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@@ -0,0 +1,269 @@ +\chapter{} + +Let's backtrack to wherever it is that +the Origins of Western Civilization are reinvented and then go forward to try a little +progressive meta-history of this most modern of organisms. Greece, a tiny time-slice +inserted far down, towards the beginning of +the ascent-trajectory of western Man. Our +art, philosophy, logic are said to begin here. +What if all memory of Greece were erased? + +All countries, cultures and religions secrete, value and store up selective histories +and mythologies to legitimate themselves. +What do Europe and America consider themselves to be without this passing nod to Greek +origins? Even Hitler's and Mussolini's regimes featured Greek-derived iconography. +To make these histories, an amalgam of +events, myths, legends, folk tales, sagas, +religious deeds, epics (to say nothing of vast +storehouses of paper, as well as appropriate +mnemonic architecture and monuments) +were collated. Thus a quasi-arbitrary sequence is created, one linking events into +causal chains in order to create the feel of +mystical inevitability, celebrating the everconstant triumph of the present. Mistakes or +horrors are leached out or are considered to +be the price one pays for progress. Continuity, progress, history is a smoothing out +of the sudden, the disruptive, the violent, the +random and unaccounted-for. Even the most +rationalistic sequences must include the cultural, for logic too is a \emph{culture}. + +The building up of Western Civilization is +a story of grand strides toward unity, yet +requiring breakdowns and fragmentation of +old formations: that is to say, re-feudalization before new reorganization (note the +re-feudalization of AT\&T). This totalizing +sequence constitutes a grand myth --- given +an ascendant trajectory which will avoid +breakdowns --- called progress or sometimes +evolution --- beginning in the past few hundred years when some percieved that the +industrial revolution had to rewrite the old +myths into new ones, forever ending circles +and cycles and introducing exponential +curves reaching into the empyrean (sometimes called space). To question this accretion at any point is to disrupt the spell the Grand Ascent has over us. + +It may be argued that certain events were +chosen arbitrarily; an association of ideas +about event sequences, which happen to +have --- we have not accounted for pure invention --- operated in a certain temporal sequence, not nescessarily in a cause-effect +line. A politico-mythico-Lockian mnemonic. +Ultimately G\"{o}del makes the point that the +linking of all logical steps depends on an act +of faith, just as the assignment of meaning to +a pool of securities is an act of faith. + +We can follow some of the many arbitrary +feeder streams that empty into this ocean of +Western Culture. Oedipus, for example, is +not merely a Greek play about a hubris-ridden, stubborn figure, one prototypical +individual, blinded and suffering. It is the +story of the restoration of balanced ethical +and divine budgets. The tale is also about a +power struggle, a plot in the face of an +environmental disaster: medical (plague), +economic +(starvation), genetic (dynastic legitimation: though it is not specifically mentioned as such, genetic information as fate --- +as explained by the retroactive prophecy +delivered by Delphi --- are intertwined), and +demographic catastrophe (sterility in women +and potential population decline). The tale +is also about an information-search (among +other things for genetic origins). Who passed +ownership and title on to whom and how, +based on breeding lines of descent, a story of +false and contaminated claimants. It is about +the relationship of genetic purity to rulership, property, the laws that define those +relationships, the rules of mating. The health +of the nation is at stake. + +Usually this play is interpreted for us as a +moral, psychological and sexual tragedy (incest). Freud led us in the wrong direction, +positing the erotic rather than the reproductive consequence, falling into a trap set by +the old Hebrews and Christians. Lust, especially incest, leads to death. But then, we +may ask, what did Freud know about life? +What little he did know, he lied about. + +Genes, contaminated by \emph{deeds} (acquired +characteristics, or fate?), the inadvertant sin +of Oedipus and Jocasta have brought together +the wrong genes, illegitimately. The sins of +the rulers, or putative founders of this kingdom of Thebes (the information) contaminates the body politic, its well being, its +health, and affects all nature. Did the Greeks +know about genetics? No, but they were +obsessed with plant and animal breeding +and dynastic breeding strategies. The forced +comparison between human activity and +nature's response is interpreted in a magical +way and skews human behavior. (That the +play is also Athenian propaganda against +Thebes and Delphi is another story in itself.) +If the thought of the pre-Socratics, Socrates, +Plato and Aristotle go into modern rational +thought, why not these tales, which are +\emph{logical} constructs disguised as dreamlike +tales of scandals. + +Another take: Helen of Troy gives birth to +the Hellenes. We can now understand one of +the reasons for the furor over Troy. Only +Helen can give birth to the Hellenes and +she---or the symbolic and real reproductive +apparatus inside her beautiful body---has +been stolen. Helen, mythic figure, like a +queen ant or bee, is a collective emanation. +As a carrier of a certain nation or race-spawning mechanism, +she is, from an information-perspective, also collective. \booktitle{The +Iliad} concerns a conflict of ethnicities, a +polarity called Asia vs. Europe, an East-West +struggle for the control of trading routes to +the profitable Scythian hinterland. The war +is used as a means of uniting diverse tribes +into one mega-ethnicity. The first Grand +Alliance, the first NATO-like Allies. These +themes are summoned up again during the +East-West war against the Persians. The Iliad +includes a brilliant, albeit indirect, essay on +set-theory disguised as a list of tribes. The +Hellenes are the set of all Hellenic sets: a +genome of a corporate body called a race. + +The Old Testament can be seen as a set of +linked stories and myths about the Hebraic +relationship to God's Design (covenant, contract, law ... rules of the game, more honored in the breach than the observation), a +history of dynastic continuities; rules for the +preservation of the Hebrew genepool and its +royal subsets: the living propagation of +God's word, or perhaps the Word made into +code...God provides the operating system; +the Hebrews write the software). The Design +has rules for mating, accretion of power, and +how to transmit \emph{informational} treasure (\emph{The +Talmud}). The Old Testament is also a meditation on the rules of economic behavior, +negotiation of conflicts, law, contracts, politics, nations. + +These notions of a nation encompasses a +genetic mystique. An ethnicity contains the +idea of birth from a set of primal founders, all +of whose descendants have shares in a commonality of genes and are related. + +Implicit in the Old Testament and Judaic +law (and fulfilled in Kaballa) is a sort of +evolutionary trajectory along a linear path. +The history of Jews, unlike the history of +\enquote{primitives} is not cyclical except in the +longest sense. Gratification and fulfillment +are deferred. The Hebrews introduce the +notion of the long-range trajectory, completed +by the coming of the Grand Recombinatorial +and debt-redeeming wizard, The Messiah. +This Messiah will reunite the scattered +Hebrews (for how can they mate if they are +far apart?). And \emph{this} Messiah is only for the +Jews, only for \emph{one} genepool, no one else. +Kaballistic lore, a heretical meditation +on the same long-range cycle, is a wave with +only one fall and rise, spread throughout the +universe. The Messiah becomes a way of +reuniting, reconcentrating the power that +the disaspora fragmented, a kind of ultimate +meta-history of mergers. + +Still another event: What strategy did +Joseph use to monopolize Egypt's grain production for the Pharoah? Prophecy, dream +interpretation, fear, land-reform, expropriation of commodities, rationalization of production (a kind of early, political, state-run +agribusiness), storage facilities, new gathering techniques. Clearly Joseph must have +used some form of accounting and econometric projection to affect a grand, structural +and political change. His interpretation of +Pharoah's dream is risk-analysis. Not only +did Joseph change the environment around +him, but his thought radiates down through +the ages and affects agribusiness today. The +short-range, forced march collectivization in +the Soviet Union, the long range \enquote{collectivization} and concentration into agribusiness +in the U.S. (using genetic cropping strategies), use the same pattern. Maybe we should +call Jung's idea the collectivized memory. + +Up to the New Testament, the Hebrews are +heterosexual. The Jews \enquote{give birth} to the +Christians, or that's the way we tell the story. +God uses Mary as a child-producing\slash nurturing vehicle (expropriating variant tales out +of the past). Here is a departure into androgeny: self-replication, an ancient, sinful +theme, for this is what Lucifer did too. Incest? Autocest? Autogamy? Or is God a +wierd insect? New rules for sexual mating +enter the picture and implicitly alters the relationship of dynasty to property. By proslytyzing \emph{all}, not only Jews, the nation, the +ethnicity dissolves and becomes a sort of +corporation: shares in redemption are open +to all. The Messiah will redeem \emph{all} debt. The +Old Testament is endogamic: the New Testament is exogamic. + +Historiography is expressed as reproduction, human continuity with attendant \enquote{qualities}; genetics as myth. But does the myth enter into the genetics of the present, +as many scientists turn back to what was religion and magic in the past? (One may pour +enormous resources into a project and use +scientific techniques in pursuit of magical +aims.) The Christian God's experiment enthralls the moderns and they try to replicate +it, using the Holy Spirit to fertilize a laboratory vagina. + +Genetics and the right to rule, to own +property, come for the Romans at a time +when both myth and documentation exist +side by side inside the dynasty-obsessed +empire. The Empire funds the history of its +own origins, a vast, dynastic myth called +\booktitle{The Aeniad}, which traces the ancestry of the +Romans to the Trojans, not the Greeks. + +For the Christians and the Romans, these +tales explain discontinuity while maintaining continuity. The new birth stories insure +discontinuity between the Romans and the +Greeks. In the same sense, Jesus is not only +divine, but a Jew and not a Jew. Aeneas is a +Greek, but not a Greek. + +At time's end, the Christians promise -- +theme and variation -- Resurrection and redemption of all believers (investors). They +will bring to material life the dead and +dissolved who remain as memories. But how +is this Ressurection to be accomplished? +Will there be an information-search for the +dissolved and scattered, the transformed, +decayed human material of the world, and +then a sort of reconstruction, a retro-combination? Clearly, the parts, the very atoms, +have memory addresses. Or are the \emph{memory} +elements to be reinfused into dust, and that +dust brought to life, as the Kaballists claimed +to be able to do? Or are the memory elements +inserted in machines? No matter. The point +is that the \emph{thinking} behind these tales descends to us. (Of another transubstantiation +myth which has to do with capital itself, more later.) + +These political and social materials, this +kind of thought, woven back into the whole +traditional memory-corpus of dramatic, fictional, religious works, permits us to see that +a trans-disciplinary +whole operated even +in the ancient past, albeit using coded languages. These were preserved, by some, with +consequences for the present. On the other +hand, what was selectively forgotten and +buried? We never get to hear the peasant's +side of the story in the Joseph tale. The +oppressed have no dynastic history. The +concreteness, the mundanity of the past, has +been generalized, its particularity eroded, +just like the start-up equity put into a corpoation. The information of the past shapes +the information processing of the present. + +The econometric predictions of this present (think of the Russian-American wheat +deal of 1972-73, the decision to corner the +grain market, extensive planning) uses, with +minor variation, the Josephian scenario. In +fact, to tell the story again, the disaster +Joseph predicted was not a disaster of underproduction, but too many years of overproduction, with attendant deressed prices, requiring either a famine to be manufactured, +or at least an \emph{informational} famine created +by cornering the market, leading to real +hunger. Prices? Is this really in \booktitle{The Bible}? +Joseph, after all, as Pharoah's agent, sold the +surplus grain on the world market during a +world famine. New discourses inserted back +into past events disrupt the holiness of the +memory time-series, and question the legitimacy of modern thought-buildup, indeed, +the legitimacy of all present-based\slash obsessed-with-past, the soft cause-effect linkages built +into history. + |