111. It would be wrong to suppose, as one could so
easily do, that religion and science truly extend from alpha to omega, as from
the Father to the Holy Ghost when, in point of fact, they are rather more alpha
and worldly than purgatorial and omega.
By which I mean that religion has been eclipsed by ideology no less than
science by politics, and that while religious and scientific terminology may
still have some applicability in the contexts of Puritanism and Republicanism
on the one hand (purgatorial), and of Transcendentalism and Communism on the
other hand (omega), we are really talking about ideological and political
distinctions between the options in question, distinctions which indicate that
whereas Puritanism and Transcendentalism are ideological (the former relatively
so and the latter to an absolute degree), Republicanism and Communism are
political (again the former relatively so and the latter to an absolute
degree), and thus not strictly classifiable as religion or science. In contrast, therefore, to a more generalized
pattern of thought, it could be said that religion is alpha, science worldly,
politics purgatorial, and ideology omega, with naturalistic, realistic,
materialistic, and idealistic implications in each case, as below (see diagram
1):-
1.
RELIGION/POLITICS/IDEOLOGY
(naturalism)(materialism)(idealism)
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SCIENCE
(realism)
where we
have four quantities corresponding to fire, earth, water, and air respectively,
with religion and ideology horizontally antithetical (as regarding naturalism
and idealism), but science and politics vertically antithetical (as regarding
realism and materialism). However, such
quantities (appearances) are of little interest or significance without their
qualities (essences), and I have no hesitation in correlating religion with
art, science with jurisprudence, politics with economics, and ideology with
psychology, as follows (see diagram 2):-
2.
ART/ECONOMICS/PSYCHOLOGY
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JURISPRUDENCE
Clearly,
art is the qualitative concomitance of religion no less than psychology the
qualitative concomitance of ideology, and it is difficult to see, for example,
how ideology could be furthered without recourse to psychological techniques
which act upon the inner world the way art once acted, on behalf of religion,
upon the outer one. Similarly economics
is the qualitative concomitance of politics no less than jurisprudence the
qualitative concomitance of the science of law, and it is equally difficult to
see how politics could be furthered or advanced without recourse to economic
changes which act upon the collective the way jurisprudence once acted, on
behalf of the science of law, upon the individual.
112. Whereas politics and science are 'truer' to
themselves in the relative than in the absolute, i.e. as Republicanism and
Liberalism as opposed to Monarchism and Communism, religion and ideology are
'truer' to themselves in the absolute than in the relative, i.e. as Judaism and
Transcendentalism as opposed to Catholicism and Puritanism. This is because whereas in the former case
politics is under the shadow of ideology and science under the shadow of
religion, in the latter case, by contrast, religion is under the shadow of science
and ideology under the shadow of politics.
113. The twentieth century having been a political
age par excellence, ideology was no less under the shadow of
politics than ... religion had been under the shadow of science in the
nineteenth century - the scientific age par excellence.
114. From what we have discovered regarding the
theocratic/democratic distinctions which exist between Puritanism and
Republicanism on the one hand and between Catholicism and Liberalism on the
other, it should be apparent that, in Ireland, Republicanism will be as
abhorrent from a Puritan point of view ... as Liberalism from a Catholic one,
the reason being that in the former case we have a Christ/Antichrist dichotomy,
whereas in the latter case we have a Blessed Virgin/Antivirgin
dichotomy, neither democratic manifestation of which, viz. Republicanism and
Liberalism, could be acceptable to those who uphold their respective theocratic
counterparts. However, while this is
evidently true of Ireland, it is by no means the case in America where, by
contrast, Puritans are usually Republicans and Catholics ... Democrats, the
reason being that, contrary to Ireland, democracy takes precedence over
theocracy and is, in a very real sense, the prime mover there. Hence Americans are more likely to be
Republicans or Democrats first and foremost than Puritans or Catholics, in
contrast to
115. Since I am disposed, in the light of new
theories and discoveries, to re-evaluate my position from time to time (and
take an especial pride in doing so, since it confirms that I am mentally alive
and still prepared to try out a variety of alternative theories ... with a
long-term view to discovering what is the most credible one overall), I should
like to put forward a fresh theory, based on our strength-goodness-truth
trinity, that poetry and drama should be regarded less in an alpha and worldly
light than in an order the converse of what they were perceived to be before,
so that we would have drama in the alpha position and poetry in the worldly
one, and this on account of the fact that, philosophy being equated with truth
and fiction with goodness (or the good act), logic compels one to associate
drama with strength and poetry with beauty, which stand to truth and goodness
(the other two virtues) as alpha and world to omega and purgatory, as in the
following diagrams:-
DRAMA/FICTION/PHILOSOPHY
(alpha)(purgatory)(omega)
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POETRY
(the world)
STRENGTH/GOODNESS/TRUTH
(alpha)(purgatory)(omega)
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BEAUTY
(the world)
where it is
evident that poetry, being associated with beauty, is a thing of the world and,
hence, a worldly form of literature, in contrast to drama ... as the alpha form
of literature par excellence, on account of its association with strength,
the alpha virtue. Consequently it could
be said that, in theological parlance, drama is of the Father, narrative
literature of the Son, philosophy of the Holy Ghost, and poetry of the Blessed
Virgin or, at any rate, each of these forms of literary production should be
such if pursued on a virtuous as opposed to a vicious basis (in which case one
would be talking rather more in terms of weakness, evil, illusion, and ugliness
respectively, as befitting the 'anti' manifestations of each genre).
116. However, it has to be admitted that if drama is
not always associated with strength, and hence pride, it is more likely to be
because it has been associated, rightly or wrongly, with weakness, and hence
humiliation, and is therefore less a thing of the alpha Divine (the Father)
than of the alpha Diabolic (Satan). The
distinction between tragedy and comedy is largely, it seems to me, one in which
the roles of strength and weakness, or the strong and the weak, have been
reversed, so that, in the first case (that of tragedy) the strong are beset by
great failings and rendered weak, whereas in the second case (that of comedy)
the weak are elevated to positions of apparent strength by sheer accident or in
consequence of a fortuitous circumstance.
The misfortunes of the strong are only amusing to us when they are in
consequence of the incidental acts of the weak, as when a strong man is knocked
over by a revolving plank being carried by a comparatively weak man who has no
knowledge of the effect of his actions.
But if the strong man is knocked over as a consequence of the
premeditated acts of other strong men or even of several weak men acting in
conjunction, we are in the realm of tragedy, about which there is nothing
funny. One could argue that if the Devil
unwittingly gets the better of God, we are in the realm of comedy. But if God gets the better of Himself or is consciously worsted by the Devil, then we are
in the realm of tragedy, from which comedy is a diabolical fall.
117. Whether one chooses to speak or write in
religious terminology, viz. hell, purgatory, heaven, and the world, or in
scientific terminology, viz. naturalism, materialism, idealism, and realism, or
in political terminology, viz. right, centre, left, and moderate, or in ideological
terminology, viz. fascism, anarchism, communism, and transcendentalism, will to
some extent obviously depend upon the personal or professional bent of the
individual and to some extent upon the suitability of whatever terminology to
the context in question, be it religious, political, ideological, or
scientific. However, it would be wrong
to suppose, as some writers have done, that the use of terms like naturalism,
materialism, and idealism (which are scientific) is more applicable to
contemporary life than terms such as hell, purgatory, and heaven (which are
religious), given that, quite apart from the fact that we do not live in a
scientific age but in a political one, both sets of terms stretch from alpha to
omega, and if, for example, 'heaven' is less good or relevant than 'idealism'
from a contemporary - though in point of fact scientific - standpoint, then so
must 'naturalism' be less relevant than 'hell' from a traditional - though in
point of fact religious - standpoint, bearing in mind the greater applicability
of religious terminology to alpha contexts.
Yet we can no more limit scientific terminology to omega contexts than
limit religious terminology to alpha ones, without falling into a logical
contradiction such that makes 'idealism' more acceptable in the one context and
'hell' more acceptable in the other, granted that 'heaven' is inferior to
'idealism' in the omega context and 'naturalism' to 'hell' in the alpha one.
118. However, notwithstanding the fact that
scientific terminology has less applicability to omega contexts than
ideological terminology like communism, transcendentalism, socialism, etc., we
have to concede that, by and large, each of the terminological frameworks is
interchangeable, and that we can no more limit ideology to 'communism' than,
say, science to 'realism', politics to 'centrism', or religion to 'hell'. Ideological terminology is obviously more
applicable to an ideological context (omega) than religious terminology would
be, but this does not mean that religious terms like heaven should be confined
solely to religious contexts (alpha) and not extend into an ideological age,
else there would be no point in regarding the Trinity as successive in an
alpha-to-omega sense, and therefore no justification for conceiving of heaven
in an omega as opposed to a purely alpha context. However, I am obliged to confess that, even
given my own fairly liberal use of religious terminology in the past, an
ideological terminology is indubitably more applicable to an ideological age
than ... religious or scientific or political terminologies, and should
accordingly be used in preference to them.
Certainly it is better to speak in terms of the post-Human Millennium
than of 'Heaven on Earth' or 'Kingdom Come' or 'Kingdom of Heaven', where the
future ideological society is concerned; though, alas, old habits die hard and
few of us can lay claim to total immunity in this respect! Even terms like 'salvation', 'paradise', and
'divine' are essentially religious.... Personally, my own view of religious
terminology is that, while largely alpha orientated, it has also been used (by
proto-ideologues) to intimate of ideological possibility and has therefore
assumed, in the course of evolutionary time, an omega connotation whether or
not we approve of the fact. However,
such a connotation can only pale to insignificance beside the burgeoning sense
of ideology which the age has engendered, behoving us to speak ideologically
rather than religiously, and to regard terminological excesses of the religious
order as a mode of Western decadence.
119. It is wrong to assume, as I was formerly
inclined to, that doing and being are antithetical, as between alpha and omega,
when, in point of fact, doing is both alpha and omega, depending on the
type of doing in question, and being, contrary to appearances, is of the world,
which is to say a bodily condition of sentient beings which may be positive or
negative, as when we speak of wellbeing on the one hand and of being ill or
sick on the other hand. Fundamentally,
being has no other reality than that, and to ascribe to it some kind of divine
or omega-oriented significance is to confound the real with the ideal and
mistake the world for the Beyond. If
being has an antithesis, it is not doing but existence, which stands to being
as the moon to the earth, or materialism to realism. For existence is without sentience, a
mechanical or otherwise technological phenomenon which can be either positive
or negative, depending on its condition, whether for good or bad, functioning
or malfunctioning, and existence is flanked, as it were, by negative doing on
the one side and by positive doing on the other, as in the following by-now
familiar T-like diagram:-
NEGATIVE DOING/EXISTENCE/POSITIVE DOING
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BEING
where
existence is shown in a kind of middle-ground light in between the alpha of
negative doing and the omega of positive doing, each of which, like existence
and being, is divisible into divine and diabolic or, as I should say,
idealistic and naturalistic alternatives, corresponding to wavicles
and particles on both proton (alpha) and electron (omega) terms. Thus idealistic negative doing (proton wavicles) will be a doing-against-oneself, an introverted
form of self-assertion, whereas naturalistic negative doing (proton particles)
will be a doing-against-others, an extroverted form of self-assertion. By contrast, idealistic positive doing
(electron wavicles) will be a doing-for-oneself, an
introverted form of self-realization, whereas naturalistic positive doing
(electron particles) will be a doing-for-others, an extroverted form of
self-realization.
120. Speaking in religious terms, one could say that
idealistic negative doing is of the Father and naturalistic negative doing of
the Devil, whilst idealistic positive doing is of the Holy Spirit and
naturalistic positive doing of the Antispirit
(Marxism), in contrast to the positive existence of the Son and the negative
existence of the Antichrist, the positive being (wellbeing) of the Blessed
Virgin and the negative being (malbeing) of the Antivirgin (condition of pregnancy). However that may be, it should be clear that
the 'heavenly' condition, conceived in regard to the omega absolute, would be a
condition of idealistic positive doing, of electrons in perpetual attraction,
and thus the introverted form of self-realization taken to its ultimate
point. Rather than a condition of being,
like sentient phenomena, the most idealistic condition would be profoundly
doing orientated, a centripetal dance of electrons in
perpetual motion - the ultimate flame.
121. Being and existence are the positive and
negative poles of a 'Christian' antithesis between the Blessed Virgin and
Christ - Catholicism and Puritanism.
Being and existence are alike phenomenal, except that whereas being has
associations with the sentient, existence is purely phenomenal and, hence,
largely if not entirely materialistic.
This helps to explain the difference between the Catholic crucifix,
which has the figure of Christ, and the Protestant crucifix which, by contrast,
is purely existential, that is to say, without even expiring sentience (in the
form of the dying Christ), but wholly phenomenal and thus, by implication,
materialistic. One could even argue that
whereas being has associations with death-in-life, existence is the
life-in-death, the mechanistic life of phenomena, in contrast to the organic
life of sentient beings, of which the Blessed Virgin is the principal
traditional religious symbol in the West.
For being is indeed feminine, like 'Mother Earth', and correlates with
time, whereas existence, having no gender, is timeless.
122. No more than it could be said that doing is the
antithesis of being, can it be said that eternity is the antithesis of
time. For eternity is the essence of
doing and therefore not antithetical to time but divisible into negative and
positive antitheses on both a divine and a diabolic basis, which is to say as
alpha and omega, the Father/Satan and the Holy Spirit/Antispirit. As I have already intimated, timelessness,
the essence of existence, is the antithesis of time, whereas time is the
essence of being and thus, by implication, the world. The antithesis of worldly time is accordingly
purgatorial timelessness, not the heavenly or hellish eternities which, by
contrast, are their own antitheses - properly theological in the case of alpha
heaven (central star) and hell (sun), ideological in the case of the omega
millennia (communist and transcendentalist).
123. Although film is essentially a divine, or idealistic
(light), mode of communication by dint of its wavicle
essence, it is more usually a superalpha and
therefore immoral equivalent, especially when taking place within the context
of cinema, where we are conscious of its projection (from a film projector)
onto the screen in front. For such a projection is centrifugal and, consequently, it pertains
to the immoral alpha as opposed to the moral omega pole of life. Indeed, even when film is 'redeemed' through
transmission via television and/or video, which are less centrifugal than
centripetal phenomena by dint of shining inwardly, as it were, in independence
of an external projector of the type germane to cinema, it is still
fundamentally alpha stemming and thus less than truly moral. One could say, in colloquial parlance, that
it is then merely 'the best of a bad job', since such a 'redemption' is far
from a transvaluation along the lines of an LSD trip,
whereby artificially-induced visionary experience is internalized and
effectively becomes the Superchristic precondition of
true essence thereafter, that is to say of a superspiritual
meditative experience. Even video is
still essentially superalpha, though (in relation to
cinema film) in a somewhat attenuated and even apparently omega-oriented way,
so that we could be forgiven for positing a trinitarian
analogue on the basis of cinema - television - video, reserving to radio an
analogue with the Blessed Virgin on account of its seemingly feminine essence
as a beautiful darkness (without light) which pertains to the worldly realm
underneath the heavenly realms of masculine light in the contexts of strength
(cinema), goodness (television), and truth (video), as in the following
diagram:-
CINEMA/TELEVISION/VIDEO
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RADIO
124. However that may be, film is incapable of true
redemption, and film actors remain 'stars' and thus, by implication, superalpha equivalents in a largely immoral world. If there is a
distinction between divine and diabolic films, as, for example, in regard to
romance and horror, it is more likely to be on the basis of the former being
light (within an alpha strength context) and the latter the light-aside of
heat, which is to say something analogous to the light from an electric fire as
opposed to an electric-light bulb as such, and therefore subordinate or,
depending on your standpoint, inferior to music in the purely diabolic
context. Certainly, negative music like
hard rock will be more genuinely diabolic than negative film, like a horror
movie, and thus the heat (emotional) essence of the context in question. Conversely, alpha divine music like trad jazz will be inferior to film in the divine context,
since only the heat-aside of the light essence of the context in question, like
the heat from a light bulb. (Strictly speaking, the literal heat-aside to film
light is of course film music, while the literal light-aside to music heat - at
any rate where rock concerts and the like are concerned - is a light show,
though for analogical and academic reasons I have distinguished 'light' music
from heat music, and 'heat' film from light film on the above basis, in order
to clarify the basic moral differences which I believe do in fact exist between
them.)
125. However, neither film
nor music can attain to or be extended into the truly divine realm of internal
essence, which is omega as opposed to alpha and therefore beyond the phenomenal
reach of each. The Superchristic revolution to come will be neither filmic nor
musical but pharmaceutical, availing itself of artificially-induced visionary
(and auditory) experience as a precondition of truly supernoumenal
essence in the superspiritual Beyond. If film-viewing is of the State, then
LSD-tripping can only pertain to the Centre, and there will be as much
difference between the two as with regard to Christ and the Father or,
transposed into institutional terminology, the Church and the Temple. The centrifugal immorality of 'film stars'
will be eclipsed by the centripetal morality or, at any rate, positive
amorality of hallucinogenic supermen ... preparatory to the eclipse of all
appearances, even internalized ones, by the centripetal morality of the
meditating supra-men, whose omega orientation will be as unequivocal as it is
possible to be on such terms ... before cyborg-to-millennial
progressions repeat the process and 'up the stakes' to a degree beyond human
comprehension.
126. Although, like rock, jazz is fundamentally
alpha stemming and therefore immoral, it can be redeemed to the extent that
solo playing takes over from and replaces ensemble playing. For in relation to the
latter, solo playing is individualistic and therefore centralist as opposed
(like the collectivism of ensemble playing) to decentralist and, hence,
immoral. No art form can become
truly omega orientated and thus essential, but it can be made less alpha
stemming and apparent ... to the extent that individual tendencies eclipse
collective ones and pitch accordingly predominates over rhythm - that alpha of
contemporary music.
127. In music, the juxtaposition
of decadent bourgeois (more specifically petty-bourgeois) trends with barbarous
proletarian trends usually takes the form of overly rhythmic classical music on
the one hand and overly rhythmic rock music on the other - the former acoustic
and the latter electric. In economics,
this juxtaposition of bourgeois and proletarian alternatives takes the form of
popular capitalism, or a wider distribution of shares on the one hand, and
popular socialism, or literal ownership of the means of production at any given
factory by the workers themselves on the other hand. However, just as the 'redemption' of rock
music can only come via pitch-oriented solos of a jazzy nature (and thus
effectively on the basis of jazz-rock), so the 'redemption' of popular
socialism can only be achieved on the basis of State Socialism, which
centralizes the proletarian ownership of the means of production and
accordingly replaces Marxian anarchy - or the chaos that would ensue in the
wake of too literal an interpretation of worker ownership of the means of
production - with a sort of Leninist control.
Yet this, like jazz-rock (its musical equivalent), is no more than 'the
best of a bad job' and, hence, a redeemed barbarism. For until a transvaluation
is established on the basis of Centre trusteeship, the People will continue to
be burdened, if only in theory, with economic sovereignty and thus fall short
of being saved from the State ... to a religious sovereignty which will
transcend all lower sovereignties, including the political and judicial, and so
bring about the 'Kingdom of Heaven' on a Superchristic
and, hence, positive amoral basis - the basis of institutionalized tripping as
a precondition of institutionalized meditating in the purely moral phase
thereafter, analogous to a switch from rock-jazz (not to be confounded with
jazz-rock) to pure jazz, as amoral synthesizer absolutism is superseded by
moral synthesizer absolutism, and the rhythmic element hitherto integral to the
rock-jazz context is effectively consigned to the rubbish heap of musical
history, there to languish alongside LSD and Social Transcendentalism. For of course the amoral transvaluation
commensurate with Centre trusteeship and rock-jazz is Social Transcendentalist,
and this Superchristic ideology should be transcended
by its supertheocratic successor in the purely moral,
and hence superspiritual, phase of the 'Kingdom of
Heaven', when the Holy Spirit, as it were, will be the presiding norm, and
truly essential criteria accordingly prevail.
128. But long before Social Transcendentalism is
superseded by Supertranscendentalism, Transcendental
Socialism, or the centralized and hence 'civilized' barbarism of
Marxism-Leninism (and its jazz-rock counterpart), will have to be consigned to
the rubbish heap of ideological history, since a redeemed immorality, whether
filmic, musical, economic, political, or whatever, is still an obstacle to Superchristic progress, and must be overcome if
civilization is finally to emerge in a positive amoral guise. Verily, ‘the best of a bad job', namely
Transcendental Socialism, will have to be consigned to the rubbish heap of
history before progress from 'the worst of a good job', namely Social
Transcendentalism, towards 'the best of a good job', namely
Super-transcendentalism, can be anticipated.
That is the dialectical struggle to come, and if omega is to achieve a
victory over alpha, state socialism, jazz-rock, and televideos
will have to be eclipsed by centre trusteeship, rock-jazz, and LSD
tripping. For such is the Superchristic precondition of true morality in the purely
essential phase of the omega '
129. Just as we can speak, on an elemental basis, of
contemporary music or, if you will, supermusic
ascending from pop to jazz via rock and soul ... as from earth to air via water
and fire or, alternatively, from realism to idealism via materialism and
naturalism, so it should be possible to speak of such an ascension in
connection with the division of musical instruments into string, keyboard,
percussion, and wind families, beginning with strings as the earth/realistic
equivalent, continuing up the elemental spectra to keyboards as the
water/materialistic equivalent, continuing still further to percussion
instruments as the fire/naturalistic equivalent, and culminating with wind as
the air/idealistic equivalent, so that our ascension in some sense parallels
the pop-rock-soul-jazz progression referred to above, and should likewise
correlate with wilful, intellectual, soulful, and spiritual options, depending
on the instrument family/type of supermusic in
question.
130. Furthermore, it should be no less possible to
distinguish between an alpha-stemming and an omega-oriented subdivision of each
instrument family on the basis of a reactive/attractive dichotomy, so that the
string family, for instance, will be divisible not simply in terms of violin,
viola, 'cello, and double bass, but, more comprehensively, in terms of plucked
instruments of one kind or another on the one hand, i.e. the alpha-stemming reactive
subdivision, and bowed instruments of one kind or another on the other hand,
i.e. the omega-oriented attractive subdivision, given the
reactive/attractive distinction which unquestionably exists between plucking
and bowing. Thus guitars will pertain to
the former category and violins, violas, 'cellos, and double basses to the
latter, though both categories would be alike wilful, or biased towards the
will, granted the earthly and realistic nature of stringed instruments
vis-à-vis the other instrument families, a nature which accords with a worldly
and, hence, bodily status as opposed, say, to a purgatorial and, hence, cranial
one - as applicable to the keyboard family.
131. For keyboards are
encased, as a rule, and thereby resemble the brain and its skull. Although, once again, we
have to distinguish between reactive and attractive alternatives (almost on the
basis of an old-brain/new-brain dichotomy), if we are to do adequate justice to
the alpha-stemming/omega-oriented subdivisions of this instrument family. Now it is my belief that those keyboard
instruments which, like the xylophone and vibraphone, require to be played with
sticks ... appertain to the former category, while those which, like the piano
and organ, are played with fingers ... appertain to the latter one, and never
more so than when played with the sustain pedal, which creates a legato sound
the essence of which should be rather more attractive - and watery - than
reactive. Indeed, it seems to me that
the piano is less omega orientated than balanced between alpha-stemming
reactive and omega-oriented attractive options, given the damper-pedal
alternative which, as anyone familiar with piano music will know, creates a
staccato sound that, on account of its brittle nature, is rather more reactive
than attractive - in fact, almost percussive when used in conjunction with
rhythmic playing.
132. However that may be, we can and, I believe,
should distinguish between keyboard instruments on the above basis, while
reserving for each category, whether reactive or attractive, a correlation with
water and materialism, the very correlation which would indicate an
intellectual (as opposed to a wilful) standing, in accordance with the
purgatorial, and hence cranial, nature of this particular instrument family, a
family especially congenial to intellectuals.
133. Likewise, the division of percussion
instruments into alpha-stemming reactive and omega-oriented attractive
categories can be achieved less on the basis of a sticks/brush dichotomy -
though that obviously has some relevance - than with regard to distinctions
between one type of percussion instrument and another, especially in relation
to what could be termed traditional drum-like instruments, or drums, and the
more recent block-like electronic instruments. Now it is my belief that while the former are
alpha stemming and reactive, the latter will be omega orientated and
attractive, as though indicative of a centrifugal/centripetal distinction. However, both categories of percussion
instrument warrant a correlation with fire and naturalism, the very correlation
which will indicate a soulful (as opposed to an intellectual) standing, in
accordance with the diabolic, and hence
particle-mind, nature of percussion.
134. But if the percussion family is usually
congenial to 'soul devils', then the wind family above will have especial
appeal to 'spirit gods', and it is my belief that the division of this family
into brass and woodwind categories is largely symptomatic of the kind of
alpha/omega dichotomy we have been discussing, with, for instance, saxophones
especially significant of the reactive category and, by contrast, clarinets no
less significant of the attractive one, since the former have a centrifugal
design whereas the latter are more centripetal, as befitting an omega
orientation. However, irrespective of
their shape and material construction, all wind instruments should be
correlated with air and idealism, which would indicate a spiritual (as opposed
to a soulful) standing, in accordance with the divine, and hence wavicle-mind,
nature of wind, the ultimate instrument family in the ascension of musical
instruments from earth to air, and one having especial applicability to jazz -
that divinely-biased type of contemporary music or, rather, supermusic,
whether with regard to alpha or omega, the Father or the Holy Spirit or,
indeed, to some Christ-like compromise in between the two absolute extremes,
for which the flute might well be the most appropriate wind instrument.
135. However that may be, it will not have escaped
the reader that virtually all instruments and instrument families can be
synthesized and thereby lifted above their individual standings towards a more
uniformly collective and homogeneous status.
One could argue that such a procedure parallels the drift from
nationalism towards internationalism in politics, and that, whilst it is
preferable to the unsynthesized, there is accordingly
still scope for a further convergence from the Many to the One, as it were, and
thus towards a supra-national parallel which, in music, should take the form of
an ultimate synthesizer - a synthesizer that is no mere adjunct to a given
instrument, but a totally transcendent phenomenon which eclipses the
traditional instrument families in the interests of a unitary perfection the
ultimate aim of which is the most omega-oriented and attractive mode of
divinely-biased supermusic.
136. Where formerly I thought of synthesized guitars
and violins as somehow more omega orientated than their unsynthesized
counterparts, I now believe that the addition of a synthesizer dimension to
each instrument makes it rather more middle ground than would otherwise be the
case, since the dimension in question is a common denominator which, in a
manner of speaking, can only bring both types of instruments closer together on
a largely amoral basis - the synthesized guitar from alpha immoral (electric
guitar) to alpha-stemming amoral, the synthesized violin from omega moral
(electric violin) to omega-oriented amoral.
In fact, it seems to me that a parallel exists between the above and
television on the one hand and LSD trips on the other, with television (or
video) paralleling the electric guitar and 'trippy'
TV (or video) paralleling the synthesized guitar, but LSD trips paralleling the
synthesized violin and transcendental meditation paralleling the electric
violin, so that 'trippy' TV and LSD trips are no-less
amorally contiguous in relation to straight television and transcendental
meditation respectively, than the aforementioned synthesized guitars and
violins in relation to their purely electric counterparts, straight television
(or video) being no less immoral in relation to 'trippy'
TV ... than electric guitars in relation to synthesized ones, and, conversely,
transcendental meditation being no less moral in relation to LSD trips than
electric violins in relation to synthesized ones - theories which lead me to
the conclusion that whereas the most appropriate instrument to listen to when
tripping would be the synthesized violin, the most appropriate instrument to
listen to when meditating would be the electric violin (although it has to be
restated that neither guitars nor violins, whether synthesized or not, are
strictly 'head' instruments, but largely bodily in relation to wind instruments
on the one hand, and to wind-emulating synthesizers on the other hand).
137. Further to the above, one should distinguish
between acoustic guitars and violins as naturalistic alpha and omega 'bodily'
instruments, and electric guitars and violins as artificial alpha and omega
'bodily' instruments. For the
acoustic/electric distinction is nothing less than that between naturalistic
tradition and artificial modernity, and instruments suitable for one type of
music are emphatically not suitable for another! It would be - and, indeed, is - no less
illogical to use acoustic instruments in, say, pop or rock music than to use
electric ones in, say, folk or classical music.
138. War is to autocracy what sport is to democracy
- modes of competition in the one case lethal and in the other case
non-lethal. For whereas war corresponds
to a proton absolute of death and destruction, sport, its democratic
extrapolation, corresponds to an atomic relativity wherein the competitive essence
of protons is mitigated and to some extent transmuted by the co-operative
essence of electrons. The more
autocratic the society, the more prone it will be to war, and, conversely, the
more democratic the society, the more partial it will be to sport. War is immoral and sport amoral, and in a
truly closed society orientated towards the goal of omega transcendence ...
neither war nor sport would exist.
Eclipse autocracy, in both natural (monarchic) and artificial
(presidential) contexts, and you transcend war.
Eclipse democracy, in both natural (parliamentary) and artificial
(republican) contexts, and you transcend sport.
A society which has been saved from both war and sport is truly
theocratic or, rather, supertheocratic ... to the
extent that it is concerned not with worship (of the alpha), but with
self-realization (in the omega).
139. It could be said that in the twentieth century
the star eclipsed the cross, though the star in question was not the alpha star
of an unequivocally centrifugal character, but what (in relation to my
philosophy) could be called the alpha-in-the-omega star of centripetal
compromise, which differs from the absolutely immoral star to the degree and in
much the same way that new-brain rulers (presidents) differ from old-brain ones
(monarchs). That said, we need be in no
doubt that the contemporary star is not an end-in-itself but the final
manifestation, barring amoral compromises, of an immoral tendency which must
some day be challenged by the omega cross, which will bring the moral to a head
in an unequivocally centripetal way, contrasting with the omega-in-the-alpha
cross of Christian precedent ... to the extent and in much the same way that
new-brain spiritual leaders (transcendentalists) contrast with old-brain spiritual
leaders (priests). Thus not only will
the Y-like emblem of this unequivocally centripetal cross supersede the
contemporary star, it will replace the traditional cross in the name of
ultimate morality and the coming to pass of the omega '
140. The modern bottle, with its centripetal
tapering and ribbed cap, corresponds to the modern star, as a relatively
immoral phenomenon equivalent to alpha-in-the-omega, in contrast to the
(modern) can which, given its largely phallic connotations, effectively
corresponds to the supercross as an absolutely moral
phenomenon equivalent to the omega of centripetal-tending idealism. Over against the alpha-stemming immorality of
drinking straight from the bottle or the omega-oriented morality of drinking
straight from the can, one can posit as alpha-stemming amorality the drinking
of liquid refreshment from a bottle via a glass, but as omega-oriented
amorality the drinking of liquid refreshment from a can via a glass, so that we
have here, as in other contexts, two types of amorality in between the
contemporary immoral and moral extremes.
Now if, as I firmly believe, immorality is naturalistic and morality
idealistic, then the alpha-stemming amorality will be realistic and the
omega-oriented amorality materialistic, given the fact that realism succeeds
naturalism in devolutionary terms, while materialism precedes idealism in
evolutionary terms, as in the following diagram, which, true to the T-like
structure used hitherto, should adequately illustrate this point:-
BOTTLE/GLASS-CAN/CAN
(naturalism)(materialism)(idealism)
|
|
|
|
|
|
BOTTLE-GLASS
(realism)
and on the
basis of a parallel with, say, Father - Son - Holy Ghost above and the Blessed
Virgin below, or, alternatively, Hell - Purgatory - Heaven above and the World
below.
141. However that may be, the fact of artificial
alpha immorality - omega morality/alpha amorality - omega amorality confirms
and transcends the tradition of a naturalistic parallel to the above, with, for
example, decanters and kegs in the alpha and omega positions, but large or more
relative glasses (with handle) in the amoral positions in between. Now it is my view that whereas drinking from
a decanter, or large corked bottle, corresponds to alpha immorality, the use of
a keg will correspond to omega-in-the-alpha, and thus to a relatively moral
tendency. Liquid poured into a glass
from either extreme will, of course, confirm an amoral standing relative to
naturalistic tradition as opposed to artificial modernity. Thus whereas the amorality associated with
cans has a pop connotation, the amorality associated with kegs can only have a
folk connotation, as germane to the traditional pub. Similar, albeit alpha-stemming, distinctions
will also apply to the naturalistic and artificial types of amorality in
relation to their associations with bottles or decanters.
142. They speak of 'the sin of Onan',
but masturbation is only 'sinful', or immoral, when conducted on the
centrifugal basis of ejaculation into 'thin air', with or without - though
these days usually with - the aid of a sex magazine. Such masturbation is fascistic and contrasts
absolutely with what may be termed moral masturbation (more specifically,
stimulation), or recourse to a vaginal sex gadget such that establishes a
centripetal context suitable for use with a sex video, a no-less centripetal
medium of photographic reproduction, and one that, given an ideologically
correct subject-matter, will permit of a communistic alternative to the
blatantly centrifugal, and hence immoral, mode of masturbation. Therefore since masturbation conducted in
conjunction with photographic stimuli is idealistic in relation to other and
lower types of sexuality, including heterosexual realism and homosexual
materialism, we have alpha and omega absolutes in the above-mentioned
antithesis, absolutes which flank the relativities of bodily sex on both
immorally fascistic and morally communistic terms, and if the world is destined
to be eclipsed, and everything alpha stemming be consigned to the rubbish heap
of history, then only moral sex will prevail ... on both idealistic (video) and
naturalistic (inflatable) terms, though especially with regard to the former in
the divine contexts of a supertheocratic resolve.
143. One should distinguish between flounced dresses
(which are effectively centrifugal) and tapered dresses (which are effectively
centripetal) as alpha and alpha-in-the-omega, which is to say, as paralleling
or appertaining to two types of autocracy - the monarchic autocracy of royalist
tradition and the presidential autocracy of hard-line republican modernity,
while reserving for both flounced and tapered skirts an alpha-stemming amoral
status relative to the alpha and alpha-in-the-omega distinctions described
above. Thus it should be apparent, if
this theory is valid, that whereas skirts are amoral, dresses will be immoral,
whether absolutely or relatively (depending on the type of dress in question, i.e.
flounced or tapered), and that dresses can no more be limited to the
traditional alpha context than skirts ... to the contemporary worldly one. Both dresses and skirts can be either
traditional or contemporary, which is to say absolutely immoral/amoral on the
one hand, that of the alpha, and relatively immoral/amoral on the other hand,
that of the alpha-in-the-omega, with centrifugal and centripetal distinctions,
irrespective of their lengths. For we
can no more regard a short flounced dress as strictly contemporary, in the
relatively immoral sense I have attached to that term, than regard a long
tapered dress as traditional, in the absolutely immoral sense of a centrifugal
implication appropriate to naturalistic autocracy. To revert to our monarchic/presidential
analogue, which is applicable to the traditional and contemporary (or
naturalistic and artificial) distinctions in question, the short flounced dress
will parallel an autocratic devolution on the monarchic side, whereas the long
tapered dress will parallel the most undevolved, and
hence dictatorial, of presidential autocracies.
It is not length but style which is the clue to the moral nature of any
given dress or skirt, and although naturalistic tradition will generally favour
long dresses and/or skirts and, by contrast, artificial modernity their shorter
counterparts, the crucial moral determinant is whether we have a centrifugal or
a centripetal distinction between them such that reflects the different immoral
and amoral natures of alpha and alpha-in-the-omega.
144. It is my belief that the existence in Israel at
the time of writing of but one television channel signifies a contemporary
parallel to the historical traditions of Judaic monotheism, and that such
one-channel TV is as morally superior - albeit within the necessarily circumscribed
context of 'external heavens' - to the multichannel
TV, for example, of the Western world ... as Judaic monotheism vis-à-vis the
pagan polytheism of the ancient world, to which the superalpha
idealism of television channels would appear to offer a contemporary
parallel. Thus whereas America, the most
'superpolytheistic' nation on earth, stands at one
extreme, with its multichannel TV, Israel, the most 'supermonotheistic' nation on earth, stands at the other -
an exponent of single-channel TV and, hence, moral exemplar within the
framework of superalpha idealism. However, should superomega
idealism eventually come to pass, if only on the comparatively amoral basis of
a Superchristic 'internal heaven' initially, there
can be little doubt that its insistence on the one drug, viz. LSD, will follow
from a deeply-held conviction regarding the moral sanctity of 'supermonotheistic' idealism.
145. Whereas the open-neck shirt is alpha when of
the short-sleeved variety and alpha-in-the-omega when of the more contemporary
long-sleeved variety, the former shirt worn with a cravat is of a negative
amoral status in the alpha (naturalistic) context, and the latter one worn with
a T-shirt underneath (in the American manner) is of a negative amoral status in
the alpha-in-the-omega (artificial) context, so that we have a parallel,
emblematically speaking, with contiguously encircled stars as opposed to stars
which stand alone in either absolutely (naturalistic) immoral or relatively
(artificial) immoral fashion, and which therefore parallel the purely open-neck
types of shirt. Now, doubtless, whilst
it is morally preferable for collar shirts to be done-up at the neck in a
strictly middle-ground amoral fashion, the collar shirt worn in conjunction
with a T-shirt is no-less morally preferable, from a contemporary standpoint,
to the bare open-collar shirt ... than contiguously encircled stars to plain
ones, and is thus less immoral to the extent that it is relatively amoral, or
of an alpha-stemming amoral standing.
146. Now what applies to shirts in the contemporary
'presidential' context should apply no less to those of a more traditional, or
'monarchic', nature, where we will be distinguishing between the presence or
absence of cravats in relation, strictly speaking, to short-sleeved collar
shirts, though also effectively in relation to long-sleeved shirts the sleeves
of which have been rolled up. In
contrast to the immoral and negative amoral contexts cited above, we can posit as
positively amoral those collarless, and hence implicitly centripetal, T-shirts
which have buttons, and the buttons of which will be left underdone by their
wearers ... in a sort of sartorial parallel to what could be termed the
military supercross, the supercross
which is not contiguously encircled but free-standing - Y - in amoral
opposition to the star, and from this to the moral or contiguously encircled supercross is but a short step, one paralleling that from
button T-shirts to their more centripetal, and hence buttonless,
counterparts.
147. In fact, taking both alpha and omega
alternatives into account, it is clear that we have three options either side
of the moral divide, viz. bare open-necked collar shirt, open-necked collar
shirt worn in conjunction with a T-shirt, and collar shirt done-up at the neck
on the one hand, effectively that of the star, but open-necked button T-shirt,
button T-shirt done-up at the neck, and buttonless
T-shirt on the other hand, effectively that of the supercross. Thus in between the immoral and moral extremes
of the open-necked collar shirt and the buttonless
T-shirt come two opposing types of amoral middle-ground, viz. militant and
civil, and while the open-necked collar shirt worn in conjunction with a
T-shirt and the open-necked button T-shirt will be of the militant varieties of
amoral middle-ground, the collar shirt done-up at the neck and the button
T-shirt also done-up at the neck can only be of the civil varieties of amoral
middle-ground, varieties which have their emblematic parallels no less than each
of the extreme moral positions.
148. Generally I speak of supercross
and star rather than of supercross and superstar, and
this is because, to my mind (which is finely attuned to the distinction between
devolutionary and evolutionary extremes ... as pertaining to alpha and omega
respectively), the contemporary star corresponds to alpha-in-the-omega as
opposed to alpha and is thus a more devolved type of star than cosmic stars,
which of course are primal, and hence 'super', in relation to their 'humanized'
lesser brothers, much as traditional absolute monarchs would appear 'super' in
relation to latter-day presidents, with their comparatively mundane and
constitutional status. Thus because I
see the primal star as 'super', it behoves me to regard the contemporary and,
in some sense, relative star in a more down-to-earth light, such that contrasts
with the absolute status of 'superstars'.
Likewise, the cross is morally relative in relation to the projected 'supercross' of my ideological integrity, since it
corresponds to omega-in-the-alpha as opposed to omega, and therefore is not
only more down-to-earth, and hence mundane, but weaker vis-à-vis the star,
since the star to which it forms an antithesis is less the contemporary star
(which, in any case, has overhauled it in a great many countries) than the
traditional, or primal, star, the 'superstar' of pagan precedent, and the Son
is forever enslaved to the Father. Such
enslavement will not apply, however, to the supercross
vis-à-vis the star; for the supercross is effectively
of the Holy Spirit, which is absolute, whereas the contemporary star, with its
tapering relativity, is of an antichristic 'Father'
(Marx) much less pure and certain of himself than the primal Father from which
worldly devolution sprang. This
contemporary star may have the appearance of great power, but its essence is
twisted, and the pure essence that will be brought to bear on it will have all
the potential for certainty of the ultimate absolute behind it, the omega
absolute which alone can overcome and eventually consign to the rubbish heap of
history all alpha-in-the-omega stars and their relatively immoral/amoral
autocratic offspring.
149. No less than we can distinguish between
centrifugal and centripetal attire, whether male or female, on the basis of a
naturalistic/artificial dichotomy, so a distinction can be drawn between those
who have sex in a horizontal position and those, by contrast, who have it
vertically, with corresponding correlations between the way a person dresses
and the most appropriate mode of heterosexual intercourse. In other words, not only will a certain type
of feminine or masculine attire - a dress, say, in the case of females and an
open-neck shirt in the case of males - be correlative, on a moral or
ideological basis, with either an horizontal or a vertical approach to sex
(depending whether a centrifugal or a centripetal bias is preponderant), but
each kind of correlative attire will have a corresponding type of intercourse,
as I hope to demonstrate in the following pages. Take, for example, short-sleeved open-neck
shirts and flounced dresses, the alpha kinds of masculine and feminine attire par
excellence. Not only am I prepared to
contend that a female in a flounced dress is more likely to be fancied or found
acceptable by a man in a short-sleeved open-collar shirt than by one in, say, a
T-shirt, but that only such a man is logically entitled to fancy
or find her acceptable, and that, being effectively autocratic, and hence
absolutist in a centrifugal way, he will be entitled and, indeed, morally
required to mount the woman in question from behind in a context of horizontal
copulation. For a man who regularly
dresses in such a fashion but either does not like or respond to women who wear
flounced dresses ... is sartorially illogical, and if, in addition to this, he
does not regularly mount women or, at any rate, his particular woman from
behind in a horizontal position, he is sexually illogical or, at the very
least, inconsistent. For that is
precisely the way in which a woman who dresses in a flounced dress should
be mounted, and logic compels me to affirm that the man most entitled to have
sex in such a way with such a woman is precisely the one who dresses in a
short-sleeved open-collar shirt. Thus,
strictly speaking, it could be argued that the man who doesn't dress in such a
manner but in some other more civilized fashion ... has absolutely no business
mounting a woman from behind, unless, of course, he happens to be more an
alpha-in-the-omega type than an alpha type of shirt-wearer, in which case his
long-sleeved open-collar shirt should logically dispose him to women in tapered
dresses who both require and deserve to be vertically mounted from behind, in
accordance with the more contemporary, and hence artificial, criteria of
alpha-in-the-omega. That said, I must
progress to the relativity of 'democratic' as opposed to 'autocratic'
heterosexual intercourse, where we are less concerned with the absolutism of
unidirectional copulation (stomach-to-back of male and female partners) than
with the relativity of bidirectional copulation (stomach-to-stomach of male and
female partners), and it is my firm contention that whereas women who dress in
flounced skirts should be mounted on a stomach-to-stomach basis by men who wear
cravats, those, by contrast, who wear tapered skirts deserve to be mounted in
an upright stomach-to-stomach posture by men whose sartorial norm is rather
more T-shirt under long-sleeved open-neck shirt. Conversely, it could be argued from a
positive amoral point-of-view that women who wear trousers (not jeans) should
be on top in a stomach-to-stomach heterosexual relativity, and on top of males
the collars of whose short-sleeved shirts will
normally be done-up at the neck, whereas women who wear cord jeans
deserve to be sexually assertive in an upright stomach-to-stomach posture with
males the collars of whose long-sleeved shirts are normally buttoned-up at the
neck, since such shirts, both in the naturalistic and artificial contexts, are
specifically neutral and effectively sexless.
150. However, from democratic relativity of both
right- and left-wing persuasions to far-left 'democratic' or, more correctly,
'anti-democratic' absolutism ... is but a logical step in both horizontal
(traditional) and vertical (contemporary) contexts, with women in slacks or
otherwise tight-fitting trousers requiring, in the logical unfolding of my
thesis, to be horizontally penetrated from behind in a stomach-to-back heterosexual
relationship in which the male is underneath and the female on top, the latter
of whom will be more sexually assertive within the necessarily indeterminate
(and possibly anal-biased) context of this extreme mode of heterosexual
copulation, a mode for which males who dress in gown-like collarless shirts
would logically seem to be the most appropriate sartorial candidates. However that may be, the vertical equivalent
of this inevitably pertains not to omega-in-the-alpha, as with the foregoing
extreme, but to the omega of heterosexual relations, and would suggest the
likelihood that the female will be sitting on the male and effectively being
penetrated from behind or, rather, underneath in a stomach-to-back vertical
relationship in which, once again, sexual indeterminacy (with a possible bias
towards anal penetration) is the prevailing norm, a norm expressly suited to
females who wear tight-fitting denims and to males whose sartorial norm happens
to be a T-shirt. (I limit myself to
denims and T-shirts because, quite frankly, they have a bodily correspondence
and are thus suitable for extreme heterosexual activity, whereas leather pants
and muscle shirts, PVC pants and vests, are ideologically more extreme and
therefore implicitly transcend, on their respective ideological terms, the
heterosexual contexts of bodily sex.)
Now if my overall theories are correct, then it must follow that a
person's usual mode of dressing will correlate, as I have endeavoured to show,
with a particular mode of sexuality or approach to heterosexual relations, and
that as a person dresses ... so can he/she fuck/be fucked. It would be as illogical for a woman who
wears a flounced dress to object to being horizontally penetrated from behind (in
predatory fashion) by a male whose sartorial norm is a short-sleeved open-neck
shirt ... as for such a male not to approach
sex from an autocratic, and hence absolutist, point of view. Indeed, it would be no less illogical, and
perhaps even more so, for people whose sartorial norms were markedly different
from the above to approach or demand sex from that autocratic point of view,
one which, judged from the omega, is absolutely immoral in the naturalistic, or
centrifugal, context, and relatively immoral in the artificial, or centripetal,
context, as between monarchic and presidential extremes ... in psychologies
conditioned by the old brain and the new brain respectively. A truly omega-oriented man will no more be
capable of penetrating a woman from behind, in predatory fashion, than of either
fancying a woman in a dress (flounced or tapered) or dressing in an open-collar
shirt. He will have his own
closed-society moral integrity and stick by it, come
what may!
151. For most people, life
is either hell or purgatory during the day (depending on whether they are
employed by others or self-employed), and either the world or heaven at night
(depending on whether they are playing with another's body or with their mind).
152. With regard to the T-like design of Truth
(which we shall continue to hold in imagination throughout the following
entries), it seems to me that newspapers can broadly be classified as bodily in
relation to magazines, so that they effectively pertain to the foot of the
design in question rather than to its head, and can thus be regarded as of the
World ... as opposed to the diabolic-purgatorial-divine options above it. Newspapers, then, are the wordy 'darkness'
under the photographic 'light' of magazines.
The 'Virgin' under the 'Trinity', and are divisible into three basic categories,
viz. a large quality middle-ground, a tabloid right wing, and a small quality
left wing, much as we earlier distinguished between cars on the basis of a
four-seater middle ground, an open-topped two-seater
right wing, and an enclosed two-seater left wing. For it seems to me that a correlation can be
inferred to exist between large quality newspapers and four-seater
cars, tabloids and open-topped two-seaters, and small quality newspapers and
enclosed two-seaters, with similar political or moral implications in each
case, that is to say, with regard to the broadly amoral, worldly nature of cars
and newspapers, and their subdivisions into relatively immoral and moral
extremes. However, from the relative
immorality (within the broadly amoral framework) of open-topped two-seaters and
tabloids to the absolute immorality of scooters and photographic magazines is
no less a step backwards and upwards into Fascism ... than the absolute
morality of motorbikes and textural magazines is a step forwards and upwards
into Communism from the relative morality (within the broadly amoral framework)
of enclosed two-seaters and small quality newspapers, since newspapers are
flanked by magazines of one kind or another no less than cars by scooters and
motorbikes, i.e. two-wheeled vehicles of one kind or another, both of which
extremes (and the magazine ones as well) are of the 'head' rather than of the
'body'. In fact, being of the 'head' as
opposed to the 'body', it could be said of magazines no less than of scooters and
motorbikes that they are 'masculine' rather than 'feminine' phenomena, albeit
on diametrically antithetical terms, as between autocratic and theocratic
extremes.
153. However that may be, we can no more omit the
'democratic' middle-ground in between the 'head' extremes than we can omit
Christ from the Blessed Trinity, and in relation to magazines the type of
magazine which most seems to accord with such an existence will be the one
finely balanced between photographic and textural extremes in such a way as to
suggest an analogue with a moped, the type of 'head' mode of two-wheeled road
transportation which holds a parallel position, philosophically speaking, in
between the centrifugal and centripetal extremes of scooters and motorbikes
respectively, and which may therefore be regarded as pertaining to the upper
pole of the vertical bar of our T-like design in a sort of Christic
or purgatorial antithesis to its lower pole which, taking the form of cars (and
especially four-seaters in the strictly neutron middle-ground),
has a worldly, and hence bodily, status commensurate with the Blessed
Virgin. Indeed, no less than Christ
arose from the Virgin, as Son from Mother, so certain magazines of the type we
are discussing 'arise' from and gain popularity in conjunction with newspapers,
particularly those of the large quality middle-ground, and it will be these
above all others which most accord, it seems to me, with the kind of 'head'
amorality (in between proton and electron extremes, as opposed to within a neutron
context which may lean in either a proton or an electron direction, as it were,
depending on whether right- or left-wing bodily options are at issue) under
consideration in this entry.
154. Now that I have written the above, I find that
whilst I am relatively happy with the notion of certain types of magazine
'arising from' and being published in conjunction with large quality
newspapers, not to mention Christ from the 'Mother of God', I find that I am
less happy with the notion, say, of mopeds 'arising from' cars, which is the
implication of our current analogue.
Quite frankly, mopeds are rarely sold in conjunction with cars, and if
they could be said to have arisen from anywhere ... it would surely have to be
from bicycles, which would therefore be the mode of road transportation that
ties-in not only with mopeds above but, no less importantly, with scooters and
motorbikes as well, given that they are all two-wheeled vehicles. In which case, we would have to substitute
bicycles for cars and accord them a more exact parallel with newspapers,
dividing bicycles, like cars, into three broad categories, viz. tourers, racers, and tracksters,
with touring bikes in the strictly cycling middle-ground position, racing bikes
in the right-wing position (analogous to tabloids), and track bikes in the
left-wing position (analogous to small quality newspapers), and this on account
of the fact that whereas racing bikes suggest a centrifugal bias ... relative
to their large wheels and low curved handlebars, track bikes, by contrast,
suggest a centripetal one ... relative to their more compact wheels and high,
gently curving handlebars - the former emphasizing a horizontally-biased riding
posture and the latter a vertically-biased one, as germane to centrifugal and
centripetal alternatives. Well, if our
new theory is more credible than the one concerning cars in this context, then
newspapers and bicycles would form a parallel analogue no less than
scooters-mopeds-motorbikes and magazines of one type of another, an analogue
applicable to our T-like design and having the political and moral implications
already discussed. Now in this regard,
we could no more equate newspapers with cars than, say, books with bicycles,
assuming that a similar parallel may be inferred to exist between books and
cars as we now argue exists between newspapers and bicycles. But what kind of books? And should the division between paperbacks
and hardbacks be regarded as paralleling the division between newspapers and
magazines, or would that be an oversimplification? Are there, in fact, 'bodily' paperbacks no
less than 'head' hardbacks, and does the size of a book determine its status as
either 'bodily' or of the 'head', quite apart from the presence or absence of
photographs and the ratio of words to pictures, or vice versa? Doubtless some of these questions could be
answered in the affirmative, and I, for one, have no trouble in equating word
books with the 'body' and picture books with the 'head', although the ratio of
words to pictures, or vice versa, will vary according to whether we are
describing the 'fascist' Far Right or the 'communist' Far Left, not to mention
some in-between compromise between words and pictures which may well signify a
sort of 'anarchist' middle-ground head position over the bodily 'liberalism' of
the textual middle-ground, a middle ground that, like newspapers, is no less
divisible into relative left- and right-wing positions (as described elsewhere)
either side of itself, so that an analogue with two-seater cars of one kind or
another can be inferred which, however approximate, will do relative justice to
the statically amoral nature of the context in question. Certainly hardbacks can have just as many or
as few pictures as paperbacks, so that we can no more limit pictures, say, to
paperbacks than photos to magazines, bearing in mind the photographic bias of
the tabloid press. In general, however,
it will be found that the more photographic and the less textual, the more
effectively right wing the publication, and if pictorial hardbacks are extreme
right wing, and hence fascistic, then pictorial paperbacks (analogous to
tabloids) will be relatively right wing, and hence Conservative or Low
Tory. For it seems to me that large hardbacks
and magazines are just as parallel in their respective contexts ... as
paperbacks and newspapers in theirs, with the implication that whereas the
former are by and large of the 'head', the latter are 'bodily', and that an
analogue between large hardbacks of one kind or another and vans would no more
be out-of-place, in this context, than the one between magazines and
scooters-mopeds-motorbikes in the other, whilst a parallel analogue between
paperbacks and cars of one kind or another would no more be out-of-place here
than that between newspapers and bicycles, as already discussed.
155. But if hardbacks and vans are no less parallel
than paperbacks and cars, we have only to decide upon the respective types of
hardbacks and vans, or paperbacks and cars, to have a credible argument to
place alongside the one concerning the respective kinds of newspapers/magazines
in their relation to two-wheeled modes of road transportation. Now, in this regard, it seems to me that
open-topped vans will be extreme Right in contrast to enclosed vans, whereas vans
or, rather, Land Rovers will be the 'head' middle-ground in between the van
extremes, and therefore signify a sort of dynamic amoral phenomenon that could
be said to have 'arisen from' four-seater cars no
less than, say, mopeds from touring bikes or the Sunday magazine from its
quality newspaper. At any rate, I have
no doubt that Land Rovers are to cars in general what mopeds are to bicycles,
and that the type of hardback which parallels this will be finely balanced
between the fascistic and communistic extremes of pictorial and textual
alternatives, much as the paperback directly beneath it in the worldly
middle-ground of a 'Catholic' softness will be finely balanced between the same
extremes within the more relative context of a 'bodily' amorality, one
paralleling that of newspapers vis-à-vis the magazine 'head'.
156. Having distinguished between
newspapers/magazines and paperbacks/hardbacks on the above T-like basis, it
behoves us to ask the question: What are the relative metaphysical, or
elemental, standings of the two contexts, and do they pertain to the old brain
or to the new brain or, indeed, to a combination of both? Taking the second part of this question
first, it could be argued that books, being historically older than
newspapers/magazines, pertain to the old brain and are thus effectively
naturalistic or traditional vis-à-vis the artificial or contemporary status of
newspapers/magazines. But this would be
a rather facile argument, in view of the fact that neither the one nor the
other context is ultimate, since both contexts have been superseded by
radio/television and computers which, so I shall argue, are germane to the new
brain rather than to the old one.
Therefore it seems to me that both contexts are essentially pertinent to
the old brain and thus naturalistic or traditional, as opposed to artificial or
contemporary. The only difference
between them is that whereas newspapers/magazines, being journalistic, are
collective and intensive (informative), paperbacks/hardbacks, being literary,
are individualistic and extensive (narrative), with the implication of a
particle/wavicle dichotomy between the two
contexts. Hence the paperback/hardback
context is morally superior to the newspaper/magazine one, and on the basis of
a world/heaven or earth/air as opposed to a purgatory/hell or water/fire
polarity, since the paperback/hardback T-like distinctions pertain to realistic
and idealistic wavicles, while the newspaper/magazine
T-like distinctions pertain to materialistic and naturalistic particles, as
befitting the respective natures, for example, of literature and
journalism. To descend from the abstract
metaphysical realm to the concrete physical realm, it could be said that if one
finds the idea of a woman reading a book, particularly a paperback, easier to
accommodate than that of one reading a newspaper, it is probably because the
former is effectively more germane to the feminine than the latter, even if, in
its own context, the newspaper is also worldly and therefore germane to the feminine,
albeit in a particle and, hence, fallen sort of way, such that would appeal
more to Liberals than to Catholics.
157. However that may be, I have no doubt that while
the paperback/hardback context is inherently superior to the newspaper/magazine
one, both alike are of the old brain and therefore naturalistic in relation to
the more contemporary contexts of radio/television and computers, which are
their new-brain counterparts, and counterparts which, likewise, can be divided,
from one another, on a T-like basis - in other words, with a sort of worldly
and, hence, 'bodily' middle-ground (analogous to the Blessed Virgin) and a
diabolic-purgatorial-divine trinity (analogous to the Blessed Trinity) of
competing 'head' alternatives above it.
Taking the radio/television context first, I should like to argue that
radio pertains to the 'bodily' middle-ground in a sort of new-brain parallel to
paperbacks, whereas the 'head' trinity above will be represented by
video-television-teletext (in that order), given the
more apparent (action-packed) nature of video in relation to the essential
(textual) nature of teletext; television itself being
a sort of pictorial/textual and/or verbal compromise in between the two visual
extremes. Of course, the 'bodily'
middle-ground down below is also, as with paperbacks, relatively divisible into
three alternatives, albeit more in terms of an audiovisual appendage
(right-wing apparent) and an audio-tape appendage (left-wing essential) to
radio in a sort of midi or cassette-recorder context than in regard to the
actual radio itself, even given intrinsic distinctions between, say, sports
commentary and news bulletins. For while
such programme distinctions are not without significance in this respect, the
crucial distinction is not the content but the way in which it is conveyed,
i.e. through pictures, words alone, or a combination of both, and this applies
no less to the 'head' media above than to the 'bodily' medium in question. Even satellite television is less an omega
equivalent (of the Holy Ghost) than a higher type of 'head'-level
middle-ground, analogous, one could argue, to a sort of resurrectional
purgatory above conventional television.
158. However, in turning from the radio/television
context to the computer context, we shall find it convenient to draw similar
distinctions between a 'head' trinity and a 'bodily' middle-ground underneath,
and if I am not seriously mistaken then the trinity, to reverse the order this
time, will be represented by games computers at the pictorial alpha, word
processors at the textual omega, and graphics/textual computers in the
purgatorial, or Christic, middle-ground, whereas in
the 'bodily' middle-ground underneath we shall find microfilm machines, which,
in their ability to store and present data, whether graphic or textual,
resemble computers without actually having their memory facilities ... as
germane to the 'brain'. Thus it is my
contention that microfilm machines are to computers what, on this same
new-brain level, radios are to televisions, and what, on the old-brain level
paralleling it, newspapers are to magazines - namely, the feminine
middle-ground under a trinity of masculine 'divinities' stretching (relative to
its own specific context) from alpha to omega via a purgatorial compromise
coming in between. Now just as we argued
that paperbacks/hardbacks were metaphysically superior to newspapers/magazines,
so it can be argued that the radio/television context is metaphysically
superior to the microfilm/computer one, since the former is more susceptible to
a narrative continuum, as germane to film, whereas the latter is usually
designed to accommodate a number of unrelated documents or programmes which, in
their respective brevities, are fundamentally more 'journalistic' than 'literary',
and thus, like newspapers/magazines, more suited to business than to the
arts. It is not for nothing that
computers are generally regarded as 'business machines', whereas, despite its
capacity for serious content, we tend to regard television primarily as a
source of entertainment.
159. Now that I have sorted out the relative
metaphysical and physical standings of all four contexts under discussion,
beginning with paperbacks/hardbacks and newspapers/magazines, and proceeding to
radio/television and microfilm/computers, I am no longer any more free to draw
analogies between, say, newspapers and bicycles than between paperbacks and
cars, for the simple reason that analogies involving naturalistic and
artificial phenomena are no more strictly correlative than would be those
between, say, television and carts or computers and horses. Clearly, if newspapers/magazines and
paperbacks/hardbacks are respectively old-brain naturalistic phenomena in
relation to microfilm/computers and radio/television, whereas bicycles/motorbikes
and cars/vans are respectively new-brain artificial phenomena in relation to
ponies/horses and carriages/carts, then we can no more correlate newspapers
with bicycles than, say, computers with horses.
Old-brain equivalents should be correlated with old-brain equivalents
and new-brain equivalents with new-brain equivalents; else we shall find
ourselves at cross-purposes in a world torn between naturalistic and artificial
criteria. Obviously, if cars/vans are
artificial in relation to carriages/carts, then cars/vans will pertain to the
new brain no less than carriages/carts to the old one, and we shall have to
correlate the former with radio/television and the latter with
paperbacks/hardbacks. Likewise, if
bicycles/motorbikes (or, more fully, bicycles/scooters-mopeds-motorbikes) are
artificial in relation to, say, ponies/horses (or, more fully,
ponies/donkeys-mules-horses), then bicycles/motorbikes will pertain to the new
brain no less than ponies/horses to the old one, and we shall have to correlate
the former with microfilm/computers and the latter with
newspapers/magazines. Too bad if, in
doing so, one finds that the correlations arrived at are not as flattering to
one's sense of personal integrity or impersonal history as one would have
liked! For instance, that
paperbacks/hardbacks are acceptable to one but not carriages/carts, or that
newspapers/magazines have a part in one's life but horsy quadrupeds don't. It is only with the help of logically
credible correlations of this nature that the true status or worth of
paperbacks/hardbacks and newspapers/magazines can be gauged, since they are
effectively on the level of carriages/carts and ponies/horses respectively, and
anyone who prefers four-wheeled mechanical vehicles to their horse-drawn
counterparts, or two-wheeled mechanical vehicles to horsy quadrupeds, should
logically prefer televisions to hardbacks and computers to magazines ... if he
is not to confound the artificial with the naturalistic and thereby remain at
cross-purposes with himself in an open-society chaos of old- and new-brain
alternatives.
160. Logic does not come easy, as my work should
amply demonstrate, but it is possible to be logically consistent and to live
one's life accordingly, and that, after all, is the test of true greatness, or
perhaps I should say philosophical togetherness. If my work helps people to become more
logically consistent in both their thinking and their
living, then it won't have been entirely in vain! Whether they are naturalists and newspaper/magazine
readers or realists and paperback/hardback readers, materialists and
microfilm/computer users or idealists and radio/television addicts, or indeed
whether, in addition to all of this, they are fiery quadruped riders or earthy
carriage/cart drivers, watery riders of two-wheeled mechanical vehicles or airy
drivers of four-wheeled mechanical vehicles, they should hopefully become more
adept in the art of drawing credible correlations between one subject and
another, and acquire a deeper understanding of themselves in consequence!
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