ALTERNATIVE SALUTES

1. It could - and I believe should - be argued that a connection exists between saluting, or the mode of formally greeting others, and ideology and/or culture, since distinctions between objective and subjective kinds of salute indubitably exist, and on the basis, so I shall contend, of open-hand vis-à-vis clenched-fist, as between female expressiveness and/or compressiveness and male depressiveness and/or impressiveness.

2. Hence there would seem to be a sense in which open-hand saluting, like the slapping of a face, is of a female bias, but clenched-fist saluting, like the throwing of a punch, is of a male bias - the former objective and the latter subjective.

3. It could also be argued that saluting extends from mass and volume 'down below' on the phenomenal planes to time and space 'up above' on the noumenal ones, so that there is a specific salute for each plane, as indeed for the elements of which axes are formed when two planes are diagonally bisected in either devolutionary (if objective) or evolutionary (if subjective) terms.

4. Hence the metachemical axis of space-time devolution, being objective, would require an open-hand salute peculiar to itself, as, indeed, would the chemical axis of volume-mass devolution, albeit on terms characteristic of either of the contending planes in each axis.

5. Conversely, the physical axis of mass-volume evolution, being subjective, would require a clenched-fist salute peculiar to itself, as, indeed, would the metaphysical axis of time-space evolution, albeit on terms characteristic of either of the contending planes in each axis.

6. Thus there would in effect be four types of saluting on each side of the gender fence, so to speak, as metachemistry descended from space to time and chemistry from volume to mass on the objective side of the elemental divide, and, conversely, as physics ascended from mass to volume and metaphysics from time to space on its subjective side.

7. Since things objective are libertarian and things subjective conservative, it follows that open-hand salutes, whatever their plane or axis, will be libertarian, and hence left wing, the wing of (diabolic) fire and (feminine) water, whereas clenched-fist salutes, being subjective, will be conservative, and hence right wing, the wing of (masculine) vegetation and (divine) air.

8. Since mass, volume, time, and space are not on the same level but reflective of different planes, two of which are phenomenal and the other two noumenal, it follows that saluting associated with mass, the bottom plane, will be 'chest low', so to speak; that saluting associated with volume, the next-to-bottom plane, will be 'head low'; that saluting associated with time, the next-to-top plane, will be 'bent-arm high', so to speak; and that saluting associated with space, the top plane, will be 'raised-arm high', and this whether with regard, on all axes, to objective or to subjective orientations.

9. Hence the metachemical axis of space-time devolution would descend from an open-hand raised-arm salute in spatial space to an open-hand bent-arm salute in repetitive time, as from photon sensuality to photino sensibility, eyes to heart, in extreme left-wing libertarianism.

10. Hence the chemical axis of volume-mass devolution would descend from an open-hand arm-to-head salute in volumetric volume to an open-hand arm-to-chest salute in massed mass, as from electron and/or positron sensuality to electrino and/or positrino sensibility, tongue to womb, in moderate left-wing libertarianism.

11. Hence the physical axis of mass-volume evolution would ascend from a clenched-fist arm-to-chest salute in massive mass to a clenched-fist arm-to-head salute in voluminous volume, as from neutron and/or deuteron sensuality to neutrino and/or deuterino sensibility, phallus to brain, in moderate right-wing conservatism.

12. Hence the metaphysical axis of time-space evolution would ascend from a clenched-fist bent-arm salute in sequential time to a clenched-fist raised-arm salute in spaced space, as from proton sensuality to protino sensibility, ears to lungs, in extreme right-wing conservatism.

13. Of course, in addition to objective and subjective, libertarian and conservative alternatives on each plane, it is necessary to consider the particle/wavicle distinctions which arguably signify whether a given salute is either scientifically and/or politically based/centred in the one case or economically and/or religiously centred/based in the other case, since the angle of the hand (if open) or of the fist (if clenched) to the arm generally is of crucial significance, it seems to me, in enabling one to determine the disciplinary intent or allegiance of the salute in question, be it metachemical, chemical, physical, or metaphysical.

14. There is no doubt in my mind that when the hand and/or fist, depending on the context, is parallel with the upper arm one has a scientific and/or political association, as germane to a particle-based orientation, but that when the hand and/or fist is at right-angles to the upper arm, i.e. has been twisted to the right, then one can construe an economic and/or religious association, as germane to a wavicle-centred orientation.

15. The hand and/or fist held parallel to the arm in noumenal contexts is more likely to reflect a scientific than a political bias, bearing in mind that science has a noumenal (metachemical) per se, whereas the hand and/or fist held parallel to the arm in phenomenal contexts is more likely to reflect a political than a scientific bias, bearing in mind that politics has a phenomenal (chemical) per se.

16. The hand and/or fist held at right-angles to the arm in phenomenal contexts is more likely to reflect an economic than a religious bias, bearing in mind that economics has a phenomenal (physical) per se, whereas the hand and/or fist held at right-angles to the arm in noumenal contexts is more likely to reflect a religious than an economic bias, bearing in mind that religion has a noumenal (metaphysical) per se.

17. Thus the hand held parallel to the arm in noumenal contexts is almost bound to signify a scientific connection, in contrast to the religious connection being signified by a fist held at right-angles to the arm in such contexts.

18. Thus a hand held parallel to the arm in phenomenal contexts is almost bound to signify a political connection, in contrast to the economic connection being signified by a fist held at right-angles to the arm in such contexts.

19. A fist held parallel with the arm in noumenal contexts will also signify a scientific connection, albeit on secondary (metaphysical) rather than primary (metachemical) terms, whilst a hand held at right-angles to the body in such contexts will signify a secondary (metachemical) order of religion.

20. A hand held at right-angles to the arm in phenomenal contexts will also signify an economic connection, albeit on secondary (chemical) rather than primary (physical) terms, whilst a fist held parallel with the arm in such contexts will signify a secondary (physical) order of politics.

21. As things proceed from sensuality to sensibility, the outer to the inner, so they gradually change from centrifugal to centripetal, and therefore it must follow that this will be reflected, to varying extents, in the angle or placement of the arm in relation to the body, particularly in the noumenal contexts of space-time devolution and of time-space evolution, where the centrifugal/centripetal dichotomy is more extreme.

22. Hence 'sensual saluting' will be looser, as a rule, than its sensible counterpart, wherein the arm, whether bent or raised, will be closer to the body and more reflective, in consequence, of centripetal tendencies, whether objectively, in libertarianism, or subjectively, in conservativism.

23. Just as materialism is the negative mode of extreme left-wing libertarianism, so fundamentalism is its positive mode, a mode descending through space-time devolution from open-hand raised-arm saluting to open-hand bent-arm saluting.

24. Just as realism is the negative mode of moderate left-wing libertarianism, so nonconformism is its positive mode, a mode descending through volume-mass devolution from open-hand arm-to-head saluting to open-hand arm-to-chest saluting.

25. Just as naturalism is the negative mode of moderate right-wing conservatism, so humanism is its positive mode, a mode ascending through mass-volume evolution from clenched-fist arm-to-chest saluting to clenched-fist arm-to-head saluting.

26. Just as idealism is the negative mode of extreme right-wing conservatism, so transcendentalism is its positive mode, a mode ascending through time-space evolution from clenched-fist bent-arm saluting to clenched-fist raised-arm saluting.

27. Should a further distinction exist between 'negative saluting' and 'positive saluting', as between primacy and supremacy in both sensual and sensible contexts, then I fancy that the former will be less angled than the latter, making for a more horizontal or less elevated overall impression.

28. Such 'negative saluting' would accord not with a supreme precondition rooted and/or centred in the organic, but with a primal precondition rooted and/or centred in the inorganic, such that suggested a stellar-to-Venusian axis for metachemical primacy, a lunar-to-oceanic axis for chemical primacy, a terrestrial-to-Martian axis for physical primacy, and a solar-to-Saturnian axis for metaphysical primacy.