Author: Cpl Ferro (---.sympatico.ca)
Date: 07-03-2003 16:36
What Mr. Soderberg runs aground on in his essay, “Play is Political”, is a misapprehension of the nature of power. To understand what power is, we must first grasp that power is acquired through creativity. This, in turn, demands we first define what a human being is, as distinct from all other forms of life.
WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING?
A human being, then, is a creature capable of discovering ideas. Not merely notions corresponding to sense impressions which the creature has analysed, like a dog anticipating food, or a horse scratching its flank with a branch; rather, true ideas about the universe. These ideas are otherwise known as universal physical principles.
The efficiency of the human ability to discover these principles is demonstrated by the successful, sustained increase in human population density per square mile, and increase in human mastery of nature per capita. If humans were merely another type of ape, without the ability to discover principles of nature, they would lack the ability to master nature in this way, and the maximum global limit on human population would remain around ten million individuals, akin to the other higher primates.
UTOPIANISM
The notion of “being creative” is much vaunted nowadays, but is misconstrued. What is termed “creativity” nowadays is merely the production of novelty. In terms of games theory, systems theory, and other hoaxes, novelty-production involves refinement of the ramifications of various axiomatic systems of thought. In both cases, novelty is a commodity, essentially no different regardless of origin: television, film, print, toy stores, souvenir shops, brothels, grocery stores, and the like.
The shift from an idea-based, producer economy, into a novelty-based, consumer economy, occurred around 1965, with the launch of the rock-sex-drugs counterculture. This was, and remains, a drive toward a utopian society. As with the ancient Roman Empire, the population has been pacified with the modern equivalent of the degenerate Circus Imperium games, while the imperial legions, possessed of maximum “kill power” is deployed in the endless foreign wars needed to maintain the system of global looting, from which the empire gets its wealth.
Now, all utopias share the same axiomatic flaw. They are all based on the idea of humans as being animals. That is, a human looks around at the world, and his apparent place in it, and based on his whims and feelings, decides he wants certain things. Utopian schemes in this sense are nothing more than the result of groups of people, latching onto traditions which they hope will allow them to restructure the world according to their desires. All such traditions, however, are essentially Romantic, meaning they, akin to the Romantic musical composition, exist for the sake of pleasing effects; and further back, they are akin to imperial Rome, which amounted to the same thing.
DOUBLING THE SQUARE
The best way to grasp this is to work with the Platonic notion of doubling extensions. Consider what we know as Euclidean space, or three-dimensional space, which we associate with the sensorium. This gives us various kinds of extensions, including linear extension, planar extension, and cubic extension. This appears to be real to us, on an animal level of sense experience. Now, consider each dimension in turn, as regards what is needed to perfectly double an extension in each.
That is, first, take one-dimensional extension, or linear extension. Draw an increment, counted as one unit long. To double this increment, we need only extend it for the same measurable length. This is linear action, which we have used to generate linear extension.
Second, take the square. How do we double the square? That is, generate a square exactly twice the area of the first square. Anyone who attempts it, as the slave does in Plato’s Meno dialogue, sooner or later finds out that it is impossible to intelligibly double the square using linear action; it is incommensurable in that way. One can certain approximate it, but one cannot exactly get it.
Should one, however, play with the problem some, one will find that the problem is soluble, once one realises how one can construct a new square, perfectly fitting the desired dimensions, by considering the hypotenuse of one half of a diagonally cut original square. The result is the doubled square, which transcends all notions of linear extension or the supposedly self-evidently existing counting numbers.
This shows us how the square is a different species of action than the line. The cube works similarly, as planar extension does not suffice to double the cube. This process constructs in the mind the notion of a hierarchy of successively higher powers. That is, “power” here indicates precisely the intelligible idea, discoverable only by the human mind, which is needed in order to master the generation of a particular universal physical effect. It is this, which is the only notion of “creativity” deserving of the title.
UNIVERSE AS CURVED
The type of play implicitly referenced above, regarding constructive geometry, is exactly, in principle, the type of play which allows human economy to successfully function. The notion of linear, animal work, the drudgery up against which anarchist, Marxist, and other philosophies set themselves against, is a straw man; such economies self-destruct in the long-term, as is seen today with the ongoing economic collapse of the US and world economies. Simply put, an economy based on the production of consumer goods such as food, clothing, amusements, vehicles, and the like, rather than the production of ideas, meaning specifically the generation, transmission, and employment of new physical principles, is doomed.
To get a better sense of this, turn to the notion of linear action, except in a new light. Instead of treating it in terms of geometry, we will use geometry as a metaphor for physical economy. First, recall the principle of sufficient reason: namely, that everything has a reason for being the way it is, and not another way. With that in mind, consider linear extension, by drawing out a straight line. The implied question is, are there any linear processes anywhere in the universe?
Designate a segment of the line. Then, elsewhere on the line, but not overlapping with the first segment, designate a second segment of equal length. Now, for the purposes of linear extension, do you see the paradox?
Both segments, being purely linear extension, and being exactly the same length (in terms of the mind, not to be confused with the graphite or ink on the page), are identical in terms of their effect, except regarding their location. That is, there is no reason for the one segment to be where it is, and not where the second segment is, and vice versa. Thus, linear extension itself is strictly unintelligible.
As a contrast, consider self-similar spiral action. Imagine, or draw out an image of, a spring-shape, in which the radius of the spiral increases continuously with each rotation. Perform the same procedure as with the line, by designating segments on the spiral. Notice here, that each segment, no matter how small, is unique, in terms of its ability to efficiently extend the spiral. No segment can be exchanged with any other segment, while still allowing the spiral action to proceed.
We see then that there is no linearity in the universe, in this strict sense, whatever our eyes tell us. Instead, everything in the universe has a characteristic curvature, or way of changing. Apply this notion of curvature, now, to physical economy, in the light of the understanding of the nature of power, discussed earlier.
CREATIVE ECONOMY
Power, is the key to a successfully surviving civilisation. Since all humans in a country possess the faculty of cognition, which alone can discover power, all humans can potentially contribute to a civilisation’s power to survive. The arrangement of society to harness this power, however, itself must be governed by discoverable physical principles of social relations, in order to be successful. That is, the way in which humans relate to each other, morally, can itself be improved by discovery, transmission, and implementation of principles of social relations.
Any society that degenerates into an oligarchal mode, wherein an elite rules the populace as if they were a form of livestock, will not be fostering this element of creativity which defines humanity. Such a society will instead embark on utopian schemes, which are, ultimately, linear schemes, amounting to a baby reaching for candy outside his crib, but having no understanding of the principle of gravity that will cause him a painful fall once he overreaches himself. All utopianism, including the counterculture, into which roleplaying games and other Romantic pastimes are subsumed, and the existentialism they are based on, is linear, bearing no relation to how the universe really works. Rather, being linear, they are merely a reflection of the various whims and sense impressions of an individual’s experiences.
The notion, as Mr. Soderberg supplies, of a fictional country ranking higher in “wealth” than a real country, is exactly the case, when one realises that, as a “postmodern” consumer society – otherwise known as “global economy”, information age”, or “new economy” hoaxes – is built on hot air and fake money. All revolutions that do not have constructive geometry and the discovery of real physical principles as their basis are ultimately nothing but commodities, and as such, serve the status quo.
Cf.
Carl Gauss's Fundamental Theorem of Algebra
http://www.schillerinstitute.com/educ/pedagogy/gauss_fund_bmd0402.html
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