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@@ -0,0 +1,246 @@ +\chapter{} + +Why raise these questions? To challenge +an obsessional mode of thought which annunciates itself as new and seems to become +more rational every day, but which is a +capital intensive, ghost-haunted complex, +stealing thought and memory away to hoard +it. To attack a long and endless, even boring +set of preoccupations; theme and variation +on a few original musical phrases; a casting +out, an obliteration of cacaphonies. But do +the original themes tell us anything of real +social behavior of the message-senders, the +people who generated them? Can we really +seperate passion from ideas? Even the ambition to succeed can distort ideas. After all, +how do the preoccupations and passions (to +say nothing of the confrontation with, or the +bowing to power) enter the idea-stream? +After all, people have killed one another to +preserve their ideas. + +What would happen if we altered the +memory-references to, say, the ancient Greeks, +and their culture +(sculpture, philosophy, logic, myth, history)? What if we +included the practical, day-to-day thought +and considerations of power? This disruption of the sequence, described as a progressive and ascendant evolutionary movement +from the simple to the complex would ripple +back up again to the present, causing glitches +and noise in the pipelines. + +When Marx said that the philosophers +had only talked, never done anything, he +was wrong. They indeed did something, for +the propagation of messages requires a climate of belief which they generated. Marx +himself refused to let go of any of this past, merely rewriting the perspective. + +Consider: Socrates never answers Thrasymachus satisfactorily, in that order-obsessed +schema, \booktitle{The Republic}. If philosophy is a +sequence, each succeeder building on each +preceder, then philosophy never got off the +ground. We still wait for a response to that +question: power is justice. What followed is +nonsense. On the other hand, the merchants +and politicians, the soldiers listened carefully to Thrasymachus. + +And does it mean anything at all that the +great themes sounded by the Athenian playwrights and philsophers, and upon which +the great symphony of western thought is +composed, were all homosexuals, but nevertheless required to mate with women and +replicate? Is there a hidden content, a secret +sexual message in philosophy, a movement +toward body-purified thought? This has +bearing on the question of heterosexual reproduction, the desire to escape the tyranny +of Grand Design-serving matings. A homosexual population generally doesn't replicate; it must recruit. Will it put artificial +reproduction on the agenda? Do dreams of +non-heterosexual reproduction lead to designs for immortality and eternal youth...a +longing for transcendance, a covert desire to +escape the decayable body? + +In both \booktitle{The Divine Comedy} and \booktitle{Faust} +there is a seeking to find a route to escape the +bodily and heterosexual mode of reproduction, to seperate the erotic from the reproductive, which begins to lead to algeny. +Faust turns his back on earthly marriage and +love, to mate with a \enquote{female} principle in +heaven, seeking and using knowledge and +deeds in his journey. Dante glimpses Paradiso, seeing shining intelligence and bodiless love. As light\slash love\slash intelligence radiates into space, it sinks into the blackness of +body, matter and sin. Divine love and knowledge are a metaphor sent down the ages. +Alchemical wisdom. But in the past, there +were no major idea-and-body-replicating +devices to carry down the notions of hermeticists, gnostics, Kaballists, magicians. +Heterosexuality was necessary. How to escape this trap? Later, John Von Neuman +dreams of machines, gathering knowledge, +becoming autonomous, reproducing. + +To understand the present one must look +over this long series of \emph{regularized} events, +saying in each case, \textquote{this time is like that +time} or \textquote{this time is not like that time.} To +regularize events is to force similarities on +these happenings. This is possible only if +time-segments are everywhen the same. It is +disconcerting to think that each individual +in history was unique, singular, unrepeated +and unrepeatable. How can you retrieve +their thought? How can you resurrect? + +Modern, rational thought requires even +greater precision, since we think, and replicate thought through this \emph{capital-intensive} +mode, one which cannot handle true singularities. Order, repeatability, similarity, pattern, structure, +identity is introduced into past sequences, otherwise how can there be +such a thing as a series? Consider the search +for missing links (a medieval, logical technique left over from the invention of the +Great Chain of Being) in order to smooth out +the series of evolution, to eliminate great and +cataclysmic jumps. If we allow these ruptures, we leave room for the reintroduction +of the divine, the inexplicable, wild and truly random chance. Evolutionary frauds, +counterfeit artifacts, faked documents are +manufactured and inserted in the attempt to +create legitimizing historical series where +there were none before, or at least no record +of any. How much easier this is to do with +the computer as it projects, constructs, simulates to fill the unfillable gaps. If we cannot +think without the aid of the computer, then +thought itself is capitalized. + +There are several kinds of capital (or value) here. One involves the accretion of +knowledge. Another can be likened to the +yet-to-be-valued good will of an ongoing +enterprise. Good will is an intangible, but it +can be quantified and entered into the account books of an enterprise, then bought +and sold. A third kind is more mundane: +energy ingathered and stored up as wealth, +credit, money, which is information. A +fourth kind is the good antecedants, +the precedants, the legitimizing \enquote{genes.} A fifth +kind is structure; the orderly arrangement of +timed events into a sequence of inevitability: +critical-path operations, program evaluation +and review technique, scheduling ... one +kind of chronology as against other and +disruptive chronologies. All together, they +constitute the strategic program for running +the modern enterprise, the extended \booktitle{Talmud} +of western civilization. + +Whatever really happened in \booktitle{Oedipus} and +in the Joseph story is suppressed. The making of the sequence requires rewriting the +elements long after the facts, if there were +any. These tales are supposed to be exemplary, instructional, fragments of an algorithm. The enterprise must be saved from +disruptive thought, from noise, and requires, +first and foremost, +the storage of a transmittable message. It is in that sense that this +sampling of literary\slash mythic works mentioned +here are an intrinsic part of the good will of +this capital-intensive enterprise called Western Civilization. + +Now, the chief operating executive in +Thebes, a subsidiary of a diversified banking +and religious consortium called Delphi (also +a data bank and intelligence-gathering operation) was called a king. Oedipus. The +king has broken the rules; he's an anamoly. +In order to prevent the enterprise's demise, +Oedipus must be deposed, the management +changed to demonstrate that the enterprise +continues under the aegis of fate (what \enquote{appears} to be an inevitable series) rather than +individuls. The board of directors meets at +the shrine of Delphi; it is they who plan +Oedipus's deposal, implying retroactively +that not only was it fated, but the cause of the +crisis lay in Oedipus's very genes (as later +Eliot will re-sound this theme, using the key +word, \enquote{Tiresias,} to express the barrenness +and sterility of modern life). The board are +kingmakers. At the same time, this ruling +elite, in order to restructure the trajectory, +also plan a meta-demise, a long-range, exemplary message which will be transmitted +down the ages, a program-scenario for the +sacrifice of kings, managers, chief executive +officers to maintain order and sequence. +This is to be celebrated thousands of times. + +What if \emph{all} the characters in \booktitle{Oedipus} were +disgusting, then why bother to preserve that +memory? But in fact, that's what they were: +greedy, grasping, selfish, monstrous, in \emph{no} +way noble, and in that sense archetypical. + +If we are dealing with no more than a +revisionist, mythic history of a political +struggle, then the classical Freudian interpretation --- indeed the whole Freudian industry, which needs one interpretation and not others --- loses this stored-up good will. +The credibility of one of the foundations of +our enterprise goes down the drain. In one +version, Oedipus is a hero; Jocasta is not his +mother. In another we see the story of a coup +against Oedipus. In a third, it is Jocasta who +ordered Laius slain. In a fourth we see that +indiscriminate sexual behavior, including +casual incest, is everyday behavior in royal +families. In a fifth we see the play as the +celebration of the coup from the point of +view of Athens; the defeat of Delphi and the +assumption of control by Athens as it struggles to establish hegemony. Ina sixth, we see +Oedipus trying to replicate himself through +incest. If Oedipus is not exemplary, then +good will is devalued. Oedipus could just as +soon be Boss Tweed. + +One could make a communications flowchart of these paramemories, trace how this +good will was transmitted down through the +ages by humans who acted as recievers, repeaters, relays, enhancers, gates, transformers, noise-eliminators, interpolaters, adders, +switches, coders and decoders, error-correctors. They recieved +and sent these stories +down by voice, in writing, or by use of rites, +chants, liturgies, ceremonies, dramas, storing them in any variety of devices. From +time to time they were retrieved to be used as +guidelines to correct present and future behavior. +At the same time, humans themselves, as biological creatures, also transmitted a different kind of information and +memory: genetic messages. Alongside these two +streams, treasures, credit, good will, capital was sent. The memory of a memory: +one, events; the second, biology; the third, +capital. Built in was an adjustable, timesequencing rescheduler for calender reform. +None of the tracks can exist without the +other. + +All forms of knowledge intertwine to pass +down a climate of opinion, a meta-environment, which becomes part of the present +percieved \emph{physical} environment. Indeed, as +futurists --- equipment-sellers all --- talk about +the next evolutionary step into the information age --- which is also a whole environment --- and annunciate this adaptation to this new climate, \emph{property} seems to become +less physical and more ephemeral. The +burden of our argument becomes clearer: +inheritance. + +(For example: the one subject, the true, +corporate --- or embodied --- \enquote{hero} of all of +Dickens's works is Inheritance. His characters are always involved with claims on +Inheritance. Inheritance as meta-genetics, +manifests itself into shells called humans, or +characters. The role of Dickensian characters +is to move Inheritance through history. Each +one of Dickens's novels involves a search for +a programming error, which, when corrected, +allows for the continuity of inheritance outside of the fates of the characters involved. +To use inheritance self-indulgently is to +descend into sin.) + +The newest version of these old inheritance stories is sociobiology, a kind of biodeterministic Calvinism. Into the observation of nature are inserted these birth-mythologies and breeding-and-replication logics +of ancient Israel, Greece, Egypt, Rome, and +the consanguinity-obsessed Middle Ages. +The carrying down of these treasures, saved +from the ruins of shattered civilizations, +finds its way into modern myths of adaptability and evolution, even within the present +twenty year span. To this theme is added +inevitable causality. + +As an asset to Western Civilization, what +kinds of valuation can be placed on these +long gone events? How can they be calculated into the asset picture? One must begin +by reviewing, assessing, quantifying and +valuing these intangibles, these pools of +good will. How do these carry-forwards contribute to the development of rational calculation in its newest, computer-assisted modes, +translated into assets and liabilities? What +distortions, mythologies, religious superstitions have crept in and how did they get +there? Or, since everything can be informationalized (if specified) and assigned a currency value, does it matter? + |