Rhetoric | A Political Paradigm for the Gullible

 

©2014 Vernon Miles Kerr

 

Given the thousands of stars recently discovered having planets, it is realistically possible that advanced alien intelligence might well be watching our barbaric, primitive little race of beings. I wonder what they think of our one-dimensional political concept. Are they splitting a gut laughing at how we insist on putting the entire scope of planetary cooperation and governance on a finite line segment with only two possible diametrically opposed models? Are they amused or disgusted that, on our planet, all possible paradigms of political or philosophical thinking MUST fit on either end of that line segment:  one must be either liberal or conservative, left or right, respectively–or somewhere in between using the mid-way point as a reference. Thus, “left of center” or “right of center” can be added to the scale, bringing the total possible flavors of political classification to five. On our little planet, no one ever questions the assumption that all modes of human governance and collaboration can be described as being somewhere along that simple one-dimensional, bi-polar, finite scale.

1DParadigm

Would the human brain go into over-load if we were to add a third point to that scale creating a two-dimensional triangle, a plane, with three opposing views? If not overloading from that addition, the brain would surely go to critical mass if we were to add a fourth point creating a three-dimensional object with points A, B, C, and D. Assuming that the “left-right” paradigm has only five flavors: 1) left 2) right 3)center 4) Moderate Left  and 5)Moderate Right,  just adding that third point would not only add seven more flavors of political and philosophical theory,

2DClosedParadigm

it would potentially add even more by having an open system where line segments join those intermediate points across the center of the triangle.

2DOpenParadigm

Projecting that into the three dimensional, fourpoint tetrahedron with all intermediate points connecting across the center of the three-dimensional model would indeed add a subtlety to theories of governance that even Einstein might have trouble understanding.

And, that is exactly the point. Our one-dimensional political paradigm functions as a political science tool for dummies. Even the most uneducated of us can understand juxtapositions like black-white, good-evil, communism-capitalism, wealthy-poor, patriot-traitor or labor-management and can easily pick a side then really get behind supporting that side and resisting the other with all of their energy and emotion–and life’s blood, if necessary. Those who control the masses of Earth, try to keep it simple. By using such an inane model they can create the illusion of choices. The masses only have to choose between two things, vanilla or chocolate. Or to be fair, the political thinkers in their magnanimity have allowed us to mix vanilla and chocolate and become half-and-half, chocolaty-vanilla or vanilla-y-chocolate as well.

Until the powers-that-be come up with a more intelligent way of conceiving and creating alternatives of governance we should all rebel and refuse to acknowledge our stupid, barbaric, primitive one-dimensional measuring stick by refusing to place ourselves on it. When someone asks you if you are liberal or conservative just say, “Neither, actually, I’m more of a transcendentalist, which doesn’t fall anywhere on the liberal-conservative scale.”

So what, if “transcendentalist” doesn’t exist? If we all take a stand, perhaps someday it will exist along with fifty or sixty other possibilities. Maybe those people from other planets will have a few ideas for us.

 

5 thoughts on “Rhetoric | A Political Paradigm for the Gullible

  1. Being a transcendentalist will hardly be enough! Given the escalating social problems and ongoing environmental crises on Earth, it would be easy for those like us to imagine that we could be citizens in the kind of morally and technologically advanced societies portrayed in Star Trek. Unfortunately, we were born several centuries too early. Sometimes one might indeed feel that it would be very nice to join Roy Neary in the movie “Close Encounter of the Third Kind” and to leave the Earth for good so as to achieve or awaken interstellar or (inter)galactic Spiritual Revolutionaries!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Dear Vernon Miles Kerr,

        Hello! You are very welcome. I am glad that you concur with me. Since we have limited lifespan and will not live to see the kind of social progress in Star Trek, I have endeavoured to project in some of my posts what we are likely to see in lifetime.

        For example, I am interested in the intersections of art and science, of public and private spaces, of the cultural and the technological. Whilst I agree that technology offers enormous unexplored potential allowing emerging artists to express themselves in unprecedented ways, I do have certain concerns and caveats regarding science “reproducing” reality and artists representing it. In some of my posts, I have endeavoured to give a very good inkling of the kind of society that humans might be heading towards. Looking into the future, here is an entry in my cultural anthropology journal entitled “🎧 Facing the Noise & Music: Playgrounds for Biophobic Citizens 🏗🌁🗼”, published at http://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/facing-the-noise-music-playgrounds-for-biophobic-citizens/

        I would love to have the pleasure of reading your feedback at the comment section of my said post. By the way, if or when you try to access my main blog, please be informed that it will benefit from being viewed on a large screen of a desktop or laptop computer, since those lengthy multimedia posts and my blog could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately.

        Happy reading and exploring at my blog!

        Like

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