The next question to address is, can a relational matrix derivable from timeless contexts also make sense to humans? Our rogue pals Mischief and Mayhem would find such a premise laughable. The joke, as it turns out, has been on us. Humanity’s psycho-social development has become overrun by mischief and mayhem due to relational naivety about reality itself. In pursing knowledge about reality as ego-based and thus a human-centric endeavor, we have embraced distortion not for what it is, but as a means to an end.
When faced with hyper-relational phenomena of globalization (travel anywhere) and technology (connect anytime), what is not revorelational is naïve relational. This is the cultural crucible. But first, we must meet briefly the Mother of all Rogues, Chaos.
These days the word chaos is thrown around like a hot potato. It seems to interject itself without fail into exchanges about socio-cultural matters. And nobody wants to be caught holding it.
Chaos can be a useful and fascinating subject of formal inquiry, from mathematical to spirituo-religious. When tossed around reactively like a fiery tuber chaos is just a sad indicator of amorphous dismay.
Mischief and mayhem though are useful socio-cultural constructs to examine. In relation to the timeless context of reality as representational, the point is this. A major reason to question if not outright disbelieve that such a orientation to reality is possible is that mischief and mayhem exist. Its similar in logic to the existence of evil being a major reason atheists and agnostics disbelieve in a benevolent and omniscient higher power.
I intend to pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with those (okay, enough with the child’s games theme!). First though, an important deep dive into why chaos tends to show up, as it does, as a telling catch-all.
Parts of a system – say, participants, or cogs, or departments – have the general and timeless quality that the systems they comprise do not. You see, parts hold tension. The metaphorical hot potato of chaos, when it touches our hands, is the same as acuteness, immediacy in our bodily awareness of the tension present in the parts we play.
Parts participate and in doing so communicate tensions. System-wide behavior and context have larger patterns from structured organizations to socio-cultural trends. But participating parts are, as described in the previous section, orderly regardless of tensions affecting what is present in novel or patterned ways. It can be thought of as the compass in each part. (You will in a later essay find out about homeostatic self-remembering, the exact representational science behind it.)
Given the states of the systems we help inform, happily or not, “consciously” or not, bodily awareness of what we carry communicates to everything and everyone else around us the only-part-of a-whole tensions.
Chaos-awareness, as in, “this problem is much bigger than just me”, can lead, on the one hand, to an experience of relief. I don’t need to carry the burden of personal responsibility about [external source of chaos]. That’s the “fun” we feel the moment the potato leaves our hands. However, the potato doesn’t stop its procession until someone drops it. And God forbid it be you!
As such, in chaos-awareness we stay attentive, even physically tense, anticipating the potato will eventually come our way again. If we stood still and just relaxed our attention, stopped being vigilant about doing our part to keep the potato moving, to keep chaos at bay, we fear we become the blame-able agent. That carries with it vague but system-self tensions about our own insignificance, powerlessness, disappointments. Easier to just “blame” chaos.
With no parts, there is no tension. On the other end of the chaos spectrum from the game of hot potato are relational states that invite being “with parts, without tension” and thus no biases, assumptions, or agendas. Consider woo humans who utilize “neutral” instruments like dousing rods and pendulums. If the user gets results, the dubiousness of others is blissfully beside the point. Results means, the agendas of others have also been dealt with in a neutral way.
At its best, chaos unlocks new vistas of what is possible. Imbuing awareness of our own tension with exquisite vagueness that is exciting and short-lived yet timeless in that it connects us with future systems yet unvisited. When chaos-awareness halts, tensions release or are smoothed, and in its wake is the experience being ripe with potential. To summarize, treat chaos like an unripe strawberry not a hot potato or a potentially unreliable instrument.
In this essay, we shift in our exploration of representational reality to dealing with systems, exploring the role that collective truth-seeking has in concrete matters, not just ideals. In that, the same self accepts, I am in control of my narrative. This will be revealed not as a position of resignation but rather of clarity, which brings with it, the ability to relate meaningfully on matters of importance. The key is that representational reality deals directly and meaningfully with ambiguity, specifies in general yet relatable terms the backdrop of orderliness and thus the shared narrative revealed in the next essay [insert link] on the mysterioscope, and solves a big puzzle about natural language. What does it mean that it both connects and bitterly divides?
A fundamental representational dynamic in OKIC is tension. Ambiguity is the characterization (mis-characterization) of tensions between self and system. Communication is the way it most often makes itself known. Without connection to others and systems, individuals are forced to deal with tensions at a personal level.
System-wise, mischief is mis-direction, and will be covered later. Mayhem is misbehavior. From the limited relational view of I’m Okay You’re Okay, misbehavior is presented not as timeless context, but as defiance of the positive expectations (goals, solutions to problems) of others.
[develop/clean up/omit?]
Chaos has gotten a bad rap. Partly because it is confused with mayhem. Lost in ambiguity over “what does it mean”… it being the stable state of things after an upset.
Naïve, hapless nonsense? Easier said than done? This is where you drop not the potato, but rather, the hot potato stance. Develop trust in what will increasingly be possible as humanity institutes revorelational constructs about reality.
Mayhem, now that’s bad.
I found it quite amusing to once be accused of being an anarchist by a philosopher of science.
Loss-of-sanity type chaos is definitely bad, personally, for those who know the crazy one or are in their orbit. Moral mayhem is the worst. It’s where the current psycho-social crisis is totally off kilter. Unmoored from reality and yet collectively responsible for the precarious state of humanity right now.
The previous essay [insert link] explored a bit the notion of singular truth as an ideal. In that, the sensitive, informed self says, I need to truth patrol the whole narrative. A quasi-delusional form of control that leads to disillusionment and burnout.