Fintan Dunne (findunne@iol.ie)
Mon, 25 May 1998 09:03:19 +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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