Surface bodies. Are they part of the surface or resting atop? Are they clinging or resting by gravity? Are they related to other surface bodies? If so, how? To what extent?
Dynamic forces. Are they present? Are the laws of nature having an effect? What of intellect? How is it functioning? Are the surface bodies needing to interact with one another? How do they know they exist or even need to communicate in order to interact?
Ideas. On the surface. Below the surface. How far down? How deep do they penetrate the surface? Are there substrata of ideas there? If down below, what might be above the surface? How far does it extend? Is there a superstructure associated with this phenomenon?
Complexity. Grows. Wonders. Needs more,…..something. Ideas? Facts? What?
Interdependence. Of surface bodies? Or more? If so, what?
Where am I going with this? I think it relates to understanding how individuals think and relate their thinking to other people and their thoughts. Establishing meaning seems to be a motivation behind this effort. And then the expansion of the thinking, knowing more of what the ideas mean, try to capture or articulate so together we understand our world better. The striving to know. Is this a critical, dynamic behavior of mankind?
Maybe.
But another is competition. Not for resources alone. Not for wealth. Not for space. But for something else. Pre-eminence? Power? Influence? What?
Ideas. How to think. How should we process ideas in a way that helps others understand. Education. Function of. Expansion of. Direction of. Purpose of. Changing, always changing.
Two dimensionality of thinking. Three dimensional thinking. Four dimensional thinking. Each expansion of dimensionality adds vastly to the complexity. But also the illumination it may shed?
Try this intellectual exercise:
Picture a horizontal line. On the left is Liberal thought; on the right is Conservative thought; in the middle lots of room to interact between the two polar opposites. Let the two camps think to logical extensions their points of view, why they are important; where they will lead us; why they re important; who should be involved in this; how to plan the ascension of this thought pattern or philosophy to the rest of society.
How do the two camps reach out to each other? How do they interact? What do they share? To what effect? Is there active borrowing of concepts between the two? Are each clarifying the other? Is there a valuable building of a shared understanding of each?
Might there be a building of a middle ground between the two poles? Is this middle ground taking on its own distinct character? Is it becoming a third option of thinking?
Take the horizontal line. Extend it out farther to both the left and the right. How far can we extend the line? Is it infinite? Does it pull the thought process to ridiculous heights and absurdity? If so, does it have an end point? Does it have a conclusion which sums up the value of the liberal or conservative point of view?
Now take a sphere. From the above exercise, apply the horizontal line on the surface of the sphere. What happens to the line? Does it extend around the sphere? Does it create an equator? A line that girds the sphere and meets on the far side of the globe? What questions does this raise?
Do the two philosophical values, liberal and conservative, meet on the far side of the sphere? Do they mingle or collide? Or do they provide a fresh perspective. An Aha moment!? Could they possibly be much the same when taken to extremes?
A continuum of thought. Ideas pursuing ends. Farther and farther apart. Until—bang!---they meet. What does it tell us?
I think it tells us this: any political philosophy taken to its extreme becomes a mirror image of its opposite. They become so similar that they are shown to be identical. They got there by different paths, but they now are reduced to their irreducible elements and Pow! They are the same.
But we see this only if we envision a spherical construct for processing thought.
You know what’s scary? What if we added the fourth dimension; space around the sphere? And the fifth dimension; subterranean space within the globe. Five dimensions. How would this improve our thinking? Creating? Would we use this for positive purposes or negative? How do we proceed with this concept? Who do we trust to do it? Can we do it? What are we reaching for?
What are we reaching for?
November 21, 2011
Harmony
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