Fintan Dunne (findunne@iol.ie)
Mon, 25 May 1998 08:58:52 +0100
EUREKA!
OK, so I was going to talk about the primal consciousness- before
language had developed. And I thought....suppose you plonked a classy
impressionist painting in front of a group of apemen......and they
ignored it!
Would the painting have Quality or not- regardless of the fact that if
Quality is WHAT YOU LIKE...then they obviously didn't like it!
Then I got an even better idea. Remember that monkey who could type for
a trillion years and eventually produce Hamlet? Suppose he really knows
what he is typing.....All around him other monkeys are cavorting in
blissfull ignorance of this great play, chewing up pages for snacks.
Does that affect the Quality. Is there an objective Quality in existence
AT THAT TIME, or is the Quality judgement only possible much later in
the evolution of earth.
Then it hit me. And it took me five minutes to recover from laughing!
My unconscious had just thrown up that monkey image because
it's the perfect analogy for.......................us Lila Squadders!
Here we are. Typing away at our masterthesis on Quality.....while all
around us, SOMonkeys are cavorting in blissful S-O ignorance. Not only
that, but they are just waiting for the chance to chew up our pages for
snacks....as we well know!
So, I vote that we refer to advocates of S-O henceforth
as ....MONKEYS....or......SOMonkeys.
Because, history shows us that if you are surrounded by the
unenlightened,
it helps your psychological state a great deal, if you lampoon and laugh
at them!
Now, where the **** was I? Oh yeah....primal consciousness.
There is undoubtedly an AT-ONE-NESS in the primal human mind that is
akin to the animal consciousness we can observe in the dog, or ape. Yes,
there is an awareness of self, but it is balanced by an intergation with
the environment that blurs the line between ME and NOT ME.
To be more precise, the sense of self actually starts much lower down
the animal kingdom than the ape or dog. It gathers momentum through
evolution, until it turns from consciousness
into......SELF-consciousness. The thing that is going to play the key
role in that transition....is language.
But, language is going to make a big mess of that At-One-Ness. It is
going to chop up that integrated Garden of Eden environment into the
125,000 words we use in our languages today.
The pre-verbal mind knew the difference between, say...a tree...and a
rock. But knowing is not the same as naming. Once you name THIS as a
TREE, and THAT as a ROCK, then you are now emphasising the DIFFERENCE
between them, and by implication, the DIFFERENCE between you and the
rock and you and the tree.
In effect, you just said, "This is ME, and that there is NOT ME, and
that other thing isn't me either."
That is the birth of ME/NOT ME.
It is also the birth of the OBJECT. The tree as object. The rock as
object. Language fits the tree like a second skin. The actual TREE is
masked underneath the cloying grip of language. The SUBJECT who NAMES is
born to a life where language will mediate between him/her and the
world.
And that world will be a world of SUBJECT-LANGUAGE-OBJECT.
Describing it as a Subject/Object world is not enough.
Like defining Laurel AND Hardy without the AND.
Laurel/Hardy....ignoring the comic INTERPLAY between the pair of them.
That language bit in the middle between subject and object is going to
evolve in
complexity until it reaches the point where various Greeks are leaping
out of baths
and shouting "Eureka!" and other Greeks are just inventing a new mental
rock called:
Guess What!...............Subject/Object Metaphysics.
Now where DID they get that concept from?!!
They couldn't help coming up with that concept. It is BUILT right into
the language.
Their coming up with SOM was as inevitable as water flowing to the sea.
In other words: A Subject/Object Metaphysics is that system of
word-thought which
flows inevitably from the evolution of the SUBJECT-LANGUAGE-OBJECT
relationship.
The S-L-O relationship.
Afterthought:
That leaves us only one place to go.
Beyond language.
BEYOND THE TYRANNY OF WORDS.
Its another dimension. I mean literally, and i'm working on that idea.
Intelligence squared. I*
Notice the small " i " in the "I'm" above. Death of the Ego. i squared.
i cubed.
Timothy Leary would love this.
What HAVE you STARTED Robert Pirsig?
Regards
Fintan Dunne
findunne@iol.ie
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