CRITIQUE OF
POST-DIALECTICAL IDEALISM
Supernotational Philosophy
Copyright © 1989-2009 John
O'Loughlin
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CONTENTS
Aphs. 1-160
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1. To a person rooted in the old brain, with its dominating
proton content, anyone who testifies to a contrary, or new-brain, bias will
seem mad; for his view of life will be radically antithetical to the
alpha-stemming untransvaluated integrity which accrues to the former. Indeed, so much will the new-brain person
differ from his old-brain rival ... that what is truth to the one will seem
like nonsense to the other, and vice versa.
For the electron preponderance of the new brain or, for that matter, of
the superconscious mind, will encourage a positive, omega-oriented integrity
which has the effect of countering or negating everything the alpha-stemming
old-brain person stands for, whether in politics, religion, science, art,
society, sex, or whatever. What is good
for the old-brain person will be bad to the new-brain one, and, conversely,
what is bad for the old-brain person will be good to the new-brain one. There will be a kind of Father/Holy Spirit
division between them which renders mutual understanding all but
impossible. Either the new-brain person
vanquishes his old-brain opponent or the latter will vanquish him. For neither of them can co-exist on equal,
mutually respectful terms - at least not in an age or society which is tending
towards the omega 'Kingdom of Heaven' on earth.
Only in the world (of relative values) can alpha and omega co-exist,
albeit on relative rather than absolute terms, like the House of Lords with the
House of Commons in Britain, where the Tory peers of the one would correspond
to 'alpha' and the Labour MPs of the other to 'omega', with Labour peers
corresponding to omega-in-the-alpha (like electrons in the old brain), and Tory
MPs to alpha-in-the-omega (like protons in the new brain).
2. Because
knowledge has to do with memory and retention, we can argue that it is more a
factor of the proton side of the atom than of the electron side, since protons
retain electrons and thus have an inherently retentive tendency which doubtless
applies just as much to the mental universe as to the physical one. Thus knowledge and memory can be regarded as
inherently alpha stemming, in contrast, I would argue, to imagination and
faith, both of which are more inherently omega orientated on account of their
association with the electron side of the atom, the side which, whether found
in the old brain or in the new one, reflects such a centripetal
orientation. One could therefore say
that whereas knowledge and memory are objective qualities, imagination
and faith are subjective qualities, the former conservative and the latter
progressive - alpha and omega qualities which co-exist, in atomic life, as
polar opposites. Memory is recollection
of knowledge, of whatever sort, whereas faith is trust in imagination,
particularly the idealistic imagination we associate with the Divine. For just as there can be no memory where
there is no knowledge, so it would be impossible to have faith without
imagination, since imagination pioneers the way forward, and if we are to
follow it we require faith.
3. But there
are two kinds of imagination, just as there are two kinds of knowledge (not to
mention faith and memory), and we may define them broadly in terms of natural
imagination (or faith) and artificial imagination (or superfaith), and whereas
the one pertains to the subordinate electron content of the old brain, the
other pertains to the preponderant electron content of the new brain, thereby
enabling us to speak, once again, of an omega-in-the-alpha/omega division, as
between, say, Christianity and Transcendentalism, or Christ and the Second
Coming. Natural imagination is weaker
than artificial imagination, and if it requires faith then we can certainly
maintain that its omega counterpart requires superfaith, as, for example, in
regard to the concept of post-human life forms, as developed by me in
successive works via a series of imaginative projections. By contrast, however, natural knowledge is
stronger than artificial knowledge, or knowledge accruing to the subordinate
proton content of the new brain, because it pertains to the dominating proton
content of the old brain, like an autocratic monarch vis-à-vis a democratic
president, and can thus be identified with alpha as opposed to
alpha-in-the-omega. Natural memory is
also stronger than artificial memory, at least in people accustomed to an
old-brain, alpha-stemming bias, for whom natural knowledge prevails over
natural imagination, or knowledge of natural things over natural
imaginings. But if imagination and faith
are unlikely to get the better of knowledge and memory in the old brain, this
is not so of the new brain where, even in a knowledgeable age, imagination will
be straining at the leash, so to speak, and preparing itself to gain the
ascendancy over knowledge in the interests of universal salvation, achieved
through an unequivocally omega-oriented superfaith. Only when idealism gets the better of
materialism will the 'Kingdom of Heaven' come to pass ... as messianic leaders
supersede democratic presidents, and 'Civilization', in the Spenglerian sense
of that term, is eclipsed by 'Second Religiousness'. For artificial knowledge is not enough; there
must be artificial imagination, before a true transvaluation comes to pass.
4. Thus to
recapitulate briefly: knowledge and imagination are alpha and omega
antagonists, with monarchs and presidents on the one side, that of a proton
bias, and popes and messianic leaders on the other, that of an electron bias,
and whereas monarchs, corresponding to naturalism, are alpha, and presidents,
corresponding to materialism, alpha-in-the-omega, popes, corresponding to
realism, are omega-in-the-alpha, and messianic leaders, corresponding to
idealism, omega. Just as the monarchical
'Historyless Chaos' was effectively eclipsed by papal 'Culture', so in due
course will the presidential 'Civilization' be eclipsed by messianic 'Second
Religiousness', as artificial imagination triumphs over artificial knowledge in
the name of spiritual salvation. I have
customarily used the terms 'natural' and 'artificial', but such terms as
'irrational' and 'rational' would suffice just as well in order to describe the
difference between, say, knowledge in the old brain and knowledge in the new
one, not to mention old-brain imagination and its new-brain counterpart. For whereas the one is
conditioned by centrifugal criteria, whether as alpha or omega-in-the-alpha,
the other is conditioned by centripetal criteria, whether as alpha-in-the-omega
or omega. Presidents are relatively
rational, or constitutional, compared to autocratic monarchs, whereas popes are
relatively irrational, or unconstitutional (infallible), compared to messianic
leaders, of which we have not yet seen too many - Lenin and Mao
notwithstanding.
5. Of
course, the basic alpha/omega dichotomy we are adumbrating is not only between
political and religious figures, though they are perhaps the most prominent,
but is also between, say, scientists and artists. Now I fancy that whereas knowledge and
imagination are the terms which best characterize the scientist/artist
distinction, memory and faith are more characteristic of the
political/religious distinction, since politics, or the art of statesmanship,
requires memory no less than religion requires faith, and it would be difficult
to imagine the one without the other, particularly (with politics) in deeply
traditional or conservative societies where, arguably, memory,
institutionalized as tradition, plays a greater role than knowledge.
6. However
that may be, it would seem that whereas science and art deal, through knowledge
and imagination respectively, with concrete particulars, politics and religion
deal, by contrast, with abstract generalities, of which the State and the
Church are the two principal manifestations.
Should art become abstract and general, it will be because it has
subordinated itself to religious faith and thus functions as religious
art. Should science become abstract and
general, it will be because it has subordinated itself to political memory and
thus functions as political science.
Both of these paradoxical tendencies were symptomatic of
twentieth-century art and science respectively, and signify a sort of
quasi-idealistic redemption of the concrete and particular in the abstract and
general.
7. Artificial
knowledge may also be regarded in terms of information technology, and
doubtless the rise of such technology in the twentieth century was symptomatic
of a shift in emphasis from natural to artificial knowledge, as we grow
ever-more accustomed, through a new-brain bias, to receiving information
artificially ... whether via radio, television, computer, telephone, video, or
whatever. But if the modern age is an
age when knowledge largely takes the form of information, it is not on that account
a religious age but, on the contrary, a profoundly materialistic age
commensurate with Spengler's 'Civilization', in which not omega but alpha
predominates, whether as knowledge and science or memory and politics. The dawn of a religious age, by contrast,
will require that artificial imagination and faith supersede the artificial
knowledge and memory so characteristic of the contemporary West, and for this
to happen the world will doubtless have to pass through a major transformation
the likes of which it has never before witnessed, since omega must struggle for
its right to exist and cannot expect alpha to hand that right to it on a plate,
so to speak, as though alpha led to omega as a matter of historical
course! The sort of artificial
imagination I would equate with the highest art will only be possible through
recourse to LSD and other such hallucinogenic drugs, and this 'art' will be in
the service of a religious faith which embraces, in its omega-oriented
intensity, the ultimate abstraction ... of positive pure spirit conceived as
the goal of all religious striving.
8. Sense
in which messianic leaders correspond to positrons, or positive electrons,
vis-à-vis the proletariat, who tend to reflect a more passive electron
bias. Such leaders are truly moral, and
they contrast with both the immoral bias of 'proton' rulers and the amoral
integrity of 'neutron' representatives, or the majority of democratic
politicians, of whom prime ministers are the chief exemplars. Rulers can be monarchs or presidents, though
a titular as opposed to an executive president will approximate more to the
amoral than to the immoral. For an executive president conforms to the category of immoral
ruler, albeit in terms of new-brain rationality rather than, like an autocratic
monarchy, of old-brain irrationality, and thus on a relative
(alpha-in-the-omega) as opposed to an absolute (alpha) basis.
9. To my
way of thinking, guitars and pianos are alike bodily instruments, the only
difference being that whereas guitars are omega, either absolutely in the case
of advanced electric guitars or relatively in the case of acoustic guitars,
pianos are alpha, whether relatively in the case of uprights or absolutely in
the case of grands. Thus we can
distinguish acoustic guitars from electric guitars in terms of
omega-in-the-alpha and omega, reserving for pianos a distinction between
alpha-in-the-omega in the case of uprights and alpha in the case of
grands. For the alpha, remember, is
centrifugal, whereas the omega is centripetal.
The one is broadly horizontal and the other vertical. Consequently grand pianos and acoustic
guitars may be regarded as forming an alpha/omega-in-the-alpha antithesis, as
between naturalism and realism, whilst upright pianos and electric guitars may
likewise be regarded as forming an alpha-in-the-omega/omega antithesis, as
between materialism and idealism. The
acoustic guitar is no-less compromised by the convolutional nature of the
alpha, with its horizontally-biased centrifugal tendencies, than the upright
piano by the involutional nature of the omega, with its vertically-biased
centripetal tendencies. Acoustic guitars
are relatively moral in relation to electric guitars, which are absolutely
moral. Upright pianos are relatively
immoral in relation to grand pianos (including baby grands), which are
absolutely immoral. There is all the
difference in the world, which is to say as much difference as in the case of a
full-sized umbrella and a waist-length hooded zipper, between grand pianos at
one end of the instrumental scale and electric guitars at its other end. In fact, being absolute, such instruments
tend to be mutually exclusive, in contrast to acoustic guitars and upright
pianos, which approximate to a worldly and, in particular, bourgeois middle-ground
compromise. For there is contiguity
between alpha-in-the-omega and omega-in-the-alpha, but no contiguity between
alpha and omega!
10. Doubtless
we should also speak of amoral instrumental equivalents in between the immoral
and moral ones, and especially in regard to the artificial alpha/omega spectrum
which stretches from upright pianos to electric guitars, since we are more
familiar, these days, with the artificial than with the natural, and can
readily identify middle-ground positions between uprights on the one hand and
electric guitars on the other - positions, I mean, in relation to, say,
electric pianos and semi-electric guitars, both of which types of instrument
have 'androgynous' characteristics, if I may use such an ambiguous term, which
distinguish them from the immoral and moral extremes. For if electric pianos are less centrifugal
than acoustic guitars, then semi-electric guitars are less centripetal than
electric guitars, the most advanced of which have nothing centrifugal, or
ring-like, about them at all.
11. Because
the Y-like emblem [An inverted CND sign, to which (in certain later texts) I
subsequently suggested the addition of feminine and masculine symbols.] of
Social Transcendentalism will be enclosed by a curvilinear band, significant of
a theocratically centripetal morality, it is fitting that the emblem be
displayed on a curvilinear plaque rather than on a rectilinear flag, since
flags are fundamentally worldly phenomena which, as a rule, have a nationalist
significance, whereas the emblem in question would be designed to convey a
supra-national significance appropriate to its theocratic essence. To have this emblem on a flag would amount to
a contradiction in terms, since it is a refutation of nationalism and indicates
an omega 'head' integrity above and beyond all
rectilinear 'bodily' norms. Thus if the
ultimate emblem were to be displayed on curvilinear plastic plaques mounted on
aluminium poles, it would be beyond flags and allegiances thereof - indeed, as
far beyond flags as Heaven is above and beyond the world, since the omega
'Kingdom of Heaven' could not be symbolized in rectilinear form. Therefore the ideology of 'Kingdom Come'
would not be interested in adding yet another flag to the vast number of flags
which already exist in the world, but would require that, wherever it obtained,
flags be superseded by these curvilinear plaques in indication that the head
had triumphed over the body and the 'Kingdom' in question accordingly come to
pass.
12. One must be careful to distinguish an alpha curvilinear
approach to writing from an omega curvilinear approach to it, since whereas the
former tends to be centrifugal and apparent, the latter will be centripetal and
essential. By which I mean that whereas
alpha 'head' writings tend to reflect a technical cycling from book to book or
part to part and chapter to chapter within each book, as in the case of the
most academic philosophy, Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason not excepted, omega 'head'
writings will reflect a thematic cycling from subject to subject within the
confines of a single book, thereby cycling centripetally rather than
centrifugally, as with alpha 'head' writings.
It is effectively the difference between a ring and a badge, between
protons and electrons, convolution and involution, and the one mode of cycling
necessarily excludes the other, since they are as far apart as alpha and
omega. By contrast, worldly, or
'bodily', writings tend to proceed, as with the novel, in a rectilinear fashion
... from A to Z, or in successive chapters from a beginning to an end, with
neither apparent (centrifugal) nor essential (centripetal) cycling very much in
evidence. Where, however, there are
divisions of a novel into separate books or parts, each of which begins afresh
at a first chapter, as in The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien or both Man
of Nazareth and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess,
we are dealing, I believe, with decadent 'bodily' writings - writings which are
neo-alpha without being genuinely 'of the head', like most traditional
philosophy. (In this respect they
correspond to a sort of Mosleyite order of Fascism). On the other hand, a thematic cycling within
the novel context would amount to a 'bodily' intimation of omega-oriented
philosophy - the ultimate 'head' writings which, eschewing apparent divisions,
concentrate the reader's attention on essential cycles in the interests of a
post-worldly theocratic integrity. For
unless a work cycles thematically, it will not be curvilinear and centripetal
but either rectilinear and neutral or - assuming a division into several books,
parts, chapters, etc., - curvilinear and centrifugal, like a fascist or
neo-pagan reaction to transcendental communist liberation.
13. Fascist autocracy, liberal democracy, communist theocracy. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost of ideological distinctions, with
pre-atomic (proton), atomic (proton & electron and/or neutron), and
post-atomic (electron) implications, as pertaining to alpha, the world, and
omega. Liberal democracy sits on
a neutron fence in between the proton reaction of fascist autocracy and the
electron attraction of communist theocracy - a worldly middle-ground in between
alpha and omega extremes.
14. Cycle
books, parts, chapters, etc. (in an apparent, or centrifugal, manner) and there
will be a fascist implication of neo-alpha criteria. Cycle subject-matter (in an essential, or
centripetal, manner) and there will be a communist implication of
omega-oriented criteria. Do neither and
you have the world ... with its rectilinear, or 'bodily', indifference to
curvilinear, or 'head', alternatives.
15. In
relation to the internal trip ... of LSD, the external trip ... of space
exploration is like a return to the alpha, a return to the Creator rather than
an advancement towards the Holy Spirit, and can therefore be regarded in a
negative, or immoral, light - a light, so I believe, rather more fascist than
communist, insofar as stars (including planets) are the alpha roots of the
Universe as opposed to its hypothetical future culmination in positive pure
spirit. To trip in the internal sense is
to approach the omega; the opposite of what it means to trip externally ...
through the medium of space exploration.
This is not to say that Communists have no business in space, but that
the stars can never be the goal of evolving humanity. Its goal, on the contrary, is salvation from
the flesh. And one of the ways of
achieving such a salvation is through internal trips.
16. The
whole point about a skyline in architecture is that it symbolizes an
alpha-stemming centrifugal state-of-affairs, which, whilst acceptable for a
given period of time within an open-society context, can only be judged
unacceptable, and hence as something to avoid, from a closed-society standpoint
... where not the horizontal but the vertical is what architects would wish to
emphasize, in conformity with the centripetal bias of such a standpoint - one
suitable to an omega-oriented age, in which skylines were taboo. Obviously, to avoid a skyline one must design
buildings in such a way that they tower up at different heights from those in
the immediate vicinity, like different-sized penises, and thereby refrain from
creating a horizontal and, hence, centrifugal impression. An alpha-stemming person, whether male or
female, will doubtless find such architectural arrangements unattractive, if
not downright repugnant. But for anyone
with an omega-oriented disposition, there could be no other arrangements, if
the vertical is to receive due emphasis and be respected as an integral
principle in itself, independently of others and with a view to the advancement
of a centripetally-biased state-of-(architectural)-affairs.
17. The being of philosophy is subjective being, not existence
or objective being, but the being of spiritual enlightenment. Objective being, by contrast, corresponds to
the given and is a field of reality more congenial to science. In fact, objective being proclaims its
physicality and has nothing metaphysical about it. It stands to subjective being as realism to
idealism, and could only be made the subject of philosophical inquiry by a
bogus or degenerate philosopher like Sartre, who was really a playwright and
thus a man more disposed to the given than to being. It may be that Existentialism was more a French
revolt against German metaphysics, including Jaspers, than a symptom of Western
decadence or a brazen attempt to accommodate philosophy to a materialistic
age. Probably it was a combination of
all three. Yet if philosophy is not to
languish beneath the shadow of French Existentialism, it must proclaim itself
afresh as the one true intellectual light which shines in the name of
subjective being and the future salvation of humanity from the World, including
the world of physical existence, or objective being. For philosophy should not dilute itself with
either dramatic or scientific concerns, but must proceed on its self-appointed
course towards total enlightenment.
18. As
stupid for literature to become poetic as for philosophy to become dramatic, that
is to say for subjective doing (the becoming) to seek an accommodation with
objective doing ('doing' as I have hitherto defined it, as, for example, in Elemental
Spectra). Either the literature in
question is decadent or it's really no literature at all but poetry in disguise
- a sort of poetic prose which seeks to mystify rather than to entertain or,
more correctly, to entertain through
mystification. Subjective doing should
go its own way as alpha-in-the-omega and leave poetry to those for whom the
objective doing of alpha is the creative norm, that is to say to
poets-proper. Literature does not
enhance itself through poetry but only through philosophy, where,
paradoxically, it seeks to entertain through enlightenment, as with Aldous
Huxley.
19. The
objective doing (action) of my walking across the room. The objective being
(existence) of my sitting still in a chair. The subjective doing of my thought
processes. The
subjective being of my consciousness.
Alpha/omega-in-the-alpha/alpha-in-the-omega/omega. I act, I exist, I think, I am.
20. A
Protestant can have no true sense of the Second Coming because, in adhering to
a neutron mode of Christianity, he will only relate to a middle-ground 'bodily'
Christ who, unlike the Catholic Christ, does not oscillate between proton and
electron extremes, or alpha and omega, but remains stable in a specifically
worldly fashion. Such a man can only
oppose or belittle the concept of a Second Coming, which corresponds to an
electron bias, because true morality is beyond the sphere of his amoral neutron
allegiance, being intelligible only within an oscillatory framework (though
solely with regard to the electron omega as opposed to the proton alpha). Having a moral dimension, the Catholic will
relate to the prospect of an electron absolute, a Second Coming who, in his
unequivocally transcendental integrity, will correspond to the
post-Resurrectional Christ rather than to a Christ who is both alpha and omega
by turns within the necessarily relative, and ambiguous, context of (dualistic)
Christianity.
21. Like Protestantism, liberal democracy sits on a neutron
fence in between the proton reactions of fascist autocracy and the electron
attractions of communist theocracy - a worldly middle-ground in between alpha
and omega extremes.
22. If
one is to distinguish between objective being, subjective being, and
being-in-itself, as Jaspers does, then one should also distinguish between
objective doing, subjective doing, and, for want of a better term,
doing-outside-itself, since otherwise one may give the impression that
being-in-itself comes between objective being and subjective being as a sort of
neutron middle-ground corresponding to basic consciousness, when, in point of
fact, objective being and subjective being do not form an antithesis on the
basis of an alpha/omega distinction but are parallel omega postulates - the one
as omega-in-the-alpha and the other as omega per se. Thus if being-in-itself comes in-between
anything at all, it will be in between subjective doing on the one hand and
subjective being on the other, as a positive amoral postulate in between
immoral and moral extremes. Likewise
doing-outside-itself can be regarded as a negative amoral postulate in between
objective doing and objective being, which is to say immoral alpha and a
(relatively) moral omega-in-the-alpha, however we choose to identify this
doing-outside-itself: presumably as intestinal action or possibly even the
processes of digestion. Thus an omega-oriented mode of amorality in the case of
being-in-itself, an alpha-stemming mode of amorality in the case of
doing-outside-itself. The
subjective conditioning a centripetal and, hence, being-oriented tendency; the
objective, by contrast, conditioning a centrifugal and, hence, doing-oriented
one - as germane to moral and immoral attributes.
23. Certainly
I have no hesitation in equating doing with protons and being with electrons,
though the distinction between objective and subjective, which is centrifugal
and centripetal respectively, would seem to entail an additional consideration
... of particle and wavicle options which, taken in conjunction with doing and
being, will allow for a further distinction between, say, the proton-particle
bias of objective doing and the proton-wavicle bias of subjective doing on the
one hand, and the electron-particle bias of objective being and the
electron-wavicle bias of subjective being on the other, with
doing-outside-itself and being-in-itself corresponding to particle-neutron and
to wavicle-neutron middle grounds vis-à-vis the objective and subjective
polarities respectively. If
consciousness corresponds, in its positive neutrality, to being-in-itself, then
thought must correspond to subjective doing and feelings, by contrast, to
subjective being. If instinctive action
corresponds, in its negative neutrality, to doing-outside-itself, then
calculated action must correspond to objective doing and existence, by
contrast, to objective being.
24. Yet
one must of course distinguish between the alpha and omega, or negative and
positive, poles of each mode of doing and being, whether objective or
subjective. There is a positive
objective doing no less than a negative objective doing, a positive subjective
doing no less than a negative subjective doing, and so on ... with regard to
each category of doing and being.
Feelings can be negative or positive, thoughts likewise, and we can no
more subsume all feelings under an electron-wavicle bias than ... all thoughts
under a proton-wavicle one, even if the majority of thoughts and feelings can
be so subsumed or, at any rate, those which are most characteristic of a true
subjective doing or being, as the case may be.
25. Rather than saying, with Descartes: 'I think, therefore I
am', we should say: 'I am, therefore I think', since without subjective being,
there could be no subjective doing.
Likewise we should not say, à la Descartes: 'I act, therefore I exist',
but, rather: 'I exist, therefore I act', since existence is a precondition of
action in human affairs.
26. The
art of objective doing is dance; the art of doing-outside-itself is acting; the
art of objective being is sculpture; the art of subjective doing is literature
(including poetry); the art of being-in-itself is painting; the art of
subjective being is music. Dance
corresponds to alpha, whereas music, with its emotional emphasis, corresponds
to omega. Sculpture, with its emphasis
on phenomenal existence, corresponds to omega-in-the-alpha, whereas literature,
the emphasis of which is intellectual, corresponds to alpha-in-the-omega. Both acting and painting
are amoral, or neutron, arts - the former objectively so in between dance and
sculpture, the latter subjectively so in between literature and music. Not that all literature or dance is immoral
and all sculpture or music moral, since each art is itself divisible into alpha
and omega extremes, as well as into a neutron middle-ground, but that, when
most true to itself, any given art will more reflect its essential nature - for
instance, subjective being in the case of music - than the nature of any of the
other arts, aiming at the highest and most positive manifestation of its
peculiar essence. Thus the best music
will aim to convey the most positive feelings, such as love, joy, etc., while
the worst music will convey - assuming it hasn't abandoned subjective being
altogether and effectively become some other art in disguise - the most
negative feelings, such as hate, sadness, etc.
The best will be absolutely moral and the worst relatively immoral
(music being a moral, or omega, art-form essentially), though intermediate
degrees of musical quality will also exist ... as an amoral middle-ground in
between the negative and positive extremes of subjective being. Yet subjective being has the capacity to become
absolutely moral, whereas subjective doing, for example, can only become at
best relatively moral on account of its fundamentally immoral nature as
alpha-in-the-omega.
27. Further
to the above-mentioned amoral distinctions between doing-outside-itself and
being-in-itself, I should like to add two subordinate modes of amoral
neutrality in the forms of doing-in-itself and being-outside-itself, conceiving
of the one as an omega-oriented mode of objective doing (contiguous with
objective being) and the other as an alpha-stemming mode of subjective being
(contiguous with subjective doing). Thus
doing-in-itself will be a relatively positive mode of objective amorality, and
being-outside-itself a relatively negative mode of subjective amorality - the
former subordinate to doing-outside-itself and the latter subordinate to
being-in-itself. Possibly, digesting
would be a manifestation of doing-in-itself, dreaming a manifestation of
being-outside-itself; though if we are to take art forms which appear to
correspond to each of these subordinate modes of neutron amorality, then it
seems to me that singing is the art of doing-in-itself, modelling the art of
being-outside-itself.
28. Thus,
further to our earlier contentions, we can maintain: The art of objective doing
is dance; the art of doing-outside-itself is acting; the art of doing-in-itself
is singing; the art of objective being is sculpture; the art of subjective
doing is literature; the art of being-outside-itself is modelling; the art of
being-in-itself is painting; the art of subjective being is music. And it seems to me that an appropriate
closeness, or qualitative contiguity, can be inferred to exist between, for
example, acting and singing on the one hand and modelling and painting on the
other, not just in terms of their sharing a common neutral status in between
objective and subjective modes of doing and being but, more concretely, in
terms of their interdependence and even interchangeability as two sides of the
same (amoral) coin, one of which is phenomenal and the other noumenal, as
relative to particle (objective) and wavicle (subjective) distinctions. Certainly actors can be singers and singers be actors, and more than a few painters have also been
models, both for themselves and for others.
However, in general, actors and singers remain separate categories, as
of course do models and painters.
29. The computer is a medium of artificial thought, the
television a medium of artificial consciousness, the radio a medium of
artificial emotion (particularly when used in conjunction with music). Thus from computers to radios via televisions
- a triadic distinction between subjective doing, being-in-itself, and
subjective being. To which one could add
video as a medium of artificial dreaming and/or fantasizing (home-made videos)
corresponding to being-outside-itself, which therefore takes a position in
between subjective doing and being-in-itself as a form of negative subjective
amorality.
30. The
philosopher stands to the scientist as the writer (novelist, essayist) to the
poet; that is to say as a freer, more imaginative person who, when true to his
vocation, has an omega-oriented as opposed to an alpha-stemming
disposition. Of course, philosophers can
be alpha or omega, obscure or enlightening, though the best and most genuine of
them will be enlightening, whereas the worst and least genuine tend to obscure,
like poets who mystify. In fact, genuine
poets tend rather to mystify than to enlighten, and thus it could be contended
that the obscure or mystifying philosopher is really a poet-in-disguise, just
as, conversely, the clear and enlightening poet is really a
philosopher-in-disguise: a man who should have worked in philosophy instead of
in poetry.
31. As for the paradoxical notion that poetry should only be a
vehicle for conveying feelings, emotions, passions, etc., it has to be admitted
that even the most emotive poetry or literature will be inferior to music in
this regard, by dint of its dependence on thought and projection, through
words, as subjective doing. In fact,
words are as good or, depending on your viewpoint, useless at conveying
emotions as (musical) notes at conveying thoughts, and for this reason will
seldom succeed in an emotive endeavour except when spoken or, more
appropriately, sung in conjunction with music, where, thanks to rhythmical
accompaniment, a greater approximation to subjective being can be
achieved. However, such an approximation
can only fall short of pure subjective being, for which music alone will
suffice. For notes are
the voice of the emotions, whereas words are the voice of the intellect, which
compels to subjective doing.
32. Justice,
or the concept of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth', pertains to the
proton side of the atom, which is inherently reactive. It is a mode of alpha-stemming behaviour
which will remain valid only as long as humanity is in its heathen youth and
has not yet grown to the Christian maturity of 'turning the other cheek'. For to turn the other cheek is to refrain
from exacting revenge, and only that man who is sufficiently mature and, hence,
more disposed to the electron side of the atom, which is inherently attractive,
will be capable of such an achievement.
In other words, unless a man is omega orientated, and therefore 'born
again', [Or 'transvaluated', in Nietzschean parlance.] he will be unable to
'turn the other cheek' but always be seeking justice, or revenge, in the manner
of a youthful heathen. Unfortunately,
when whole societies are largely composed of such men there is no escaping
justice or the need for revenge.
Obviously, where most people are bad, 'turning the other cheek' could
prove a time-consuming, not to say hazardous, venture, resulting in injury or
even death. Only in societies where most
people are good can one reasonably make a virtue of 'turning the other cheek',
since violence will then be the exception to the rule. Yet such societies cannot exist on an
open-society, alpha-stemming basis, where justice continues to be the norm, but
only on a closed-society, omega-oriented basis where, in contrast, heavenly
criteria become the (electron) norm, and man ceases to exploit man in either a
heathen or semi-heathen fashion. Only
then will the '
33. A
society which prides itself on being just is fundamentally a foolish one, which
does not or cannot 'turn the other cheek', because it is insufficiently evolved
to be truly Christian. Yet being truly
Christian is not enough. For, as often
as not, the true Christian is a victim of violence and may even occasionally
feel the need for a degree of justice.
Better if, living in a transcendental society, one doesn't have to 'turn
the other cheek' because there is no wrongdoing but only righteousness. 'Turning the other cheek' is really the
electron side of an atomic integrity. In
a free-electron society, on the other hand, where protons or proton equivalents
had effectively ceased to exist, no-one need 'turn the other cheek' because
there would be little or no wrongdoing.
Neither would there be any justice, only blessedness. Probably such a perfect society could only
truly emerge on a post-human basis, and by then there would be no 'cheeks' to
turn, or hit, anyway. Only brain
collectivizations artificially supported and sustained.
34. Of
course, 'turning the other cheek' is really a metaphor, not something to be
taken literally. I 'turn the other cheek'
when, instead of slamming my door because a neighbour or fellow-tenant has just
slammed his, I continue to sit still in my room and resign myself to the
noise. Likewise I 'turn the other cheek'
when, instead of using my stereo speakers when someone elsewhere in the house
or next-door is playing music rather too loudly through his stereo speakers, I
turn to my headphones and listen to music through them. For there is also a sense in which 'turning
the other cheek' enables one to keep to one's own (head) level rather than
descend to the (bodily) level of someone else - for example, a commonplace
person who always plays music through speakers (which are a bodily equivalent
vis-à-vis headphones). Moreover, I may
not wish to play music just because some neighbour is playing it rather too
loudly for my liking. It may not be my
usual time for listening to music and I may well prefer to carry-on with what I
am doing - say, reading a book or watching television - rather than adjust my
habits just to suit someone else or, more correctly, in order to block out
someone else's noise. No, if I cannot
put up with it, I can always resort to wax earplugs, which will enable me to
carry-on with what I am doing and thus effectively 'turn the other cheek'. For if I go out, I will be altering my habits
or preferences because of him, and if I resort to playing music as loudly as
him and on similar terms, i.e. through speakers rather than headphones, I will
(besides possibly altering my habits against my deepest wish) be behaving on
the same low (bodily) level, and thus be no better, morally speaking, than my
noisy neighbour.
35. Alternatively
I can impose directly upon him, if his music is too loud, by complaining about
the noise. But while that may not be 'an
eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth', like a stereo-speaker response from me,
it will be an imposition of my own sense of moral acceptability and/or outrage
upon another, and although it may produce desirable results for me, such as his
apologizing for the noise and agreeing to turn the music down, it will fall
short of the ideal solution, being a mode of action somewhere in between 'an
eye for an eye ...' and 'turning the other cheek', which is not always
guaranteed of positive results, particularly when there is a significant age or
temperamental or even ethnic distinction between us, with a corresponding moral
disparity. One might describe it as a
form of amoral justice-seeking as opposed to the immoral justice-seeking of 'an
eye for an eye', a neutron middle-ground in between the proton reaction of
pagan justice and the electron attraction of transcendental quietism, and I
fancy that it is more congenial to a Protestant or bourgeois temperament than
to a Catholic or proletarian one. In
fact, Catholics are more apt, in the paradoxical nature of their temperaments,
to oscillate between pagan justice and transcendental quietism, whereas
Protestants will normally tend to favour justice seeking through
complaint. Yet only he who is
intermittently capable of 'turning the other cheek' will be in favour of a
transcendental society, since he alone has intimations of moral sanctity and
can thereby relate to the need for and desirability of such a society. The amoral man will remain a slave of his
justice seeking, forever indisposed to the moral high-ground, forever -
worldly.
36. Finger
rolls, fish fingers, microlight headphones all correspond to an
electron-wavicle equivalent, in contrast to round rolls, fish cakes, and
conventional headphones, which correspond to an electron-particle
equivalent. On the one hand, a
transcendental communist parallel, on the other hand a democratic communist
parallel. Idealism and naturalism of an
omega-oriented order.
37. To
distinguish scooters from motorbikes on the basis of an alpha/omega dichotomy,
with scooters alpha stemming because of the ring-like impression created by the
space between the seating section and the steering column, but motorbikes omega
orientated on account of the more centralized impression created by the centrally-positioned
engine within a continuous frame - in short, a kind of centrifugal/centripetal
distinction with, on the one hand, fascist and, on the other, communist
implications. In fact, one should also
distinguish between 'fascist' scooters and 'nazi' scooters on the basis of a
wavicle/particle dichotomy, with Lambretta-type scooters suggesting a wavicle
equivalent but Vespa-type scooters a particle one ... on account of the
distinction between, in the one case, narrow and, in the other case,
bubble-shaped panelling - a distinction which corresponds to alpha divine
(Fatheristic) and alpha diabolic (Satanic) alternatives, the one more
applicable, as I have contended elsewhere, to Fascism and the other to
Nazism. Thus whereas one could imagine
Mussolini on a Lambretta, one would have to reserve for Hitler the possibility
of a particle-suggesting Vespa.
38. However
that may be, a particle/wavicle dichotomy should also be borne in mind for
motorbikes at the omega-oriented, or communist, poles of their respective
(idealistic and naturalistic) spectra, with lightweight motorbikes, especially
when highly streamlined, suggestive of a wavicle equivalent, but heavyweight
motorbikes, particularly when comparatively unstreamlined, suggestive of a
particle equivalent - transcendental and democratic alternatives within a
communist framework, which, as with their alpha counterparts, implies a
divine/diabolic dichotomy, as between the Second Coming and the
Antichrist. However, whereas the alpha
dichotomy is negative, the omega one is positive - electrons rather than
protons, centripetal as opposed to centrifugal idealism and naturalism.
39. Taking
our fourfold earth, water, fire, and air distinctions (in that order), one
should be able to find military correlates for each of the elements, starting,
so I shall contend, with the infantry (earth), progressing to the marines
(water), progressing up to the artillery (fire), and culminating with the paras
(air). Thus there are military divisions,
as it were, which correspond to each of the elements, and it is my belief that
such divisions can be conceived in terms of an hierarchy stretching from
infantry at the bottom (earth) to paratroops at the top (air) via marines
(water) and artillery (fire) in-between, with realistic, materialistic,
naturalistic, and idealistic implications respectively, given the correlation
between realism and earth, materialism and water, naturalism and fire, and
idealism and air.
40. Consequently
we should have no hesitation in contending that countries will excel or
specialize in one or other of our military divisions according to whether there
is an overall elemental correspondence between the country in question and the
type of division we have in mind, i.e. that realistic countries will excel or
specialize in the infantry, materialistic countries in the marines,
naturalistic countries in the artillery, and idealistic countries in the
paras. This can be confirmed, I believe,
by the prestige and dependability accruing to the infantry in Britain (long a
realistic State), the marines in the USA (the world's foremost materialistic
State), the artillery in Russia (until the collapse of the Soviet Union the
world's foremost naturalistic State), and the paras in ... well, all
predominantly idealistic States, including Israel, Ireland, and (I would guess)
Germany. Accordingly, one should have no
hesitation in equating the marines with the main or most characteristic
American military division par
excellence. Now if
41. Thus
one could describe the infantry as worldly, the marines as purgatorial, the
artillery as diabolic, and the paras as divine, and whereas a worldly (earth)
army would be overwhelmingly composed of infantry battalions, a divine (air)
army would be no-less overwhelmingly composed of parachute battalions, whilst
in between would come the purgatorial and diabolic armies of a predominantly
marine and artillery composition respectively.
Of course, no country is or ever can be entirely one thing, i.e. totally
corresponding to a single elemental spectrum.
But a bias will normally be perceptible, and such a bias is both a key
to the country in question and - who knows? - an indication of what to expect
from it and how best to handle it in the event of hostilities.
42. It
has to be admitted that whereas woman is subjective about appearances but
objective about essences, man is objective about appearances but subjective
about essences.
43. Better
to be unwell and free than well and unfree.
44. An
elemental distinction between camp beds, water beds, sun beds, and air beds,
with earth-water-fire-air correlations respectively. Doubtless ordinary mattresses correlate with
earth, given their mundane construction.
45. Even now
there are people who are foolish and unimaginative enough to persist in
believing that, one day, Christ will literally return to the world in order to
set up His 'heavenly kingdom' there. But
where, one wonders, would He go, in the event of such a return?
46. Just
as we distinguish between barbarism and civilization, so we should distinguish
between a barbarous civilization and a civilized barbarism, reserving for the
former an equation with omega-in-the-alpha and for the latter an equation with
alpha-in-the-omega, barbarism per se of course corresponding to alpha and
civilization (in the non-Spenglerian sense of that term) to omega. Thus in between the historical extremes of
barbarism and civilization (the latter of which has still to come) one will
find the barbarous civilization, for example, of the Catholic Middle Ages, and
the civilized barbarism of the modern Industrial/Technological Age,
particularly as applying to the capitalist West. For it has to be admitted that we live in a
barbarous age, when material values and the economic competition underlying
them are paramount, to the detriment of any true spirituality such that alone
accords with civilization in the most genuine sense of that term. The West is less a civilization than a
civilized barbarity, and only with its future eclipse will the light of true
civilization be able to shine in the spirits of a superhumanity orientated
towards the omega goal of evolution in pure transcendence. Certainly we are not yet - except in
comparatively rare instances - truly civilized.
Only when the centripetal triumphs over the centrifugal will true
civilization, and thus ultimate morality, finally come to pass.
47. On a
parallel basis to the above, one could argue that whereas a three-quarter
length hooded zipper corresponds to barbarous civilization, a collapsible
umbrella corresponds, especially when sheathed, to civilized barbarism. Full-sized umbrellas, by contrast, would
correspond to the barbarous, and waist-length hooded zippers to the
civilized. Many other parallels could be
cited, including that between acoustic guitars and upright pianos on the one
hand (barbarous civilization and civilized barbarism), or grand pianos and
electric guitars on the other hand (barbarism and civilization). For in the one case we are dealing with an
omega-in-the-alpha/alpha-in-the-omega dichotomy, whereas in the other case we
have a straight alpha/omega dichotomy, as regarding the absolutely centrifugal
(immoral) and the absolutely centripetal (moral).
48. Since
my work is largely based on elemental spectra or, at any rate, the four basic
elements and their correlations on Earth, I should like to return to the
subject by positing a connection between each of the Seasons and the elements
in question, beginning with what I perceive as a connection between Spring and
earth, proceeding to the connection between Summer and fire, proceeding still
further to the connection between Autumn and air, and concluding with the
connection between Winter and water.
Thus in conjunction with my previous theories outlining correlations
between earth and realism, water and materialism, fire and naturalism, and air
and idealism, I should like to define Spring as the realistic season (earth),
Winter as the materialistic season (water), Summer as the naturalistic season
(fire), and Autumn as the idealistic season (air), bearing in mind the
correspondence between earth and plants, water and snow and/or ice, fire and
the sun, and air and wind, which correspond to each of the Seasons.
49. However,
the progression of the Seasons is not on an hierarchical basis from realism to
idealism, as from Spring to Autumn, with Winter and Summer coming in-between,
but follows a non-hierarchical ascent from Spring to Summer, as from realism
(earth) to naturalism (fire), and thereafter a descent from Autumn to Winter,
as from idealism (air) to materialism (water), Winter being no less the
antithesis of Summer (as water of fire), than Autumn is the antithesis of
Spring (as air of earth). One could
contend, in reverting to a former analogy, that whereas Winter is an American
season and Summer a Russian one, Autumn is an Irish season and Spring a British
one, bearing in mind our equation of America with materialism (water), Russia
with naturalism (fire), Ireland with idealism (air), and Britain with realism
(earth), so that, exceptions notwithstanding, each of the peoples cited would
be happiest and most 'in their element', so to speak, during the season which
appeared to correspond to their respective elemental biases. Perhaps it is more than mere coincidence to
the above contentions that whereas the climax to the English football season is
in late spring, i.e. with the F.A. Cup Final, the climax to the Irish, or
Gaelic, football season is in early autumn, i.e. with the Maguire Cup. Certainly the evidence would suggest as much!
50. If
scooters are absolutely centrifugal (ring-like) on account of their
alpha-stemming 'head' status, then it seems to me that open-topped two-seater
sports cars are relatively centrifugal on account of their 'bodily' status as
cars, and that one can therefore plot a descent from alpha divine and/or
diabolic parallels (depending on the type of scooter) to alpha worldly and/or
purgatorial parallels (depending on the type of sports car in question), after
which point a link with conventional four-seaters will lead to enclosed
two-seaters of an omega worldly and/or purgatorial parallel (depending on the
type of sports car in question) which, by dint of their 'bodily' status, we can
designate as relatively centripetal (badge-like) in relation to the absolutely
centripetal 'head' status of motorbikes, whether of an omega divine or diabolic
parallel (again depending on the type of motorbike). Thus from scooters to open-topped two-seaters
on the one hand, and from enclosed two-seaters to motorbikes on the other, with
four-seaters coming in-between as a kind of Liberal middle-ground vis-à-vis
Conservative and Labour extremes in relation to two-seaters, and Fascist and Communist
extremes in relation to scooters and motorbikes respectively. Hence alpha and omega flanking the World
(including its purgatorial partner), as two-wheel vehicles flank four-wheel
ones. If scooters are absolutely
immoral, then open-topped sports cars are relatively immoral. If motorbikes are absolutely moral, then
enclosed two-seaters are relatively moral.
Four-seaters, situated in between, are simply amoral, like Liberalism -
that neutron equivalent vis-à-vis proton and electron extremes.
51. In
returning to Spengler's historical divisions in regard to 'Historyless Chaos',
'Culture', 'Civilization', and 'Second Religiousness' (in that order), I would
deem 'Historyless Chaos' the age of bad doing (naturalism), 'Culture' the age
of bad being (realism), 'Civilization' (the present age) the age of good doing
(materialism), and 'Second Religiousness' the age of good being
(idealism). Bad doing, which includes
physical strife, I categorize as a proton-particle equivalent; bad being, which
includes prayer (a 'worldly' form of meditation), I categorize as a
proton-wavicle equivalent; good doing, which includes socialistic progress, I
categorize as an electron-particle equivalent; and, finally, good being, which
involves pure meditation, I categorize as an electron-wavicle equivalent. Doubtless good doing is preferable, from an
evolutionary standpoint, to bad being, if only because, like all theological
falls from a higher precedent, it indirectly paves the way for a superior mode
of being, without which there could be no true salvation.
52. If
Fascism is neo-alpha and Communism omega, then it need not surprise us that
whereas Fascism will have a military bias, Communism will give due priority to
the police, who, in relation to the army, correspond to an omega
affiliation. Fascism is militarist on
account of its neo-pagan and fundamentally autocratic integrity. Communism, on the other hand, is what might
be termed 'policist' on account of its transcendental and essentially
theocratic integrity. Protons and
electrons across a neutron divide.
Similarly, although 'Final Solutions' accrue to both fascist and
communist integrities, it will be found that, as a rule, the fascist form of
Final Solution takes on a destructive character in line with its proton essence,
whereas the communist form of Final Solution is more likely to be constructive,
in accordance with the electron essence of Communism. Hence where the one ideology seeks to
liquidate people(s) perceived as hostile or irrelevant to its integrity, the
other seeks to transport such people(s) to places, preferably abroad, where
they can start a new life under different conditions. Transportation rather than liquidation is the
essence of a communist Final Solution.
53. Bourgeois
republics are less free-electron societies than societies of compromise between
neutron (capitalist) and electron (worker) equivalents, with the former
dominating the latter. People's
republics, on the other hand, can and do achieve a free-electron standing,
albeit of a particle rather than a wavicle bias (such as would accrue to the
Centre). Constitutional monarchies, by
contrast, are fully atomic, with proton (aristocratic) as well as neutron
(capitalist) and electron (worker) equivalents, and therefore are not even
relatively free societies (from proton roots or constraints) but societies in
which the great majority, both neutron and electron, are bound, as subjects, to
the proton root ... of the reigning monarch.
Even bourgeois republics are relatively free in relation to such
constitutional monarchies, although somewhat short of the absolute freedom of
People's republics, which are of course above neutron compromise in
free-electron absolutism. Yet such
absolute freedom, germane to a particle bias, is not an end-in-itself but the
precondition of a new binding, the ultimate binding of a religiously sovereign
People to their own divinity, as Holy Spirit, in the electron-wavicle cohesion
of a Social Transcendentalist Centre.
54. Interesting
how a given subject or context, such as swimming, can be subdivided into what
appear to be elemental equivalents, as when we equate backstroke with earth on
account of its fundamentally water-denying nature (face up), front crawl with
water on account of its water-affirming nature (face down), breaststroke with
fire on account of its breast-centred, short-breathed, and altogether more
elevated nature (head well above the water), and butterfly with air on account
of its air-affirming gulps as arms and chest heave out of the water in an almost
gravity-defying resolve which suggests not so much swimming as flying. In my elemental view, using the term
philosophically, backstroke is the lowest and most basic stroke, corresponding
to earth, while butterfly is the highest and most complicated stroke,
corresponding to air - the one having realistic (British) implications and the
other idealistic (Irish) implications.
By contrast, front crawl and breaststroke, corresponding to water and
fire respectively, suggest intermediate stages analogous to materialism
(Americans) and naturalism (Russians), though front crawl must remain the swimming stroke par excellence, given its correlation with water and
water-affirming integrity. For swimming
is essentially a materialistic activity, and therefore the stroke which is most
correlative with materialism will have the speed advantage over all the others,
which will stand as realistic, naturalistic, and idealistic asides, or
subdivisions, within the overall context of water materialism. One could also argue, in seeking sexual
parallels with each stroke, that whereas backstroke is a heterosexual stroke,
front crawl is a homosexual one, given the realistic/materialistic distinctions
which exist between the two lowest (bodily) modes of swimming. By contrast, breaststroke would correlate
with plastic-inflatable and/or vibrator sexuality (depending on the swimmer's
gender, although, in point of fact, women are more given to breaststroke than
men as a rule, which is partly attributable to their heart-affirming, or emotional,
essence), and butterfly with masturbatory pornographic sexuality, given the
naturalistic/idealistic distinctions which exist between the two highest (head)
modes of swimming.
55. While
on the subject of subdivisions, it should be possible to detect a kind of
earth-water-fire-air parallel to the above in the context of artificial
heating, which extends, it seems to me, from electric fires with artificial
coal impressions (earth) to fan heaters (air) via central heating (water) and
plain electric fires (fire). Similarly,
I believe an antithetical parallel to such elemental spectra, in the context of
naturalistic heating, can be posited on the basis of an extension of coal fires
(earth) to gas fires (air) via oil stoves (water) and log fires (fire), so that,
placing the two elemental quartets in an alpha/omega antithesis, we shall
have:-
ALPHA OMEGA
gas
stoves fan heaters
log
fires electric bar fires
oil
stoves central heating
coal
fires electric coal fires
with, by and large, centrifugal implications on
the one hand, that of the alpha naturalistic, and centripetal implications on
the other hand, that of the omega artificial, the former relatively immoral and
the latter relatively or, rather (within certain limits), absolutely moral,
depending on the spectrum in question.
Certainly, if we can distinguish between alpha and omega heating
extremes in this way, then logic would suggest the likelihood of a sort of
amoral middle-ground in between, corresponding to each of the elemental
spectra, and doubtless we would do well, as experience has shown, to divide
such a middle ground into alpha-stemming and omega-oriented alternatives, so
that each spectrum would afford us two amoral possibilities, were we to rack our
brains for modes of heating which appear to stand in between the above-listed
antitheses, like, for example, fires that combine both natural and artificial
alternatives or use coke (smokeless fuel) instead of coal - definitely
alpha-stemming (earth) amoral in relation to electric/coal option fires; or
bundles of chopped wood instead of logs - doubtless alpha-stemming (fire)
amoral in relation to multi-filament electric fires; or paraffin instead of oil
- doubtless alpha-stemming (water) amoral in relation to the older and bulkier
forms of central heating, and so on.
56. However
that may be, heating no less than swimming provides us with elemental
correspondences and, knowing this, we should strive to heat our rooms in
accordance with the elemental spectrum with which we most identify and, if
possible, on the highest, most moral terms.
No-one who is left wing, or who considers himself such, should use any
of the alpha, or naturalistic, modes of heating; for they more accord,
depending on the spectrum, with either a conservative (bottom two) or a fascist
(top two) bias than with either a socialist or a communist one. Philosophy can help us divide the wood from
the trees, as it were, and live in the light of our better knowledge.
57. The
natural comes in between two forms of the supernatural, viz. alpha and
omega. The natural is inherently worldly
and, in human terms, democratic, whereas the supernatural is either hellish or
heavenly, that is to say autocratic in the alpha context, but theocratic in the
omega one. A distinction, as it were,
between the Father and the Holy Ghost (or, in the strictly diabolic case, Satan
and the Antichrist), with Christ coming in-between as worldly naturalism, and
never more so than as a neutron equivalent (Protestant) vis-à-vis proton and
electron extremes. The worldly natural
stems from the autocratic supernatural but, unbeknown to itself, will in turn
be superseded by the theocratic supernatural, which stems from it as surely as
it stemmed from the alpha supernatural.
Neutrons stemming from protons and electrons stemming from neutrons, as
age supersedes age in the struggle which is historically unfolding.
58. On
the basis that I distinguished between open-topped two-seaters as Conservative
and enclosed two-seaters as Labourite either side of a four-seater middle
ground (Liberal), it should be logically consistent to contend that novels will
be flanked by poetic novellas (novelettes) on the alpha-stemming Right, and by
philosophic novellas (novelettes) on the omega-oriented Left - indeed, that
poetic fiction, corresponding to open-topped two-seaters, and philosophic
fiction, corresponding to enclosed two-seaters, should only be conceived of in
novella form, given their relatively alpha-stemming and omega-oriented
significance either side of a Liberal middle-ground, in this case that of
general fiction, which is rather more narrative and even dramatic than poetic
or philosophic. Similarly, we should
have no hesitation in ascribing an alpha-stemming bodily significance to cigarettes
smoked in or via cigarette-holders, on account of the ring-like constitution of
the latter, which, corresponding to poetic novellas and open-topped
two-seaters, would contrast with cigarette smoking of a more conventional or,
at any rate, independent order, that equivalent of the philosophical novella
and enclosed two-seater to which, on account of its uniquely centripetal
character, we may ascribe an omega-oriented bodily significance analogous to
the parliamentary Left. In between each
mode of cigarette smoking, however, come cigars, paralleling novels and
four-seaters, and if smoking cigarettes in holders is Tory, then cigar smoking
is comparatively Liberal, an amoral middle-ground in between relatively immoral
alpha and absolutely moral omega bodily extremes.
59. Further
to our distinctions between scooters as fascistic and motorbikes as communistic
either side of the liberal middle-ground ... of cars, I should like to
distinguish between scooters and motorbikes with sidecars and
particle-suggesting sports cars (to which we may ascribe a materialistic
significance vis-à-vis naturalistic scooters and motorbikes on the one hand,
and realistic sports cars on the other hand, the former particle suggesting and
the latter wavicle suggesting), reserving to the sidecar combinations a head
(brain) materialistic status, so that we can speak of two kinds of materialism,
viz. purgatorial and worldly, depending on whether we are referring to sidecar
combinations or to sports cars, with alpha and omega distinctions between
scooters with sidecars on the one hand, and motorbikes with sidecars on the
other hand. Unlike realism, materialism
cannot be conceived solely in terms of the bodily, since it also embraces the
head, with particular reference to the brain, both in its old-brain and
new-brain manifestations. Now while
sidecar combinations are ideologically lower than independent scooters or
motorbikes, they are nonetheless ideologically higher than particle-suggesting
sports cars, a superior mode of materialism which, as I have contended, has
purgatorial rather than worldly implications.
60. As we
descend from protons to neutrons and ascend from neutrons to electrons, we
ought to distinguish between negative and positive neutrons, as well as allow
for a strictly neutral middle-ground position in between, since neutron
equivalents are more complex than at first meets the eye. Take cars in relation to scooters and
motorbikes. A descent, as I have
contended, from a proton absolutism (scooter) to a neutron relativity
(open-topped two-seaters) leading via a more neutral relativity (four-seaters)
to an ascent from a neutron relativity (enclosed two-seaters) to an electron
absolutism (motorbikes). Now since the
neutron relativities are not homogeneous but decidedly heterogeneous,
stretching from open-topped two-seaters to enclosed two-seaters via
conventional four-seaters, it must follow that open-topped two-seaters
correspond to a negative neutron relativity, enclosed two-seaters to a positive
neutron relativity, and conventional four-seaters to a neutral neutron
relativity, since they stretch across a bodily spectrum, from alpha to omega
via a strictly liberal middle-ground and are not, like scooters and motorbikes,
akin to either proton or electron extremes.
The most we can say for the worldly alpha is that it has a strong proton
bias, that negative neutron relativity is commensurate with a proton bias, just
as positive neutron relativity, its omega-oriented antithesis, has an electron
bias, a bias which yet falls short (as cars vis-à-vis motorbikes) of a true
electron status.
61. But
if we can successfully apply such a theory to cars vis-à-vis scooters and
motorbikes, then what is to prevent us from applying it just as successfully,
say, to parliament vis-à-vis fascist and communist extremes, and thus from
seeing in the Conservative-Liberal-Labour parliamentary trinity not a
proton-neutron-electron parallel but, on the contrary, a neutron heterogeneity
stretching from negative neutron relativity on the Right to positive neutron
relativity on the Left via a neutral neutron relativity in the (Liberal)
centre? For, certainly, parliament is no
less an integral genre or context than, say, cars in relation to scooters or
motorbikes, and if all cars are of a neutron equivalent vis-à-vis proton and
electron extremes, then it must follow that all parliamentarians are likewise
neutron equivalents vis-à-vis fascist (proton) and communist (electron)
extremes, in which case we would have no right to hype-up the parliamentary
Right or Left into some kind of proton/electron antagonism, but would be
constrained to admit that such antagonism as exists is strictly within neutron
bounds (as between negative and positive manifestations thereof), and therefore
will never correspond to the ferocious 'us or them' antagonism which must
necessarily exist - and has long existed - between Fascists and Communists or,
for that matter, the analogous antagonism of Mods and Rockers, the former
proton equivalents (since pertaining to scooters) and the latter electron
equivalents (since pertaining to motorbikes).
A parliamentary democracy is, precisely by dint of its neutron
integrity, a bourgeois democracy; for the bourgeois is nothing if not
a neutron equivalent in between proton (aristocratic) and electron
(proletarian) extremes, a truly democratic and, hence, amoral animal who fights
shy of both immoral autocratic and moral theocratic alternatives, a neutron
Christian for whom both proton paganism and electron transcendentalism are
alike anathema. Only where the electron
proletariat are sovereign can one speak of a People's democracy, but such a
democracy will only be possible where the People are truly electron equivalents
and not, as is usually the case in bourgeois democracies, either proton peasants
or neutron artisans, for whom life under a parliamentary thumb is if not ideal
then, at an rate, far from intolerable.
Needless to say, this does not apply to that electron minority of
hard-boiled proletarians for whom parliamentary democracy is at best a sick
joke, at worst an unbearable yoke. (I am
especially thinking of those who habitually dress in leather jackets and ride
around on motorbikes.)
62. Two
further tripartite (proton-neutron-electron) parallels to the above, as to our
scooter-car-motorbike parallel, would be magazines - books - tapes
(literature), and scores - records - tapes (music), noting that we proceed from
alpha appearances to omega essences, from the centrifugal to the centripetal
via a neutron middle-ground which combines appearances with essences in a
synthesis that could be described as either essential appearances (negative
neutrons), apparent essences (positive neutrons), or, with regard to a strictly
neutron integrity in between, a combination of essential appearances and apparent
essences (neutral neutrons). Certainly
magazines are usually more apparent (photographic) than essential (literary),
and the more purely photographic a magazine is, the more will it approximate to
an alpha absolutism, as it were, of far-right ideological implications. Of course, there are what might be described
as contiguous overlappings between magazines with a relatively high percentage
of words and books with a relatively high percentage of drawings and/or
photographs, the latter of which would, however, be right wing in relation to
purely literary books, especially those of a philosophic order, which are less
essential appearances (photographs, drawings, etc., annotated upon) than
apparent essences, essence being 'apparent' when in print or conveyed through
the medium of print, but becoming purely essential when elevated, through
cassette recordings, beyond print to a wholly aural status. (It is this fact which precludes me from
regarding cassettes in a fascistic light, as scooter-equivalent ring-like
phenomena antithetical, on an alpha/omega basis, to compact discs, with
records, viz. LPs, singles, coming in-between.
Now tapes cannot be one thing, i.e. omega, in a literary context and be
a completely different thing, i.e. alpha, in a musical one. That privilege is reserved, it seems to me,
for scores, both in the 'head' context of jazz and in the comparatively
'bodily' context of classical, as concerning fascist and conservative
right-wing alternatives. For music
becomes absolutely essential when confined to cassette and even to record,
whereas on scores it is apparent, i.e. can be read, and thus approximates to an
alpha status.) When books and tapes are
combined, as with some language courses, one has a parallel to motorbikes with
sidecar, which I would regard as a bound-electron equivalent, in contrast to
either a positive neutron equivalent, i.e. philosophic paperback and/or
enclosed two-seater, or a free-electron equivalent, i.e. philosophic tape
and/or free-standing motorbike. For such
book/tape combinations are transitional, it seems to me, between left-wing
books and philosophic tapes - the ultimate, because truly essential, mode of
philosophical presentation.
63. Concerning
the subject of our scooter-car-motorbike triad, it seems to me that mopeds
should be regarded as a sort of cross between scooters and motorbikes, since
they are both alpha stemming and omega orientated at the same time, having a
scooter-like gap in between the seat and the steering column, but otherwise
resembling a motorbike to the extent that the overall design is usually more
essential than apparent, with particular regard to the engine being largely 'on
view' rather than hidden behind scooter-like panelling. Thus with mopeds, in both wavicle- and
particle-suggesting kinds, we have a sort of paradoxical proton/electron
integrity which, whilst indubitably middle ground in relation to proton
(scooter) and electron (motorbike) extremes, is nevertheless distinct from the
neutron middle-ground status of cars - indeed, as distinct from such a status,
I would argue, as melody from harmony in music, both of which are comparatively
middle ground in relation to rhythm on the one hand and to pitch on the other
hand. In fact, with such a
proton/electron middle-ground one has, it seems to me, a parallel with
anarchism, which is surely a head-level middle-ground in between Fascism on the
one hand and Communism on the other, while being in an analogous position
vis-à-vis bodily Liberalism as mopeds to cars or, for that matter, melody to
harmony. However that may be, a
proton/electron middle-ground is certainly amoral in relation to immoral alpha
and moral omega extremes - only it is dynamically as opposed to statically
amoral, like neutron cars, harmony, Liberalism, etc.
64. On
the subject of alternative middle-ground parallels flanked by alpha and omega
extremes, it seems to me that Catholicism is a proton/electron 'dynamic' form
of middle-ground Christianity in between paganism and transcendentalism, that
is to say proton alpha and electron omega extremes, while Protestantism
corresponds to a neutron 'static' form of middle-ground Christianity directly
under the Catholic variety, rather like harmony to melody in music, or cars to
mopeds in road transportation, or liberalism to anarchism in politics. Thus whereas Catholicism is a 'head' level
form of middle-ground religion, Protestantism is decidedly 'bodily', germane to
a more democratic and, hence, worldly type of humanity. Certainly we are less concerned, in
Protestantism, with an 'abraxas' Christ who alternates between alpha and omega
extremes, damning and saving as the context demands, than with a mundane and,
on the whole, democratic Christ, rooted in worldly wisdom and fighting shy of
both autocratic (Father) and theocratic (Holy Spirit) extremes - the extremes
of alpha and omega supernaturalism. The
Protestant Christ, like Protestantism itself, is comparatively natural and
humanistic, and therefore a neutron equivalent.
65. As
regards the pagan and transcendental absolutes which would appear to flank
anarchism (to be sure, Catholicism is an anarchic mode of Christianity,
alternating between alpha and omega, protons and electrons, sins and graces,
though relatively stabilized through the Confessional, that focal-point, outside
Christ, of Catholic paradox), I tend to regard Ecology as probably the most
striking form of contemporary 'paganism', bearing in mind that, strictly
speaking, Ecology is not politics or a political movement so much as a
religious movement concerned less with human beings than with their
relationship to and survival in the natural environment - in other words, a
supra-human context which transcends politics through its concern with the
more-than-human or, more correctly in this case, the less-than-human, namely
nature. No, Ecologists are not
politicians but unconscious proponents of a highly topical form of
neo-paganism, and against them, as motorbikes against scooters, I posit
omega-oriented Transcendentalists, more specifically such Social Transcendentalists
as myself, whose concern with the more-than-human places them in a
diametrically antithetical relationship to those who, for alpha-stemming
reasons best known to themselves, would have us reverse the trend of evolution
towards the transcendent Beyond in the name of an earthly paradise in which men
live, like contented animals, in harmony with and enslaved to nature. Ecologists are to religion what Fascists are
to politics: neo-alpha reactionaries who strive to defend nature from those who
would transcend it in pursuit of artificial and spiritual progress towards the
omega supernatural, those truly moral men for whom the electron internal is
more important than the proton external, and who, whether as Communists or
Transcendentalists, whether, that is to say, in relation to man or to that
which transcends him, strive to bring about a truly moral society on earth, one
which negates nature in both its human and pre-human manifestations.
66. From
computer appearances (keyed-in words/graphics) to radio essences (spoken
words/music) via television essential appearances/apparent essences
(actions/speech) - a triadic parallel to our proton-proton/electron-electron
distinctions, with, in all probability, record players corresponding to the
neutron middle-ground underneath the proton/electron middle-ground of
television. For record players, with
their rectilinear speakers, are certainly bodily in relation to televisions,
not to mention computers and radios.
67. If
the proton alpha position is naturalistic (fire) and the electron omega
position idealistic (air), then the proton/electron position in between is
materialistic (water) and the neutron position underneath realistic
(earth). Consequently whereas extreme
right-wing politics is naturalistic, extreme left-wing politics is idealistic,
whereas middle ground 'head' politics is materialistic and middle ground
'bodily' politics realistic. Fascism
corresponds to fire but Communism to air.
Anarchism corresponds to water but Liberalism to earth. In fact, we could alternatively choose to say
that fire is a fascist element but air a communist one, or that water is
anarchic but earth liberal.
68. However
that may be, the same applies to religion, with paganism (Ecology)
corresponding to fire (soul) and transcendentalism (Social Transcendentalism)
to air (spirit), but Catholicism corresponding to water (intellect) and
Protestantism to earth (will), fire and air no less horizontally antithetical
than water and earth are vertically antithetical, if we bear in mind the
overall T-shape of our contentions, with fire, water, and air at the top but
earth at the bottom or, more specifically, corresponding to the lower end of
the vertical sign. Atomic Truth, it
seems, is a T-like arrangement of protons, neutrons, and electrons in such
fashion, with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost implications - the Father a proton
absolute, the Son either a neutron middle-ground, as in Protestantism, or an
oscillation between (Virgin Mary) protons and (Second Coming) electrons, as in
Catholicism, and the Holy Ghost an electron absolute - the omega goal of
spiritual striving. Verily, the truth
about atomic Truth is that only when the Holy Ghost is triumphant ... will
mankind be saved, saved from both protons and neutrons for an electron heaven -
the coming post-Human(ist) Millennium of proletarian peace!
69. Words
like 'individualism' and 'collectivism' are relative and, therefore, neither
indicative of a good nor of a bad state-of-affairs per se. Individualism, like collectivism, can be
either good (essential) or bad (apparent), depending on the context. There is good individualism and bad
individualism, good collectivism and bad collectivism. Reverting, once again, to the Spenglerian
distinctions between 'Historyless Chaos', 'Culture', 'Civilization', and
'Second Religiousness', one could contend that 'Historyless Chaos' was
commensurate with bad individualism, i.e. autocratic rule (apparent); that 'the
Culture' (broadly corresponding to the Catholic Middle Ages) was commensurate
with good collectivism, i.e. Christian fellowship in a 'brotherhood of man'
(essential); that 'the Civilization' (the contemporary democratic age par excellence) is commensurate with bad
collectivism, i.e. democratic sovereignty (apparent); and that 'Second
Religiousness' will be commensurate with good individualism, i.e. spiritual
self-realization (essential). Thus it
would seem that individualism flanks collectivism on both alpha and omega
terms, corresponding to apparent and essential extremes, while collectivism is
divisible, within bodily or worldly terms, between Church and State, 'Culture'
and 'Civilization' - the former essential (wavicle) and the latter apparent
(particle), with religious and secular implications respectively. From proton particles (alpha bad
individualism) to proton wavicles (omega-in-the-alpha good collectivism), and
from electron particles (alpha-in-the-omega bad collectivism) to electron
wavicles (omega good individualism) - the metaphysical distinctions, if you
like, which underlie the more concrete manifestations of individualism and
collectivism, both good (catholic/transcendental) and bad (feudal/democratic).
70. Truly,
individualism can be both morally inferior and superior to collectivism,
depending on the type of individualism in question. From the autocratic One to the theocratic
Many, and from the democratic Many to the transcendental One - a devolution
from bad individualism (autocracy) to good collectivism (theocracy) on the one
hand, and an evolution from bad collectivism (democracy) to good individualism
(supertheocracy) on the other hand, as regards the Father and Christ where the
devolutionary polarity is concerned, but with regard to the Antichrist and the
Holy Spirit in relation to the evolutionary polarity. In between the Father and Christ we have the
Blessed Virgin, and in between the Antichrist and the Holy Spirit we shall find
the Second Coming, both of whom are rather akin to neutron equivalents
vis-à-vis alpha and omega extremes, serving as a link between Christ (electrons)
and the Father (protons) in the one case, i.e. that of the Blessed Virgin, but
between the Antichrist (protons) and the Holy Spirit (electrons) in the other,
i.e. that of the Second Coming. For just
as no outer communion with the Father is possible for Catholics except through
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, so no inner communion with the Holy
Spirit will be possible for Transcendentalists except through the intermediary
medium of the Second Coming.
71. Modern
music, with particular regard to jazz and rock, provides us with the
paradoxical phenomenon of acoustic instruments (saxophone, trumpet, flute,
trombone, etc.) often played in a pitch- and, by implication, omega-oriented
way, in contrast to the rhythmic and, by implication, alpha-stemming way in
which electric instruments (guitars, keyboards, synthesizers, etc.) are often
played, the former largely pertaining to jazz and the latter to rock, the
instruments usually employed in the one context (jazz) being of a largely
centrifugal and hence alpha-stemming design, those usually employed in the
other context (rock) being of a largely centripetal and hence omega-oriented
design, the contradictions between instruments and methods of performance in
each context all the more paradoxical for the above-mentioned reasons. Yet such an apparent paradox doubtless
conforms to the atomic, open-society pressure which contemporary musicians live
under in their resolve not to be too absolute, and thus idealistic or extremist,
but to achieve a 'realistic' compromise between the moral nature of their
respective instruments, whether of a centripetal or a centrifugal bias, and a
contrary way of performing on them - jazz apparently immoral (from the
instrumental point-of-view) but essentially moral (from the musical
point-of-view), rock apparently moral (from the instrumental point-of-view) but
essentially immoral (from the musical point-of-view); the one predominantly
pitch orientated and the other predominantly rhythmic. Exceptions to the general rule notwithstanding,
the age of a truly pitch-oriented music played on centripetally-biased electric
instruments has still to come, and then only, in my opinion, following the
eclipse of worldly atomicity by free-electron absolutism. Such an age, besides transcending the
paradoxical atomicities between omega-oriented instruments, like electric
guitars, and alpha-stemming musical integrities, would also transcend
centrifugally-biased instruments like trumpets and saxophones, and thus get
beyond jazz. It would be communistic
through and through.
72. Consciousness
is a neutron equivalent flanked by negative and positive will, proton and
electron emotions. By itself,
consciousness is not will, neither in its subconscious nor its superconscious
manifestations. A man does not act at
the sight of a woman unless she is extremely attractive and arouses positive
feelings in him which can then be acted upon.
He kisses a woman he is in love with, but does not usually act in such a
fashion towards women if he is not in love.
Love is a powerful positive emotion, and hence a manifestation of
electron will. Hate, by contrast, is a
powerful negative emotion, and hence a manifestation of proton will. Hatred can lead to violence, but violence
will not arise from consciousness alone, which, as already noted, is neutral in
its stance before life. It is precisely
the soul and the spirit that are not neutral, since pertaining to both proton
and electron substrata of the brain on either negative or positive terms ...
with wavicle and particle distinctions, spirit being a wavicle substratum,
whether negative (proton) or positive (electron), soul being a particle
substratum, whether negative (proton) or positive (electron) - the difference,
in effect, between light and heat at both alpha and omega poles. The best and most courageous people do not,
like the Buddha, seek no pleasure (or pride or love or joy) in order to avoid
pain (or humiliation or hate or sadness), since that merely entails a neutral,
neutron stance in between negative and positive extremes of will. On the contrary, they pursue the positive
principle in a spirit of electron defiance, and take such proton drawbacks as
may arise from their behaviour with stoical perseverance. For there can be no Heaven where there is no
will to Heaven, even if your Heaven be less than truly divine (say, worldly),
and the will to Heaven is our most noble aspiration, without which we would
either be moored to Hell, as to some negative resolve (which, unfortunately, a
minority always are), or stuck in a Buddhist middle-ground of neutron
neutrality, condemned to a perpetual stasis of bourgeois mediocrity. Better the will to Heaven than no will at
all!
73. The
passive eye of neutron neutrality, the reactive eye of proton negativity, and
the attractive eye of electron positivity x 4, which is to say, interpreted in
regard to elemental spectra. For
example, the hateful eye of naturalistic (fiery) negativity vis-à-vis the
loving eye of naturalistic (fiery) positivity.
Or the sad eye of idealistic (airy) negativity vis-à-vis the joyful eye
of idealistic (airy) positivity. Hells
and heavens flanking neutral eyes of neutron passivity.
74. We
should learn to associate the way a man walks or, more correctly, the direction
of his feet, with a moral stance in life.
For it seems to me that a man gives himself away as much by the style of
his footsteps as by the position of his hands in relation to how he is
dressed. Thus we can distinguish between
feet turned outwards (centrifugal), feet turned inwards (centripetal), and feet
pointing straight ahead (neutral), which will give us immoral, moral, and
amoral alternatives or, if you prefer, parallels. To my mind, outwards-turned feet would
confirm an immoral bias appropriate to a hand-out-of-trouser pockets,
open-collar stance before the world; inwards-turned feet would confirm a moral
bias appropriate to a hand-in-(zipper-jacket)-pockets, T-shirt stance before
the world; and straight feet would confirm an amoral bias appropriate to a
hand-in-(trouser)-pockets, buttoned-collar stance before the world. The man with out-turned feet would suggest a
proton bias applicable to an extrovert temperament. The man with in-turned feet would suggest an
electron bias applicable to an introvert temperament. And the man with straight feet would suggest
a neutron bias applicable to a neutral, or bourgeois, temperament. Wills and consciousness.
75. To be
bourgeois is to have a bias for the conscious mind. To be grand bourgeois is to have a bias for
the subconscious mind. To be petty
bourgeois is to have a bias for the superconscious mind. To be other than bourgeois is to have a bias
for will, whether negatively or positively, good or ill, heaven or hell. Only the world is conscious (or subconscious
and superconscious). Autocratic negative
will, democratic consciousness, and theocratic positive will - Fathers, Sons,
and Holy Ghosts.
76. The
subnatural Father, the natural Christ, and the supernatural Holy Ghost, with
the pro-natural Blessed Virgin and the anti-natural Antichrist flanking alpha
and omega respectively.
77. Poetry
treats of the appearances, particularly when beautiful, of life; philosophy, by
contrast, treats of its essences ... truthfully. It is for this reason that, where computers
are concerned, Word-Processor Operators are akin to poets, whereas Computer
Programmers are akin to philosophers.
More accurately, one could describe Word Processing as 'poetical' but
Computer Programming as 'philosophical', since the one is primarily concerned
with appearances and the other with essences.
Alpha and omega of the computer.
78. Only
an androgynous muddlehead would say, à la Keats: 'Truth is
beauty, beauty truth'. For the one is
not the (inner or outer) equivalent of the other, since they are effectively opposite. Truth is the outer manifestation of joy,
beauty the outer manifestation of love, and consequently it would be no less
foolish to say: 'Joy is love, love joy' than what the Romantic poet, who
evidently understood little of essences, said or, rather, wrote.
79. If
true to itself philosophy is so profound (essential) that it will be hidden to
all but the deepest penetration. On the
other hand, poetry is so superficial (apparent) that it can only be 'seen
through' by the philosophical mind.
80. Musically
speaking, one is not saved until dead to rhythm and alive to pitch.
81. Art
and music are no less antithetical than poetry and philosophy - indeed, it is
the attraction of opposites which makes bedfellows of art and philosophy on the
one hand, and of music and poetry on the other hand. For poetry and art would be no less 'lesbian'
than philosophy and music ... 'homosexual' - relationships which, in sex as in
culture, are rather the exception to the general rule, unattractive if not
repellent.
82. Art -
and here I use that word in its broadest sense - is the spirituality of
materialism. For all art, whether
musical, pictorial, literary, or sculptural, is materialistic, i.e. dependent
on and produced by material means. Where
such means were taboo because infra dignum, there could be no art but only pure spirituality,
as befitting divinity.
83. To
some extent it could be argued, in elemental fashion, that music is the art
form of air (waves), painting the art form of fire (paint), literature the art
form of water (ink), and sculpture the art form of earth (clay), since there is
evidently a connotation, in each case, with one of the four main elements and
thus, by implication, with (in descending order) idealism (air), naturalism
(fire), materialism (water), and realism (earth), the air/idealism connotation
of music having spiritual implications, the fire/naturalism connotation of
painting having emotional implications, the water/materialism connotation of
literature having intellectual implications, and the earth/realism connotation
of sculpture having wilful implications, i.e. attesting to the defeat or
triumph of will. It could therefore be
argued that music is the heavenly art form par excellence, painting the hellish art form par
excellence, literature the purgatorial art form par excellence, and
sculpture the worldly art form par excellence.
84. It
was only comparatively recently, in fact towards the end of the nineteenth
century, that Western art became partly subjective and thus centripetal, as
though subject to the influence of oriental mysticism. Prior to the Impressionists and,
subsequently, the Expressionists, Western art had been either objective in a
classical manner or subjectively objective in a romantic one, which is to say,
either concerned with the objective depiction of external phenomena, as in
Classicism, or with the objective depiction of the self conceived externally as
phenomenon, as in much Romanticism where, in contrast to the classical concern
with others, self-portraiture becomes the focal-point of objectivity, a
paradoxical procedure which I have termed subjective objectivity. However, if the objectivity of the self
reflects a progression over that of the other, a progression commensurate with
omega-in-the-alpha as opposed to the alpha as such, then it was not until
artists began to concentrate their energies on the other from a subjective
viewpoint that what I shall term the objective subjectivity of
alpha-in-the-omega came to pass, commensurate with a progression from Romanticism
(essentially a thing of 'the Culture') to Impressionism/Expressionism (more
germane to 'the Civilization'), and a sort of alternative paradox wherein the
other is coloured by or depicted through the feelings and/or impressions of the
subjective self. If the subjective
objectivity of Romanticism was a kind of masculinized femininity, then the
objective subjectivity, for example, of Expressionism was a sort of feminized
masculinity, truly a transvaluated and anti-Western tendency which paved the
way, in due abstract time, for the unequivocally subjective art of the
abstractionists, whether impressionist or expressionist, which was to shift the
focus back to the self conceived subjectively as feelings, emotions,
impressions, etc., and thus bring art to a centripetal climax, a climax no less
moral than its inception and continuance in 'aristocratic' Classicism was
fundamentally immoral - which is to say objective, and hence feminine. From being 'aristocratic' (more correctly
grand bourgeois) and absolute, art had become first 'bourgeois' and relative
(whether from a Romantic or, subsequently, an Impressionist/Expressionist
point-of-view) and then 'proletarian' (more correctly petty bourgeois) and
absolute. It had progressed from the
autocratic to the theocratic via the democratic, from the Father to the Holy
Ghost via the Son, from protons to electrons via neutrons, from the centrifugal
to the centripetal via a paradoxical and wholly worldly cross between the
two. No less than objectivity was the
alpha of art, subjectivity was its omega.
After which, art could only be transcended by the truly proletarian
superart ... of light art of one kind or another.
85. In
relation to hardbacks, which reflect a realistic relativity between (soft)
paper and (hard) cover, paperbacks suggest a materialistic relativity
commensurate with their (soft) cover and (soft) paper, which places them in a
position, vis-à-vis hardbacks, analogous to water (coldness) vis-à-vis earth
(darkness) or, alternatively, purgatory vis-à-vis the world, neither of which
truly transcend the body ... except to the extent that tapes are used as a
supplement to paperbacks, as in some language courses at present. However, if books are either worldly or purgatorial,
then, to extend our analogue, tapes are diabolic and thus of an essence more
emotional than either wilful (as with hardbacks) or intellectual (as with
paperbacks) by dint of their dependence on and association with the aural
transmission of words. Superior,
however, to tapes (as paperbacks to hardbacks) are computer discs and the
correlative optical appreciation of words as light on a VDU, in which words are
redeemed and brought to a quasi-divine standing, a spiritual equation which
stands to tapes as air (light) to fire (heat), or as heaven to hell. Speaking less analogically, one could argue
that whereas tapes are naturalistic by dint of their correlation with emotions,
computer discs are idealistic by dint of their correlation with awareness, and
consequently we have a correspondence with soulful and spiritual substrata of
the superconscious psyche - in complete contrast to the intellectual and wilful
correspondence with the new brain and the body elicited by paperbacks and
hardbacks respectively, the former materialistic by dint of their correlation
with thoughts, and the latter realistic by dint of their correlation with
sensations, as well, of course, as in the rather more concrete sense we
discovered with regard to each medium of literary presentation at the beginning
of this entry.
86. However,
whatever the parallel we choose, whether analogical or literal, it has to be
concluded that the computer disc is the highest medium of literary or, more
specifically, philosophical presentation, as superior to cassettes as
paperbacks to hardbacks, and that proper justice cannot be done to divine Truth
until it has been presented via computer for VDU appreciation, wherein its
intrinsic illumination will have the appearance of light (centripetal) and thus
best serve the Divine. When it finally
comes to pass, the 'Kingdom of Heaven' will require that computer discs
supersede not only books but, to a lesser extent, tapes as well, since the
latter will be a sort of diabolic shortfall from its own divine integrity,
standing to discs as heat to light, or red to white, and thereby constituting a
kind of sin.
87. 'Liberal'
hardbacks, 'Socialist' softbacks, 'Communist' cassettes, 'Transcendentalist'
computer discs - an ideological progression from realism to idealism via
materialism and naturalism.
88. From
the objectivity of fools to the subjectivity of the wise. From the folly of birth to the wisdom of
rebirth. (Fools are born but wise men
are 'born again', i.e. transvaluated from an alpha-stemming to an
omega-oriented disposition.)
89. In
the distinction between LPs, compact discs, cassettes, and music videos ... we
have elemental parallels to earth, water, fire, and air, with realistic,
materialistic, naturalistic, and idealistic implications respectively, which,
transposed to a theological key, suggest the probability that LPs are worldly,
compact discs purgatorial, cassettes diabolic, and music videos divine ... as
we ascend from darkness to light via cold and heat equivalents. Thus LPs - earth/darkness, realism/world;
compact discs - water/coldness, materialism/purgatory; cassettes - fire/heat,
naturalism/hell; music videos - air/light, idealism/heaven.
90. Pornography
is the appearance of sex; sexual gadgets ... its essence. Both of these modern sexual extremes flank
natural sex and, for that matter, antinatural sex, or homosexuality, as Fascism
and Communism flank Liberalism/Socialism.
For pornography is no less an alpha-stemming phenomenon than sexual
gadgets are omega orientated, and if the one is largely immoral by dint of the
centrifugal nature of legs spread wide apart, then the other is comparatively
moral by dint of the centripetal nature of the gadgets in question, and may be
said to transcend the largely amoral nature of heterosexuality as such. An omega-oriented society could only be
anti-appearance and pro-essence (for which read: against pornography but for
sexual gadgets), since it would be highly moral.
91. Pornography
stands to sexual gadgets as music scores to compact discs, tapes, etc., which is
to say, as appearance to essence, or the immoral to the moral. Now just as heterosexuality is an amoral
middle-ground in between the fascistic immorality of pornography on the one
hand and the communistic morality of sex gadgets on the other, so musical
concerts are an amoral middle-ground, analogous to heterosexual relations, in
between music scores and recorded music, particularly on disc or tape. In fact, musical concerts are no-less
worldly, and hence liberal, than heterosexuality, each of which is flanked by
alpha and omega extremes.
92. Just
as music is classical when compact and romantic when free to expand in a
variety of not necessarily related musical directions, so it can be contended
of pornography that it is 'classical' when the model and/or models are modestly
displayed, but 'romantic' when limbs, and particularly legs, are spread wide
apart in an unequivocally centrifugal fashion.
From which it can be deduced that whereas pornographic 'romanticism' is
immoral, pornographic 'classicism' is comparatively amoral, if from an
alpha-stemming point of view.
93. We
should distinguish between particle and wavicle equivalents in pornography no
less than with regard to sexual gadgets.
For it seems to me that whereas the one focuses attention upon the
sexual organs alone, the other maintains a more general, and thus
comprehensive, perspective which should be described as idealistic rather than
naturalistic. Hence sex dolls, as
opposed to vaginal and/or phallic gadgets, for the omega-oriented wavicle
equivalent, but discretely displayed models, as opposed to highly erotic ones,
for the alpha-stemming wavicle equivalent, both of which would accord with
divine (immoral and moral) as opposed to diabolic (likewise immoral and moral)
parallels.
94. Compact
discs and computer discs are alike materialistic in relation to the realism of
LPs and books (paperbacks not excepted), the naturalism of cassettes (whether
verbal or musical), and the idealism of videos (whether verbal or musical). In other words, they assume a brain
equivalent in between the bodily equivalent of books and/or LPs on the one hand
and the psychic equivalent of (soulful) cassettes and (spiritual) videos on the
other hand, standing in a kind of purgatorial light to worldly, hellish, and heavenly
options. Probably computer discs are not
- contrary to what I thought earlier - the ultimate mode of literary
presentation but, rather, one coming in-between books and tapes (both audio and
video), since such discs suggest a new-brain equivalent which, by dint of its
atomic nature, can only be ideologically inferior to the superconscious
particle (soulful) equivalent of cassettes and the superconscious wavicle
(spiritual) equivalent of videos, while yet being ideologically superior to the
bodily equivalent of books. Thus it
would seem that spoken videos are the truly spiritual mode of literary
presentation, an air/light equivalent above the fire/heat equivalent of
cassettes, the water/coldness equivalent of computer discs, and the
earth/darkness equivalent of books.
Therefore whereas books are a worldly medium of literary presentation,
computer discs would be a purgatorial, cassettes a diabolic, and videos a
divine medium of literary presentation.
And this corresponds to the media of musical presentation ... beginning
with LPs and culminating, via compact discs and cassettes, with videos.
95. Paperbacks,
divisible into those with wraps and those without, are an alpha-stemming
worldly equivalent in the former context and an omega-oriented worldly equivalent
in the latter one, and may be said to flank hardbacks, with or without wrap,
much as cigarettes (with or without the use of a cigarette holder) flank
cigars, and two-seater cars (enclosed or open-topped) flank four-seaters. Indeed, paperbacks stand to hardbacks as
homosexuals to heterosexuals, with a lesbian parallel accruing to those with
wrap and a gay parallel to those without it, the very parallels which apply no
less to cigarettes and two-seaters (depending on the type), as well as to a host
of other worldly phenomena which, in contrast to proton and electron extremes,
assume a neutron significance with either a proton or an electron bias ...
depending on the type of extreme worldly phenomenon in question. Thus whereas hardbacks are a neutron
middle-ground, softbacks are a proton-biased neutron equivalent with wrap and
an electron-biased neutron equivalent without it, falling short of the proton
extremism of magazines (both literary and photographic) on the one hand, and
the electron extremism of tapes (both audio and video) on the other, just as
two-seater cars fall short, as extreme worldly phenomena, of scooters and
motorbikes - those alpha and omega 'head' equivalents above, with proton and
electron implications ... corresponding, in sexual terms, to pornography and to
sex dolls and/or gadgets respectively.
Doubtless computer discs signify a proton/electron oscillation, as
opposed to either a neutron middle-ground (as with books) or an extremism of proton
(magazine) or electron (tape) equation, and may be regarded as paralleling
mopeds vis-à-vis scooters on the proton Right and motorbikes on the electron
Left - in other words, as a sort of atomic equivalent, corresponding to the new
brain, in between the elemental extremes of new-brain subconscious and
superconscious parallels.
96. Politically
speaking, books are liberal, either literally in the case of hardbacks or in
terms of a radical Tory/Labour opposition in the case of paperbacks, with, so I
contend, a radical Tory parallel applying to those with wrap but, by contrast,
a Labour parallel applying to those without one. Magazines are fascistic and tapes
communistic, whereas computer discs may well be anarchistic, since assuming a
middle-ground 'head' standing in between the 'psychic' absolutes of magazines
and tapes respectively, while yet being ideologically superior (as the brain
vis-à-vis the body) to books, just as mopeds are in a sense ideologically
superior to cars, given their atomic (proton/electron) oscillations as opposed
to neutron standing in between (proton) scooters and (electron)
motorbikes. Of course, where magazines
and tapes are concerned we have to allow for a particle/wavicle dichotomy
corresponding to naturalistic and idealistic, or diabolic and divine
distinctions, so that word-biased magazines and audio tapes are perceived to be
in the particle category and image-biased magazines and video tapes in the
wavicle one, with alpha and omega implications respectively, that is to
say between print-biased magazines and
audio tapes on the one hand (naturalistic/diabolic spectrum), and photographic
magazines and video tapes on the other hand (idealistic/divine spectrum), the
former a proton-particle/electron-particle antithesis, the latter a
proton-wavicle/electron-wavicle antithesis, with subconscious and
superconscious implications to each antithesis, albeit within the framework of
the new brain as opposed to the old brain.
97. Returning
to the subject of sex, it could be argued that oral sex corresponds to an
atomic (proton/electron) middle-ground in between (proton) pornography and
(electron) plastic inflatables and/or gadgets, so that its relationship to
conventional heterosexuality is rather akin to that of the brain to the body
or, speaking analogically, of mopeds to cars, compact discs to LPs, and
computer discs to books, with an amoral status somewhat more oscillatory (as
between the vagina and the penis) than one-sided (as with conventional coitus,
which corresponds to a neutron middle-ground, as befitting a bodily equation). 'Giving head' is thus a lunar or purgatorial
mode of sex above the worldly mode, which is probably more congenial to
Catholics and intellectuals than to (bodily) Protestants and men of action, and
it is flanked, on a psychic basis, by the immoral and moral sexual extremes
referred to above.
98. The
more peace or the less war there is in the world, the less sex or the more
celibacy there will be. For war and sex
are two sides of the same naturalistic coin, and if you transcend war you can't
reasonably expect to perpetuate or increase sex. Thus a peaceful world would necessarily be
one which was also above sex, and therefore dependent upon artificial means of
reproduction. As to sport, which some
regard as a substitute for war, it could be argued that sport is no less a sort
of playing at war than dance a sort of playing at sex, both of which are as
complementary as war and sex, and neither of which is therefore a substitute
for war or sex. By which I mean that
sport won't necessarily lead to or facilitate sex (unlike war), any more than
dance lead to or facilitate war (unlike sex), but, on the contrary, that they
will facilitate each other in keeping with the criteria of a more artificial
and supernatural age. Thus an age
without sport would also be one without dancing, since the former is largely
dependent on the latter, and as soon as you transcend the one the other will
also be transcended. An unaggressive
male is not only above sex, he is above dancing as well, since the reduction or
elimination of male aggression through war and sport makes for a passive
attitude vis-à-vis the female, thereby cancelling-out sex and dance. Such a male is still rather the exception to
the rule. Yet there may come a time, I
venture to speculate, when not only war and sport, but sex and dance will be a
thing of the past.
99. Not
for the first time logic compels me to re-evaluate a former position and to
question whether, in fact, sex dolls and/or gadgets could be regarded as
forming an omega pole to pornography, bearing in mind the bodily as opposed to
head nature of such phenomena, their use by and on the penis or vagina,
depending on the gender (male or female) in question and the appropriate
aid. Rather, it now seems to me that,
just as music cassettes and videos form an omega pole or, more correctly, poles
to music scores, so, by a like-token, it can be argued that sex videos form an
omega pole to pornographic magazines, bearing in mind the obvious 'head' status
which must accrue to something watched as opposed to physically experienced as
an artificial substitute for coitus, i.e. a sex gadget. Thus if music videos are antithetical to
music scores, as the artificial to the natural, so sex videos must be
antithetical to sex magazines on an analogous basis, with sex gadgets and/or
dolls taking a comparatively bodily status analogous to LPs and compact discs
vis-à-vis cassettes and videos. In fact,
the sex gadget, be it artificial penis or vagina, would stand to sex dolls pretty
much as compact discs to LPs, with sex cassettes (pre-recorded phone sex) and
sex videos standing as an obvious parallel to music cassettes and videos ... to
name but one alternative, albeit analogous, context. Here we arrive at the seemingly paradoxical
but nonetheless credible conclusion that whereas sex magazines are fascistic,
sex videos are communistic, alpha and omega approaches to 'head' sex which
flank, on an immoral/moral basis, oral sex - that amoral 'head' sex above
conventional heterosexuality.
100.
Further to the above, we should be able to posit an antithesis, or even
antithetical poles, on an alpha basis to sex dolls and/or gadgets, since we
have done so with regard to sex cassettes and videos - namely, sex
magazines. But to do so it seems to me
that one would have to divide pornography more comprehensively between 'bodily'
and 'head' modes, i.e. 'soft' and 'hard' options, in order to have sufficient
alpha poles to cover for such an antithesis, so that, contrary to the above,
soft-core pornography would be antithetical to sex dolls and/or gadgets, and
hard-core pornography antithetical to sex cassettes and/or videos, each of
which would again be divisible into wavicle and particle alternatives ... in
order to do proper justice to the full-gamut of elemental poles, with, so I
contend, a wavicle equivalent for soft-core pornography which takes a
comprehensively bodily perspective (antithetical to sex dolls), and a particle
equivalent for that which, by contrast, focuses photographic attention upon the
sex organ of the participating model (antithetical to sex gadgets). Above this one would find the 'head' level
particle equivalent of sexually explicit and/or narrative hard-core pornography
(antithetical to sexual cassettes) on the one hand, and the 'head' level
wavicle equivalent of a more comprehensively representative hard-core
pornography (antithetical to sex videos) on the other hand, each of which would
be comparatively fascistic in relation to the authoritarian/arch-Conservative
nature of the soft-core varieties.
101. Having
dealt with the above in a more or less satisfactory manner, I now find that I
must do the same with regard to the other context we have been discussing,
namely music, and thus broadly divide music scores into two categories in order
to have antithetical alpha poles to music videos and audio cassettes. These two categories, corresponding to
idealistic and naturalistic parallels, will be solely treble staff in the case
of an antithesis to music videos, and treble-and-bass staffs combined in the
case of an antithesis to audio cassettes, since it stands to reason that a
music score with only treble staff will be more idealistic and, hence, light
equivalent ... than one with bass and harmony also, the totality of which may
well add-up to something more naturalistic and, hence, heat equivalent - the
very equivalent we have reserved for audio tapes in contrast to video
ones. However, if music scores of one
kind or another suffice to cover the antithetical poles to video and audio
tapes of a musical persuasion, then it seems to me that we are in want of
equivalent antithetical poles to compact discs and LPs, since the latter are no
less deserving of something antithetical which is as much apparent and immoral
as they are essential and moral. Now
what is this something if not Pianola rolls of one size or another which,
unlike music scores, suggest a more physical and, hence, bodily equation,
broadly antithetical to compact discs and LPs.
Thus if my theories are correct, the antithesis to an LP will be a large
pianola roll, whereas the antithesis to a compact disc will be a small pianola
roll, perhaps even one dependent upon some relatively superior technology which
would elevate it as far above conventional pianola rolls as ... compact discs
above LPs, not forgetting that neither pianola rolls nor discs are anywhere
near the psychic elevation of scores and tapes respectively - those
subconscious and superconscious new-brain antitheses divisible, as I have
shown, into soulful and spiritual, or naturalistic and idealistic, alternatives
roughly corresponding to hell and to heaven at both alpha and omega poles.
102. The
proper subject of sculpture is will. The
proper subject of literature is intellect.
The proper subject of music is soul.
The proper subject of art is spirit.
Thus earth-water-fire-air or, rather, darkness-coldness-heat-light,
whether for good or bad, positively or negatively, alpha or omega, apparent or
essential, etc., depending on the type of sculpture, literature, music, or art
in question.
103. Since
earth corresponds to the world, water to purgatory, fire to hell, and air to
heaven, it could also be said of the above that sculpture is the worldly art
form par excellence,
literature the purgatorial art form par excellence, music the diabolic
art form par excellence, and art (painting) the divine art form par
excellence, with realistic, materialistic, naturalistic, and idealistic
implications respectively. Of course,
each of the main branches of the arts is subdivisible into approximately four
categories, corresponding to the elements and thus, by implication, to every
one of the above (theological) positions, with, for example, literature - the
purgatorial/materialistic art form par excellence - subdivisible into
dramatic, narrative, poetic, and philosophic categories, the first of which,
viz. drama, corresponds to the world and is thus the most wilful of the
literary arts; the second of which, viz. fiction, corresponds to purgatory and
is thus the most intellectual of the literary arts; the third of which, viz.
poetry, corresponds to hell and is thus the most emotional of the literary
arts; and the fourth of which, viz. philosophy, corresponds to heaven and is
thus the most spiritually aware of the literary arts. Doubtless the same divisions, with similar
implications, could be applied to music within a broadly classical framework,
so that we would have, say, ballet in the position of drama as the worldly form
of music by dint of its bodily bias; the symphony in the position of fiction as
the purgatorial form of music by dint of its intellectualized approach to
relationships between the various instruments (analogous, in a way, to
literature's reference, via the intellect, to social relations); opera in the
position of poetry as the diabolic form of music by dint of its strong
emotional bias; and, finally, the concerto in the position of philosophy as the
divine form of music by dint of its spiritual idealism, which, taking the guise
of preponderant pitch, appertains to awareness.
Of course, what applies to classical music applies no less to modern
electric music, or supermusic (as I usually prefer to call it), with fourfold
divisions between pop, rock, soul, and jazz, the divisions thereof having
worldly, purgatorial, diabolic, and divine implications respectively, such that
likewise pertain to its 'superliterary' counterpart which, taking the forms of
cinema, video, radio, and television, has rather more reference to artificial
visionary and audio experience than to verbal concepts of the sort usually
encountered between the pages of a book.
104. Since
we have dealt with literature and music (not to mention 'superliterature' and
'supermusic') in a fourfold manner deriving from our basic
elemental/theological divisions, it behoves us to do the same with regard to
art and sculpture, the 'divine' and 'worldly' arts par excellence, and thus to divide art into
four basic categories, viz. ceramics, painting, etching, and drawing, with
worldly, purgatorial, diabolic, and divine implications respectively which, in
elemental terms, correspond to earth, water, fire, and air - the very terms
applying no less to the division of sculpture into figure (the worldly form of
sculpture par excellence); busts (the purgatorial form of sculpture par
excellence); relief (the diabolic form of sculpture par excellence);
and, finally, carving (the divine form of sculpture par excellence). Obviously there is a realistic parallel, in
both elemental and theological terms, between ceramics and figure sculptures, a
materialistic parallel between paintings and busts, a naturalistic parallel
between engravings and reliefs, and an idealistic parallel between drawings and
carvings. Now what applies to the
division of 'art' and 'sculpture' in this fourfold manner must surely apply just
as much to 'superart' and 'supersculpture', which exist rather more in terms of
light art and holography, respectively, than of any 'naturalistic' distinctions
between, say, clay and paint or stone and wood, although plastics cannot be
ruled out - at any rate, not in the context of 'supersculpture', where they
would take the worldly or, rather, superworldly position occupied by figure
sculptures in sculpture-proper, and thus have a bodily connotation beneath
purgatorial abstract sculpture, the latter of which would be flanked by 'light'
sculpture on the one hand and by holograms on the other, as between diabolic
and divine, fire and air equivalents. As
regards 'superart', one is obviously thinking in terms of light art, though
only the alpha and omega poles of our diabolic and divine equations would truly
be of light, doubtless in the form of a neon-tube/laser-beam divide, while the
worldly and purgatorial equations would suggest the likelihood of Op and
Kinetics respectively, the former standing to the latter as body to brain or,
what amounts to the same, earth to water, and having its 'supersculptural'
parallel in those plastic inventions which stand in an analogous relationship
to abstract sculptures, i.e. the purgatorial middle-ground in between the 'light'
sculptural extremes.
105. Of
course, I have been generalizing and sketching far more than particularizing
and filling-in the details as to why I believe such-and-such an art form or
subdivision thereof should be regarded in one or another of our elemental/theological
categories, and doubtless this is desirable if one is to acquire a more
wide-ranging perspective and avoid getting bogged down in pedantic details such
as would detract, in any case, from the reader's use of his own imagination -
something by which I have always set great store! Certainly the T-like impression created by
the fourfold divisions of each of the arts (and 'superarts') does not do
justice to the fact that the alpha and omega poles are divisible into diabolic
and divine options in each case, so that there is an alpha divine/diabolic
distinction no less than an omega divine/diabolic distinction, with wavicle and
particle implications. In consequence of
which, alpha arts, whether literary (poetry), musical (opera), visual (etching),
or sculptural (reliefs), can be divine or diabolic, Fatheristic or Satanic,
depending on the type of alpha art-form in question, i.e. whether of a wavicle
or a particle bias, as can omega arts, albeit on a diametrically antithetical
basis ... as befitting their Christic/Antichristic implications. And the same of course applies to the
'superarts', where the division is rather more extreme in each case ... as
befitting their 'super' status. Even the
purgatorial middle-ground is to some extent divisible in such fashion, as
between 'soft' rock and 'hard' rock, although the latter is often rather more
physical, and hence muscular, than intellectual or cranial, and therefore
pertinent not so much to a divine/diabolic dichotomy as to two types of
purgatorial dichotomy, of which it is the lesser. For the real divine/diabolic dichotomy in
'supermusic' will be between 'light' soul and 'heavy' soul on the alpha poles,
and between 'light' jazz and 'heavy' jazz on the omega poles, with rock,
whether 'soft' or 'hard', as a sort of amoral middle-ground in between
essentially immoral (emotional) and moral (spiritual) extremes. Probably, to further complicate the picture,
funk and punk come in-between soul and rock, whereas blues and rhythm 'n' blues
come in-between rock and jazz, the former type of music in each category
pertaining to the divine spectrum and the latter type to the diabolic one, funk
and blues flanking soft rock, punk and rhythm 'n' blues flanking hard rock, the
latter of which towers above pop as the head (in both its cranial and
intellectual manifestations) above the body, including the muscle body of
pop/rock.
106.
Here, for the sake of diagrammatic clarity, are some relevant
correlations, necessarily generalized, with regard to the 'T' design, viz:-
MORAL
IMMORAL/DYNAMIC
AMORAL/MORAL
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STATIC
AMORAL
IDEOLOGICAL
NATURALISM/MATERIALISM/IDEALISM
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REALISM
ATOMIC
PROTONS/ATOMS/ELECTRONS
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NEUTRONS
ELEMENTAL QUANTITIES
FIRE/WATER/AIR
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EARTH
ELEMENTAL QUALITIES
HEAT/COLDNESS/LIGHT
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DARKNESS
THEOLOGICAL
HELL/PURGATORY/HEAVEN
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THE
WORLD
ARTS
MUSIC/LITERATURE/ART
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SCULPTURE
LITERATURE
POETRY/FICTION/PHILOSOPHY
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DRAMA
MUSIC
OPERAS/SYMPHONIES/CONCERTOS
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BALLET
ART
ETCHINGS/PAINTINGS/DRAWINGS
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CERAMICS
SCULPTURE
RELIEFS/BUSTS/CARVINGS
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FIGURE
'SUPERLITERATURE'
RADIO/VIDEO/TELEVISION
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CINEMA
'SUPERMUSIC'
SOUL/ROCK/JAZZ
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POP
'SUPERART'
NEONS/KINETICS/LASERS
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OP ART
'SUPERSCULPTURE'
LIGHT
SCULPTURES/BIOMORPHICS/HOLOGRAMS
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PLASTICS
PHYSICAL
SUBCONSCIOUS/BRAIN/SUPERCONSCIOUS
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BODY
METAPHYSICAL
SOUL/INTELLECT/SPIRIT
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WILL
COSMIC
SOLAR/LUNAR/STELLAR
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PLANETARY
HUMAN
SUBMAN/MAN/SUPERMAN
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WOMAN
THE TRINITY
THE
FATHER/THE SON/THE HOLY SPIRIT
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THE
BLESSED VIRGIN
POLITICAL
ROYALISM/REPUBLICANISM/TOTALITARIANISM
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LIBERALISM
CHRISTIAN
EASTERN
ORTHODOXY/PURITANISM/ROMAN CATHOLICISM
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ANGLICANISM
SARTORIAL
LEATHER
PANTS/DENIM JEANS/PVC PANTS
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CORD
JEANS
RECORDED MUSIC
AUDIO
CASSETTES/COMPACT DISCS/VIDEO CASSETTES
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LPs
INSTITUTIONAL
TEMPLE/CHURCH/CENTRE
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STATE
'SUPERPOLITICAL'
FASCISM/ANARCHISM/COMMUNISM
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SOCIALISM
MILITARY
ARTILLERY/MARINES/PARAS
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INFANTRY
LIBERALISM
CONSERVATIVES/LIBERAL
DEMOCRATS/LABOUR
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GREENS
‘SUPERLITERARY’ FORMATS
CASSETTES/COMPUTER
DISCS/VIDEOS
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PAPERBACKS
FREIGHT
RAIL/SEA/AIR
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ROAD
PEOPLE'S TRANSPORTATION
SCOOTERS/MOPEDS/MOTORBIKES
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CARS
TYPEWRITERS
ELECTRONIC/ELECTRIC/WORD
PROCESSORS
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PORTABLES
GUITARS/KEYBOARDS
ELECTRONIC/ELECTRIC/SYNTHESIZED
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ACOUSTIC
SPENGLER
HISTORYLESS
CHAOS/CULTURE/SECOND RELIGIOUSNESS
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CIVILIZATION
SENSES
HEARING/SMELL-TASTE/SIGHT
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TOUCH
SELF-INDULGENCE
SMOKING/DRINKING/SNIFFING
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EATING
SELF-TRANSCENDENCE
TRIPPING/SINGING/MEDITATING
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DANCING
SELF-EXPRESSION
DREAMING/TALKING/THINKING
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WRITING
SELF-IMPRESSION
LISTENING/LEARNING/VIEWING
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SYNTHESIS
SELF-EXPRESSION/SELF-IMPRESSION/SELF-TRANSCENDENCE
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SELF-INDULGENCE
107. In relation to man, woman is a neutron
equivalent upon whom man either descends or falls ... if he is of a disposition
to, which is to say if he is of either an autocratic proton bias or a
democratic atomic (proton/electron) bias, and thereby perpetuates the
world. However, in the future there
should be neither descending nor falling upon the world, since only electron equivalents,
viz. supermen, and quasi-electron equivalents, viz. quasi-supermen, will exist,
and in such an omega-oriented 'head' society, commensurate with the 'Kingdom of
Heaven', all propagation will be conducted on a post-worldly, and hence
artificial, basis, with spermbank facilities and artificial insemination
available to the quasi-superhuman 'equals' of the supermen-proper. Saved from both the neutron world and the
proton hell and atomic purgatory alike, the supermen will partake of the
electron heaven in an omega-oriented spirituality (of self-realization) which
will be beyond all such previous realities.
108. Strength is the virtue of the Father
(Almighty); goodness (an ethical choice between good and evil, or truth and
strength) the virtue of the Son; truth the virtue of the Holy Spirit; beauty
the virtue of the Blessed Virgin.
Expressed in terms of our T-like design (diagram 1), we shall find:-
1.
QUANTITATIVE VIRTUES
STRENGTH/GOODNESS/TRUTH
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BEAUTY
Thus strength is the quantity of the alpha
Divine (the Father); goodness the quantity of the purgatorial Divine (the Son);
truth the quantity of the omega Divine (the Holy Spirit); and beauty the
quantity of the worldly Divine (the Blessed Virgin). Conversely, weakness is the quantity of the
alpha Diabolic (the Antifather, i.e. Satan); evil the quantity of the
purgatorial Diabolic (the Antichrist); illusion the quantity of the omega
Diabolic (the Antispirit); and ugliness the quantity of the worldly Diabolic
(the Antivirgin), as in diagram 2:-
2.
QUANTITATIVE VICES
WEAKNESS/EVIL/ILLUSION
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UGLINESS
Turning, however, from quantities to qualities,
as from appearance to essence, we shall find that pride is the quality of the alpha
Divine; love the quality of the purgatorial Divine; joy the quality of the
omega Divine; and pleasure the quality of the worldly Divine (see diagram 3).
3.
QUALITATIVE VIRTUES
PRIDE/LOVE/JOY
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PLEASURE
Conversely, humiliation is the quality of the
alpha Diabolic; hate the quality of the purgatorial Diabolic; woe the quality
of the omega Diabolic; and pain the quality of the worldly Diabolic (see
diagram 4).
4.
QUALITATIVE VICES
HUMILIATION/HATRED/WOE
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PAIN
109. Consequently,
whereas strength and pride are the quantitative and qualitative concomitants of
the Father (Almighty), the quantitative and qualitative concomitants of the
Devil (Satan) are weakness and humiliation.
Similarly, whereas goodness and love are the quantitative and
qualitative concomitants of the Son (Christ), the quantitative and qualitative
concomitants of the Antichrist (for which read: Republicanism in relation to
Puritanism) are badness and hate.
Likewise, whereas truth and joy are the quantitative and qualitative
concomitants of the Holy Spirit, the quantitative and qualitative concomitants
of the Antispirit (for which read: Marxism, with its anti-Transcendentalism)
are illusion and woe. And, finally,
whereas beauty and pleasure are the quantitative and qualitative concomitants
of the Blessed Virgin, the quantitative and qualitative concomitants of the
Antivirgin (for which read: Liberalism or, in the American context, the
Democrats in relation to Catholicism) are ugliness and pain.
110. Furthermore,
it would seem that whereas the Divine has a wavicle connotation, the Diabolic
has a particle one, and that while wavicles connote with the individual
(especially in an internal, or spiritual, sense), particles connote with the
collectivity, as regards society in general, so that we have a kind of
religious/political distinction between the two contexts which obliges us to
perceive God in the one camp and the Devil in the other, or, at any rate, to
perceive a divine/diabolic dichotomy in regard to positive and negative
alternatives, viz. Judaism and Monarchism, Puritanism and Republicanism,
Transcendentalism and Communism, Catholicism and Liberalism, the first and
third of which are alpha and omega (as of the Trinity), the second and fourth
... purgatorial and worldly, as befitting their comparatively middle-ground
standings. Thus for the divine, or
wavicle-biased, positions, we shall find (see diagram 1):-
1.
JUDAISM/PURITANISM/TRANSCENDENTALISM
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CATHOLICISM
Whereas the diabolic, or particle-biased,
positions will be as follows (see diagram 2):-
2.
MONARCHISM/REPUBLICANISM/COMMUNISM
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LIBERALISM
with appropriate quantities and qualities in
each case.
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, rat