Engaging with the Future with Insights of the Past
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 21 Jun 2010
Anthony Judge – TRANSCEND Media Service
Consulting the Dead, Sacrifice, Bone-Cracking and Divination
Introduction
This is an Annex to a paper on Designing Global Self-governance for the Future: patterns of dynamic integration of the netherworld (2010) and specifcally with respect to the case made there for the Cognitive embodiment of an “underworld” into governance. That paper is itself is the development of an argument in an introductory paper (Tao of Engagement — Weaponised Interactions and Beyond: Fibonacci’s magic carpet of games to be played for sustainable global governance, 2010).
As noted there, in a world much characterized by denial in many forms, distinct cases may be made for exploring “undersides” or the “unconscious”, as variously argued (Elise Boulding, The Underside of History: a view of women through time, 1976; John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995), most notably by Carl Jung with respect to the collective unconscious and the individual “shadow“, as previously argued (Global Strategic Implications of the Unsaid: from myth-making towards a wisdom society, 2003). The case may be extended to various forms of “Omertà“, perhaps most recently and dramatically illustrated by the policies of the Catholic Church with respect to sexual abuse by clergy, widespread concern with the secrecy of tax havens, or the scientific neglect of a particular factor in consideration of climate change policy (Mapping the Global Underground: articulating Insightful Population Constraint Consideration, 2010; Sins of Hot Air Emission, Omission, Commission and Promission, 2009).
Within such a context, the question becomes how best to integrate that dimension of “darkness” into the design of global governance — into its “geometry”. One approach is to recognize the insights to be derived from what is so systematically ignored in conventional thinking, as previously discussed (Enlightening Endarkenment: selected web resources on the challenge to comprehension, 2005).
For a “futurist” of today, any such exploration can be usefully set within an historical context of a challenge faced by many civilizations over thousands of years. This has been courageously done, citing an extensive body of literature, by Robert Temple in an extensive study variously titled in distinct editions (Netherworld: discovering the oracle of the dead and ancient techniques of foretelling the future, 2002; Oracles of the Dead: ancient techniques for predicting the future, 2002). Although the title is technically appropriate it unfortunately disguises both the range of issues covered (with very extensive references) and the unconventional insights that Temple brings to the matter. The apparent emphasis presumably arises from conventional marketing considerations.
The study is introduced by the following statement, relevant to contemporary challenges to governance, to whatever degree that relevance may be denied:
We do not know who we are; we do not know why we are here, and we do not know what will happen to us. In the midst of all this uncertainty it is not surprising that, during our history as an intelligent species, we have tried in various ways to escape from the suffocating helplessness of our ignorance. Today, most of our hopes rest on science. But before there was science, a branch of religion or philosophy existed for the purpose of helping man to step outside the confines of the present and to catch glimpses of the future.
In the current period when efforts are made by science to scope out the future as an aid to policy formulation, Temple considers the “underside” of man’s history by surveying four major forms of institutionalised prophecy on which governance of the past was heavily dependent over thousands of years. Explicitly excluding astrology, he distinguishes:
- Western disciplines (primarily of the Mediterranean basin): oracles and divination by entrails (extispicy)
- Eastern disciplines (primarily of China): oracle-bone-cracking and the I Ching (Book of Changes)
Unfortunately the lengthy examination of these disciplines suffers greatly from the disadvantage that it is effectively four books in one, each of particular interest to a different audience. But it is the insightful possibilities from a wide body of research that is so valuable in the perspective that emerges from an exploration that is only too readily deprecated by disciplines that assume that the current scientific approach has a methodology adequate to the escalating challenges of governance in a crisis-prone world.
Ironically this strategic challenge of uncertainty has been (notoriously) highlighted in poetic form by a former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, as previously discussed in relation to the encoding offered by the I Ching (Unknown Undoing: challenge of incomprehensibility of systemic neglect, 2008).
With respect to the above argument, the value of the Temple review lies in the manner in which the following seemingly disparate insights exemplify “correlative thinking”. Their potential future significance is further explored in a section of the main paper (Dynamic structure of events within event-space).
Institutionalisation of “hell” and “consultation” with its inhabitants
As Temple documents, following the work of Robert F. Paget (In the Footsteps of Orpheus: the discovery of the ancient Greek Underworld, 1967), it is only in recent decades that the actual physical construction (or replication) of the widely-mentioned “Hades” was discovered at Baia in the Bay of Naples (The Antrum of Initiation, Baia, Italy, BBC/H2G2, 6 May 2010). Its legendary existence had previously been assumed to be purely a matter of myth — the domain of the God of the Underworld, Hades, and his wife Persephone. It is within this extensive subterranean structure, complete with river, that the original Oracle of the Dead functioned for so long, offering necromancy in support of the processes of the Roman Empire, and its predecessors — subsequently to be emulated in Greece at the better-known Necromanteion.
Of particular interest is the manner in which an atmosphere was created within the structure to challenge any conventional sense of reality and to evoke imaginative insight in the susceptible — a process consciously manipulated and exploited by its practitioners, whatever the benefits to those seeking such consultation. Temple compares the techniques — isolation, drugs, inducing terror, etc — with those so extensively explored and cultivated in the modern interrogation of prisoners. inspired by the so-called brainwashing techniques used in concentration camps (Peter Watson, War on the Mind: the military uses and abuses of psychology, 1978). Of course, whatever the societal pressures, the Oracle could be said to have been consulted “voluntarily” in contrast to the “consultation” of those more recently “put to the question” in such contexts, most notably by the Roman Catholic Inquisition of the past. That descriptive phrase has been specifically applied to use of the rack and the “water cure” in centuries past.
The question to be asked however is the degree to which, as a consequence of the cultivation of a politics of fear, governance is currently dependent (for lack of any alternative) on analogous “irrational” processes in divining the threats to its future, most notably with respect to the extraction of information from those suspected of terrorism. There is an extreme irony to the fact that the institutionalised processes of the original Hades at Baia (on the Bay of Naples) could be functionally compared to the “living hell” so deliberately created beyond the conventions of global society at Baía de Guantánamo (Bahía de Guantánamo). The term “bay” originates from the Latin. There is a further irony to the fact that, whether or not the inhabitants are on “death row”, they may be appropriately considered to be the “living dead”.
These historical twists might be understood as exemplifying enantiodromia — taking on the characteristics of that which was most purportedly abhorred (Psychosocial Energy from Polarization: within a cyclic pattern of enantiodromia, 2007). As a cycle of learning this recalls the much cited insight of George Santayana: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The institutionalised role of an “underworld” in past empires is an appropriate reminder of the extent to which a shadowy “underworld” is currently a feature of global society, whether in terms of the “unsaid”, or of the creation of living hells, or in the poorly recognized extent of organized criminality — with an unknown (and deniable) degree of complicity of governance. This offers a more “rounded” understanding of the world than that widely extolled in the study by Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat: a brief history of the Twenty-first Century, 2005), as deprecated previously (Irresponsible Dependence on a Flat Earth Mentality — in response to global governance challenges, 2008). A “flat Earth” necessarily has an “underside”.
Indeed if the success of Friedman’s understanding of globality is consistent with the success of Facebook, as he would probably claim, a more rounded understanding would be consistent with success associated with unmentionable portions of the human anatomy — as the volume of internet traffic on relevant imagery has long proven to be the case. It is indeed through those non-facial portions of the anatomy that the future is engendered (“Human Intercourse”: “Intercourse with Nature” and “Intercourse with the Other”, 2007). Of course there are many “handbooks” of best practice — each offering a vade mecum and insightful metaphors (Handing Over: handy metaphors for the communication of intent, 2006). As might be expected, there is even an Arsebook anti-social networking utility that claims to connect people with those they hate. The face-focused metaphor might then be seen as overly supportive of any commitment to “facing the future” at a time when historians (notably George Santayana) imply that its dangers might paradoxically emerge from “behind” — potentially offering curious justification to equally problematic metaphors (Backside to the Future: coherence and conflation of dominant strategic metaphors, 2003). It is strange that France, for example, should currently be giving legislative priority to the superficiality of facism (Facism as Superficial Intercultural Extremism, 2009). Do such metaphors suggest that civilization is faced with a crisis of “one-sidedness” — with individual identity dangerously associated with the “cut-out” figures of comic strips?
The cognitive implications of rounded “globality” — metaphorically supported by all portions of the human anatomy — might be usefully considered as still to be fully understood (Metaphorical Geometry in Quest of Globality, 2009; Future Generation through Global Conversation: in quest of collective well-being through conversation in the present moment, 1997). The challenge is especially evident in the problematic relationships amongst those who explore it (Epistemological Challenge of Cognitive Body Odour: exploring the underside of dialogue, 2006; Women and the Underside of Meetings: symptoms of denial in considering strategic options, 2009).
From a design perspective, the slogan for global governance might be No nether? — No globe! The design challenge is how to design in “nether” and the “underside”. Hence the wrap-around geometry of a globe on which, from any position, “nether” is always elsewhere — but every position is consider “nether” from somewhere else (Responsibility for Global Governance: Who? Where? When? How? Why? Which? What? 2008).
With regard to the content of oracular pronouncements, Temple notes the degree to which they were characterized by paradox and ambiguity, typically being expressed in riddles that he contends were evocative of widespread and fruitful reflection (p. 152). This might also be said of the Zen koan. Temple cites Aristotle (p. 159-160) to the effect that:
Good riddles do, in general, provide us with satisfactory metaphors: for metaphors imply riddles…. Metaphors must be drawn… from things that are related to the original thing, and yet not obviously so so related — just as in philosophy also an acute mind will perceive resemblances even in things far apart… Well-constructed riddles are attractive for the same reason: a new idea is conveyed, and there is metaphoricl expression…. The thought is startling, and… does not fit in with the ideas you already have… The effect produced… is a surprise (Rhetoric, Book III, 1405a-b, 1412a, trans. W. Rhys Roberts)
Provocatively, it might then be the case that “the secret of global governance may lie in the riddle of a cross word” (extending the variant proposed in the introductory paper). The ambiguity recalls the tale of the governor who sought only one-handed advisers — to avoid being repeatedly confronted by advice of the form, “on the one hand….but on the other hand…”. The current widespread enthusiasm for riddles is illustrated by the success of The Da Vinci Code (2003) of Dan Brown, and by similar works.
CONTINUE READING IN THE ORIGINAL – LAETUS IN PRAESENS
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 21 Jun 2010.
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