Hugo Fjelsted Alroe (alroe@vip.cybercity.dk)
Mon, 30 Mar 1998 22:54:49 +0100
Squad,
Here in Denmark, a few days ago, a right wing politician was attacked on
the street in Copenhagen. This is not everyday stuff here, I cant recall a
previous example. The attackers were a group of 'Autonomous', a radical
left wing group of young people. The 'reason' for the attack was, that in
the recent electioneering immigrants and refugees in Denmark were a
dominating theme, and this particular politician argued that we were
heading towards a multiethnic society, and she argued against such a
course. The arguments were pretty fierce. She got a good election, by the
way (:-7
So, apparantly out of humanist concerns, these youngsters violently
attacked a politician, a human individual. Politically, this was plain
stupid, if they had done it just before the election, she would have had an
even better election, and it did raise a lot of public support for her.
Later, in a television show, some 'Autonomous' argued that they were
squarely against violence, but that the attack was understandable. They
failed to say it was wrong.
And sure, the attack was understandable; but that did not make it less
wrong, or less stupid. -- Why am I telling you this local news story?
Because it shows a common trap of opposition - by fighting the opposition,
you become more and more like the opposition. Gregory Bateson described
this process as Schismogenesis, applying it on the cold war escalation, for
instance.
I am sure this is a social level kind of process, and part of the driving
force of evolution, creating swift antelopes and swift cheetahs in unison.
But the intellectual level distinguishes itself by some degree of
self-awareness. I hope the 'Autonomous' in Copenhagen can see how stupid
and wrong their actions were, upon a little reflection. And I hope that we
here at Lila Squad, and elsewhere, will learn to detect Schismogenesis in
action, learn to distinguish the self-blind social building of opposing
parties from the self-aware process of inquiry. -- In inquiry we must
hold our little hand mirror up in front of us, every now and then, and
investigate our own stance.
Pirsig pointed this out, - he offered his Subject Object Metaphysics as a
hand mirror to the opposing parts of 'subjectivists' and 'objectivists',
wanting to show them that they were holding their opposition in a mutual
stance, like acrobats suspended from a common point. Look, this is how it
looks from outside, from my Metaphysics of Quality point of view, he said.
Neither of you can stand where you stand without the other, you are keeping
each other apart! Nonsense some say, we are right and they are wrong; and
they cannot move until they look in that mirror, firmly secured in their
opposition as they are.
Let us not move into some other rigid stance of opposition, let us all not
forget to bring our hand mirror with us where ever we go.
Hugo
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