good post, Jonathan. I think Hegel’s well-worn aphorism that the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at the falling of dusk applies here. The growing number of dissonances in our society – and our growing ability to notice them - points to the fact that the current global system in which we live and breathe is no longer functioning as designed, and has entered its deficient phase.
That these dissonances are being noticed is evidenced by the various terms coming into the vocabulary – Moloch, the Superorganism, the Machine, fully-automated-luxury Gnosticism, hyper agents, the Swarm, and the Egregore.
This was also a key concept for integral economist Peter Pogany. His frame was what he called “Global Systems” – self-organizing thermodynamic dissipative structures that have come to exist on a global level, and which have already seen two iterations. Chapter 6 of Rethinking the World (2006) by Peter Pogany, is about ‘cultural evolution;’ specifically “The Brain’s Central Role in Cultural Evolution.”
“Each global system creates its characteristic behavior, connected with a lexicon, a socioeconomically induced emotional profile, an ethic, a Weltanschauung, and a mentality. These are physically ‘imprinted’ in brains and endure roughly as long as the global system does.”
When the system declines in its ability to meet current life conditions, chaotic transitions come into play. The collective mind begins searching for the blueprint for the next stable condition.
In regards to the title of the book, “Rethinking the World,” Pogany writes:
“From the point of view of the world as a whole, the multiple, simultaneous efforts to determine meanings produced confusion. The world was thinking amidst its self-destructive systemlessness; it was rethinking itself…
“Macrohistory suggests that only a new global transformation will be able to clear the road for a future that does not roll out the red carpet to cultural devolution. What gives us pause is that, if it took “1914-1945″ (circa 70 million dead, many millions maimed, and the hardships of the Great Depression) to move the world from the most primitive form of socioeconmic self-organization to a more ordered one (a relatively minor qualitative adjustment), it staggers the imagination to contemplate what it might entail to go from ‘here’ to the ‘world-as-self.’ (p. 182-183).”
Thank you, Jonathan, for articulating so elegantly what is evident. I'd like to add a sentiment to your conclusion that perhaps any woman who has given birth understands: "What are we each willing to give up now to surrender to such a process?"
If you unlearn dissonance and change the direction of your investigation, you reach harmony between things. So, if there is dissonance there can be no Love, and if there is Love there can be no dissonance. This is the power of absolute opposites! So, in principle, Antidebate is a powerful idea of the opposite of debate which mostly causes division. In the same way, there are two fundamental ways of thought or thinking. One must be Antithinking the opposite of thinking. Or we could put it, as nonintelligence is opposed to intelligence, as the Left Hemisphere is opposed to the Right Hemisphere. Guess what mankind chose?
Niels Bohr: "The opposite to any deep truth is also a deep truth". Bohr's friend, Piet Hein: "To know everything we don't know is also a kind of knowing everything" (my translation)
Is your sense of dissonance created by the universal problem of humanity’s current stage of a still evolving consciousness that finds being little more than semiconscious talking heads who cannot explain how we actually do, being human? Didn’t Vervaeke start his lecture series on awakening by saying we are comprehensively prone to self-deception & self-affecting bullshit? The perennial problem of being semiconscious talking heads who's primary concern is feeling good? Did you follow the integral crowd down Wilber's rabbit hole Johnathan & lose your Brit wit in the process?
Good post, Jonathan. I think Hegel’s well-worn aphorism that the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at the falling of dusk applies here. The growing number of dissonances in our society – and our growing ability to notice them - points to the fact that the current global system in which we live and breathe is no longer functioning as designed, and has entered its deficient phase.
That these dissonances are being noticed is evidenced by the various terms coming into the vocabulary – Moloch, the Superorganism, the Machine, fully-automated-luxury Gnosticism, hyper agents, the Swarm, and the Egregore.
This was also a key concept for integral economist Peter Pogany. His frame was what he called “Global Systems” – self-organizing thermodynamic dissipative structures that have come to exist on a global level, and which have already seen two iterations. Chapter 6 of Rethinking the World (2006) by Peter Pogany, is about ‘cultural evolution;’ specifically “The Brain’s Central Role in Cultural Evolution.”
“Each global system creates its characteristic behavior, connected with a lexicon, a socioeconomically induced emotional profile, an ethic, a Weltanschauung, and a mentality. These are physically ‘imprinted’ in brains and endure roughly as long as the global system does.”
When the system declines in its ability to meet current life conditions, chaotic transitions come into play. The collective mind begins searching for the blueprint for the next stable condition.
In regards to the title of the book, “Rethinking the World,” Pogany writes:
“From the point of view of the world as a whole, the multiple, simultaneous efforts to determine meanings produced confusion. The world was thinking amidst its self-destructive systemlessness; it was rethinking itself…
“Macrohistory suggests that only a new global transformation will be able to clear the road for a future that does not roll out the red carpet to cultural devolution. What gives us pause is that, if it took “1914-1945″ (circa 70 million dead, many millions maimed, and the hardships of the Great Depression) to move the world from the most primitive form of socioeconmic self-organization to a more ordered one (a relatively minor qualitative adjustment), it staggers the imagination to contemplate what it might entail to go from ‘here’ to the ‘world-as-self.’ (p. 182-183).”
My blog post on the topic: https://integralpermaculture.wordpress.com/2022/06/06/the-superorganism-hyper-agents-and-peter-poganys-concept-of-global-systems/
Thank you, Jonathan, for articulating so elegantly what is evident. I'd like to add a sentiment to your conclusion that perhaps any woman who has given birth understands: "What are we each willing to give up now to surrender to such a process?"
Thank you for this. Much gratitude. As Latour says, we must know our enemies and our friends - I think you might be a friend 🙏
I reckon our praxis is a good one for feeling your way through dissonance territory.
I tried to align some of the "big history" type theories about the dissonance of this time period here: https://adamkaraoguz.substack.com/p/turbulent-twenties
If you unlearn dissonance and change the direction of your investigation, you reach harmony between things. So, if there is dissonance there can be no Love, and if there is Love there can be no dissonance. This is the power of absolute opposites! So, in principle, Antidebate is a powerful idea of the opposite of debate which mostly causes division. In the same way, there are two fundamental ways of thought or thinking. One must be Antithinking the opposite of thinking. Or we could put it, as nonintelligence is opposed to intelligence, as the Left Hemisphere is opposed to the Right Hemisphere. Guess what mankind chose?
Niels Bohr: "The opposite to any deep truth is also a deep truth". Bohr's friend, Piet Hein: "To know everything we don't know is also a kind of knowing everything" (my translation)
Makes me think of:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Sorry for the disruption.
Brother Nelson
Is your sense of dissonance created by the universal problem of humanity’s current stage of a still evolving consciousness that finds being little more than semiconscious talking heads who cannot explain how we actually do, being human? Didn’t Vervaeke start his lecture series on awakening by saying we are comprehensively prone to self-deception & self-affecting bullshit? The perennial problem of being semiconscious talking heads who's primary concern is feeling good? Did you follow the integral crowd down Wilber's rabbit hole Johnathan & lose your Brit wit in the process?