I must admit that for much of my life, my first impulses would be to answer possibly, "only myself," maybe "my lovers," or perhaps even, "our community."
But to quote Pope Pete's PRINCIPIA CHAOTICA, "The first stage of seeing through the game can be a shocking enlightenment that leads either to a weary cynicism or Buddhism. The second stage of actually applying the insight to oneself can destroy the illusion of the soul and create a magician."
So today, the first answer that came to my mind was, "Ordo Ab Chao!"
Rather than sinking into a depression, as I have often been inclined towards during the Fall & Winter... lately, I have been returning to a rather profound fascination with the evolution of information structures throughout the Cosmos... what better time to challenge myself with a leap across the abyss?
My general perspective on things comes from a basis of information theory... "Sense and order, the theory says, can prevail against nonsense and chaos. The world need not regress toward the simple, the uniform, and the banal, but may advance in the direction of richer and more complex structures, physical and mental. Life, like language, remains 'grammatical.' The classical view of entropy implied that structure is the exception and confusion the rule. The theory of information suggests instead that order is entirely natural: grammatical man inhabits a grammatical universe." - Jeremy Campbell
Although the task of making order out of chaos seems to lead us towards linguistic development...... "I regard as possibly the two most important pages I have ever read the passage in On Liberty in which Mill argues, from Cicero, that a person should strive to understand his opponents' ideas with greater imagination and sympathy than he devotes to knowing his own. If every advocate and every scholar would only reread those pages before entering the lists, the world would be a better place." - Vincent Blasi
And while the satirists cry, "Death to all fanatics!" ...I am guided by a similar, "Sign of Profound Accord:" "We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant religions. That weapon--the claim to possession of the one and only revelation." - Frank Herbert
Yet, even though there may be many safe ways of passage, I must still chart a course through dangerous & metamorphic terrain... So, I will place my trust in the harmonies & dissonances of The Magnum Opus which we compose & decompose through ubiquitous assimilation!
IMO, people look outside themselves to solutions to personal difficulties. Sure, there are many many aspects of this all-encompassing ever changing ecosystem. We speak of chaos, but it is just a name for that which is too complex for us to understand. Some aspects of chaos are just order too complex for the human mind to grok. Other aspects may not be based in order at all.
To me, calling upon some external agency (Jesus, CHAOS, my higher self, etc.) is not as useful as me looking to see what I need to do differently during times of stress or unhappiness. Sure, I listen to my dreams. I interpret omens. But when it comes down to the wire, it is me who makes decisions..
But to quote Pope Pete's PRINCIPIA CHAOTICA, "The first stage of seeing through the game can be a shocking enlightenment that leads either to a weary cynicism or Buddhism. The second stage of actually applying the insight to oneself can destroy the illusion of the soul and create a magician."
So today, the first answer that came to my mind was, "Ordo Ab Chao!"
Rather than sinking into a depression, as I have often been inclined towards during the Fall & Winter... lately, I have been returning to a rather profound fascination with the evolution of information structures throughout the Cosmos... what better time to challenge myself with a leap across the abyss?
My general perspective on things comes from a basis of information theory...
"Sense and order, the theory says, can prevail against nonsense and chaos. The world need not regress toward the simple, the uniform, and the banal, but may advance in the direction of richer and more complex structures, physical and mental. Life, like language, remains 'grammatical.' The classical view of entropy implied that structure is the exception and confusion the rule. The theory of information suggests instead that order is entirely natural: grammatical man inhabits a grammatical universe."
- Jeremy Campbell
Although the task of making order out of chaos seems to lead us towards linguistic development......
"I regard as possibly the two most important pages I have ever read the passage in On Liberty in which Mill argues, from Cicero, that a person should strive to understand his opponents' ideas with greater imagination and sympathy than he devotes to knowing his own. If every advocate and every scholar would only reread those pages before entering the lists, the world would be a better place."
- Vincent Blasi
And while the satirists cry, "Death to all fanatics!"
...I am guided by a similar, "Sign of Profound Accord:"
"We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant religions. That weapon--the claim to possession of the one and only revelation."
- Frank Herbert
Yet, even though there may be many safe ways of passage, I must still chart a course through dangerous & metamorphic terrain... So, I will place my trust in the harmonies & dissonances of The Magnum Opus which we compose & decompose through ubiquitous assimilation!
Thanks for posing the question! I just pinged a few excellent enjoyable resources in contemplation of this query:
The Black Sun - The Alchemy and Art of Darkness
CyberAnthropology
Hartmann - Magic White and Black
"Universals of Narrative and Their Cognitivist Fortunes," by M. Sternberg, L. Sterne - Poetics Today - Duke Univ Press
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To me, calling upon some external agency (Jesus, CHAOS, my higher self, etc.) is not as useful as me looking to see what I need to do differently during times of stress or unhappiness. Sure, I listen to my dreams. I interpret omens. But when it comes down to the wire, it is me who makes decisions..
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