CYCLE TWENTY-FOUR

1. The competitive 'nature' of Antinature is such that competition obtains on every basis, from the noumenal objectivity of metachemical anti-unnature to the noumenal subjectivity of metaphysical anti-subnature via the phenomenal objectivity of chemical anti-supernature and the phenomenal subjectivity of physical antinature.

2. Thus competition is the inorganic norm, or organic abnormality, from the space-time devolution of materialism to the time-space evolution of idealism via the volume-mass devolution of realism and the mass-volume evolution of naturalism.

3. Contrariwise, the co-operative 'nature' of Nature is such that co-operation obtains on every basis, from the noumenal objectivity of metachemical unnature to the noumenal subjectivity of metaphysical subnature via the phenomenal objectivity of chemical supernature and the phenomenal subjectivity of physical nature.

4. Thus co-operation is the organic norm from the space-time devolution of fundamentalism to the time-space evolution of transcendentalism via the volume-mass devolution of nonconformism and the mass-volume evolution of humanism.

5. No more than we can categorically maintain that primacy is evil and supremacy good, can it be maintained that competition is evil and co-operation good. Good and evil are not applicable except in relation to the metachemical and chemical modes of competition and co-operation, where we can distinguish competitive evil and good from co-operative evil and good, and further distinguish each of these objective orders of competition and co-operation from their subjective counterparts, which have less to do with evil and good than with folly and wisdom, whether negatively, as in the case of primacy, or positively, as in the case of supremacy.

6. Hence even where organic supremacy is concerned, we need to distinguish co-operative evil from good, and each of these from the co-operative modes of folly and wisdom.

7. Thus one will avoid the error of assuming that because competition is malevolent and co-operation benevolent, all competition is evil and all co-operation good. There is evil malevolence (anti-unnatural) and good malevolence (anti-supernatural), evil benevolence (unnatural) and good benevolence (supernatural).

8. There is also, on the other (subjective and male) side of the gender fence, foolish malevolence (antinatural) and wise malevolence (anti-subnatural), foolish benevolence (natural) and wise benevolence (subnatural).

9. Of course, it is better to be good than evil in both malevolent and benevolent, primal and supreme contexts, just as it is better to be wise than foolish in both malevolent and benevolent contexts, since whereas in the former case goodness is a rejection of evil, in the latter case wisdom is a rejection or, more correctly, a transcendence of folly.

10. Yet it is still better to be benevolent than malevolent, and thus organically co-operative rather than inorganically competitive, whether or not one is co-operative on evil, good, foolish, or wise terms.

11. Certainly it is better to be chemically co-operative than metachemically co-operative, organically good than organically evil, just as it is better to be metaphysically co-operative than physically co-operative, organically wise than organically foolish.

12. But these distinctions are still subject to innate factors of class and gender to such an extent that there will always be people whose principal lifestyle is evil rather than good or foolish rather than wise, whether in relation to competition or to co-operation.

13. Drawing logical distinctions in philosophy is not the same as expecting people to rigorously adhere to them. I know what is logically best in a given situation, but I would not make the mistake of advising everyone to adopt such a position. On the contrary, good and folly will always be for the mass/volume Many, evil and wisdom for the time/space Few - albeit, in each case, for antithetical types of Many and Few.

14. But even with such distinctions, it is still the case that primacy will exist at the expense of supremacy in those individuals or societies which have 'gone to the dogs' of materialism (negative evil), realism (negative good), naturalism (negative folly), and idealism (negative wisdom), thereby indulging in competitive malevolence within a broadly Antinatural (inorganic) framework.