By its nature, the following investigation of the wider social, psychological, material and metaphysical context to those things we strive for goes way beyond the goals of a social/political Site such as England Devolve! ...even though the intention is to provide some sort of bearings to those goals.

Further, this exploration is tentative and provisional, even where some of the language might suggest otherwise. The content may often be speculative, unverified or unverifiable, seldom cross referenced, no doubt at times 'wrong' [read: improbable/unhelpful/etc].

Although Devolve! members may be contributors to this ideas project, no part of this Site should in any way be considered as representing the views of Devolve! as a whole. The intention is a 'pool of thought' without personal labels or credits. So responsibility has to lie with the web team.

ANTI-COPYRIGHT

"If creativity is the field, copyright is the fence." - John Oswald

The age of intellectual property is drawing to a close.

Not only because technology is aiding a return to the state of open information, of virtual mutual telepathy, which our not so distant ancestors at some point built their ego walls against. Not only because the web of scientific and social enquiry and research is now so dense, has so many feedback loops, that 'original thought' is a concept without meaning. Also because we are hurtling into a future where the choice is not between co-operation and competition but between a shared reality and extreme paranoia.

Any material on this site may be freely copied - hopefully with an acknowledgement so that others may visit - and used to share, to reflect on: to build further, newer, corrected, more comprehensive understanding - that yet others may use to address our problems.

Whomsoever copies this material, takes these ideas, adopts these concept tools ... and attempts to incorporate them into 'copyrighted' work ... will be pursued to the fullest extent of natural and animal law.

[Links to an anti-copyright site will be found on the Links and Allies page of the Devolve! site.]

FIRST INTRO

There are probably two starting points. One might call these 'the social' and 'the everyday'. Looking at these in turn: -

Every small (or large) group of people who have come together for some social purpose ... have been moved by concern, or hope, or anger, or a vision: either that certain things could be, should be, different to how they are now, better than how they are now - or that at least part of what we now have is good and should be preserved, protected, from forces that would change it for the worse.

A modest example would be an association formed to to build or acquire a meeting and social hall for a local community - or a campaign against the proposed closure of such a hall. At the other extreme would be a movement aiming to turn the world upside down, to strive for a more just or sustainable or self-reliant (or whatever) society - or one aiming to defend "our way of life" from subversion or decadence.

Now except perhaps in the most simple cases, these motivated people will need to arm themselves with good information. Not just 'facts' but an understanding of how and why things happen, why other people feel and behave as they do, what is possible and not possible.

The trouble is: better, wider, more complex understanding of our situation may make it harder to see the goal, or at least the road, in those simple black and white terms which first moved us. None-the-less, there is no avoiding the journey. Most social movements have failed - or are standing still - partly because they got stuck with views, dogmas, which did not/do not take account of 'the way the world works', especially the complexities of human motivation and social interaction.

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Most people, most of us, have odd moments in our everyday lives when we ask ourselves the question: "What's it all about then?"

It should be said that for most of us these seem to be rare moments. The rest of the time we'll be full on with the rounds of life: the duties, the chores, the crises, the excitements, the conflicts, the next challenge and so on. It's also true that the greater the struggle to hold body and soul together, to feed a family, or whatever, then the less time for 'philosophical' questions. Still, the wish, the need, to make some sense of it all, to give ourselves some meaning, is there in the background. Hence part of the popularity of religions: they offer some definite and ready made answers, accumulated wisdom.

It will be no surprise that those who have tried to find answers to the question have, in the past, been mostly those sheltered from the hard struggle to survive and/or those actually paid to be thoughtful. Perhaps it should be no surprise either that these 'philosophers' have come up with different answers - or at least different angles. What is a surprise to the new 'student' is that almost all of them seem to have lost sight of the big, troubling, questions and got side-tracked into logical mind games. (One of the honourable exceptions is Friedrich Nietzsche - of whom more anon.)

"My friends did you say “Yes” to one joy? Then you said “Yes” to all woe!" - F. Nietzsche

Now, in the twenty first century, we have a new situation. In the 'North World' about two thirds of us have a level of affluence which only a tiny few enjoyed just a few centuries ago, and which most of The World's people never will. [What? It doesn't feel like that? That's because our compulsion to endlessly consume things and experiences keeps us hooked into the "work, buy, consume, die" merry-go-round. Try leaving the telly off and cancelling the next overseas holiday for a start.] This means that lots of us, ordinary people with everyday lives, will have some stages in those lives when we can make the choice to make the time to make the journey - either on our own or with others - finding our our own best answers (rather than 'buying off the peg') to the question "What is it all about then?"

SECOND INTRO

The next problem is where to start the journey .... by trying to figure out how society works? - or how we work? - or how the natural world works? .... with the deep foundations of the universe? - or with simple ideas and models which tackle a few questions? Trouble is, everything is connected to everything: there is no beginning, middle and end, as with a good story.

For this sort of reason the different contributions and different approaches to these pages are likely to be a bit of a patchwork, with some attempts over the coming months and years to make it a bit more 'orderly'. For the moment, the best advice is probably to 'dip in' where your fancy takes you....

STARTING THE JOURNEY

One of the biggest roadblocks on the journey of discovery is that we humans have a great problem regarding ouselves as any outside observer would - just another part of it all. We think we are so damn precious. You could call it our ego problem. Three examples of this are given below.

"For man does not quite succeed in becoming a scientific object to himself." - Henri and Helma Frankfurt (in Before Philosophy)

First example. Peoples, societies, cultures (using the words very loosely for the moment) are organisms with lives of their own and life cycles of their own, usually living for hundreds or thousands of human generations. Within them are many organs or organisations, with a range of functions and "reasons to be", and with life cycles ranging from many generations to just a few years. Within these again are human individuals, of different types and social roles [more later on this], with typical lifespans of two-three generations. Within each of us are organs or partnerships with a range of functions or projects, most of which last the lifetime of the whole person. These in turn are made up of cells with their own lives and life cycles, usually quite short compared to all the above. [No need to go further for our purpose here.]

Several points to note from this cascade of life. Unlike some of their biological cousins (single celled creatures which 'paddle their own canoe') animal cells have traded their independence for co-operation and mutual interdependence - and created something beyond themselves, more than the sum of their parts: us, for instance. Likewise, human individuals may choose to trade their independence for co-operation and mutual interdependence - again creating higher beings beyond themselves: organic peoples, with their own collective wisdom. It is a moot point whether tuned members of the group can partially intuit this wisdom, as it is whether our human wisdom (not cleverness) resides to some extent in each of our cells.

Now decay and death as life cycles reach an end is a natural process [see below]. But there is also sickness. This may be due to 'alien' invasions (of bodies or peoples). Yet there is also the situation where co-operation begins to break down and some individuals start to do their own thing at the expense of others and the whole. In the case of body cells we call this cancer. Within societies the best word is probably alienation, though individualism is near enough.

The creative cascade of being should be clear from the above summary: also our humble place in it. Yet the pride and arrogance of the human ego can't handle this. Everything 'below' us in the cascade is simply primitive, a mere part, not alive in the special sense that we are alive. (Interestingly, the 'primitive' tag has at times been applied to 'lesser' peoples, to lower classes - and to women.) Likewise, everything 'above' us in creation's cascade is only an abstraction, a collective noun for numbers of people, a metaphor, not 'really' real. Ego rules o.k.?

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Second example. Let's say the SS Beagle, a spaceship from some network of planets, comes by Earth. It is using sophisticated detection equipment to do life system research in far-flung corners of the Galaxy. It soon detects that Earth is being afflicted by a plague of caterpillars - or cockroaches - or crocodiles. They have bred in their billions, have become the dominant species, are devouring everything, driving millions of species to extinction, threatening the entire ecosystem of planet Earth, including - ultimately - themselves. The conclusion of our enlightened visitors is that the runaway species needs desperately to be culled to give The Earth a sporting chance of recovering its eco-balance and diversity. Which of us would not agree with them?

Now suppose instead they find that homo sapiens (an agressive mutant ape) is the species which has bred in its billions, is devouring the fish, the forests, everything, driving millions of species to extinction, threatening the entire ecosystem, reducing Planet Earth to debris, parking lots and theme parks.... Their conclusion might be the same: a massive cull of humans as the best chance of restoring balance and diversity on Earth. This time, shrieks of outrage: "Every human life is precious and unique!" Our visitors try to point out that we seem to love killing each other: three million dead in the American Civil War alone ....but the message is drowned out by the howls of protest.

[Note. The above is not an argument for any course of action. The point is that in any debates on our predicament(s), it is at our peril that the human ego creates taboo subjects - like the "P" word: the population issue.]

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Third example. When simple things come together in a special way (in a relationship) something new, beyond the parts, is created. Some philosopher-scientists grudgingly talk of 'emergent properties'. Most of us, whether religious or not, recognise and honour 'the miracle of creation' (no apologies for the language). Sperm meets egg is the classic example. Dramatic or what?

Now when a creative relationship ceases, when a greater something suddenly isn't there any more, even though all the parts are still there, that's amazing too. It may be traumatic, tragic, giving us a great sense of loss, but it's still amazing: 'the miracle of uncreation'.

You would think that we would be able to honour both these miracles, appreciate them as part of the cycle of life: necessary for the harmony of the universe as a whole. But no. Most modern humans are in complete denial about uncreation, about death. In fact we have a paranoid fear of our death. We will believe just about anything in order to 'cheat' it. We are not talking here about the animal fear of death when it is seconds or minutes away - that is normal and natural. What is abnormal is terror of death as an idea, fear of ego-annihilation. Many commentators have pointed out that this fear of ego-death pervades and distorts what passes for western civilisation.

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So the first thing we need for our journey is courage: both courage to think and act daringly and creatively, like we were running the universe; and courage to accept ourselves humbly as perishable stock, part of the flow. As Nietzsche puts it: "We are both creator and clay."

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MORE STEPS ON THE ROAD

The following theme pages are viewable: -