EXISTENTIAL EMBODIMENT OF EXTERNALITIES

COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 13 Nov 2009

Anthony Judge - Laetus in Praesens

Radical Cognitive Engagement With Environmental Categories and Disciplines

Introduction

This is an exploration of the possibility that a viable response to the foreseen challenges of the globe and of human civilization may be of an unsuspected form. Whereas, at the time of writing, the focus is on the extreme urgency of constraining global warming and climate change, there is every reason to suspect that whatever is agreed may be inadequate to the challenge (Remedial Capacity Indicators Versus Performance Indicators, 1981).

The radical Plan B that is already in the pipeline is some form of geoengineering, recognized by many as fundamentally flawed and likely to engender more problems than it purports to remedy — aside from obscuring the stars and achieving a form of regression to the "Dark Ages" (Geo-engineering Oversight Agency for Thermal Stabilization (GOATS), 2008). The possibility of a Plan C, involving any constraint on population explosion is vigorously opposed, notably through deliberate efforts to suppress any consideration of it (Institutionalized Shunning of Overpopulation Challenge: incommunicability of fundamentally inconvenient truth, 2008).

Following the engendered financial bubble and its disastrous collapse in 2008, the credibility of international institutions and models of governance (with their leading proponents) has been undermined, possibly irredeemably (Credibility Crunch engendered by Hope-mongering: "credit crunch" focus as symptom of a dangerous mindset, 2008). This is confirmed by the astounding inability to attribute responsibility for the disaster or to institute appropriate reform (beyond token gestures) — in contrast with the widespread return to "business as usual". Existing leaders, and those who emerge to replace them, increasingly demonstrate fundamental flaws — as evidenced by their malfeasance, whether suspected or cause for indictment (Abuse of Faith in Governance: Mystery of the Unasked Question, 2009).

The challenge to the credibility of any global collective initiative is increasingly recognized as the Achilles Heel of remedial possibilities (Recognizing the Psychosocial Boundaries of Remedial Action, 2009). This is ignored or denied by "positive thinking" and "bright-siding" (Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided: how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America, 2009).

A major stumbling block to new responses is the manner in which categories are "frozen" and set in stone, effectively as memorials to the mindsets of various authorities. This severely inhibits consideration of alternative possibilities and ensures their condemnation (Framing the Global Future by Ignoring Alternatives: unfreezing categories as a vital necessity, 2009; Remedies to Global Crisis: "Allopathic" or "Homeopathic"? Metaphorical complementarity of "conventional" and "alternative" models, 2009).

The window of opportunity explored here is the ability of individuals and groups to reframe their cognitive heritage — notably considerations otherwise neglected or framed as "externalities" (of which the Wikipedia entry provides numerous concrete examples). Ironically the actual collective capacity to respond to substantive global challenges tends also to be understood as an externality (Recognizing the Psychosocial Boundaries of Remedial Action, 2009). This reframing potential is understood as irrespective of any institutional or conventional considerations — especially since such institutions and their mindsets are themselves categories, whose significance all are free to reframe and reinvent. However regrettable, this tendency is already evident in the increasingly widespread use of narcotic and other substances to render life experience tolerable — or in the voluntary adoption of unconventional belief systems.

Given the emergent crises, and those foreseen, conventional insights have proven themselves unable to deliver in response to dire need — no more than "too little, too late" (Emergence of a Global Misleadership Council, 2007). As such they are of inreasingly marginal value to "my world".

CONTINUE READING IN THE ORIGINAL – LAETUS IN PRAESENS

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 13 Nov 2009.

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