The Great Turning (04)

3. The Continuum of the societal cultural field

This title is also the title of the first volume of my collection “From Modernity to After-Modernity” and I summarized the gist of this volume in “Part 6. The cultural continuum” of my “synthesis” of the collection's 5 volumes.

Hereafter I first give a 4 points contextual condensation of the process that is at work in “the continuum of the societal cultural field”. Then I use this 4 points condensation to illustrate the formation of daily culture in the West and in China and how the result is such a contrast of different visions, mental representations, and perceptions that, due to our failure to understand the mechanisms of daily culture formation, remain most often irreconcilable.

Westerners and Chinese are indeed most often feeling that they live in parallel universes as if the culture of “the other” were otherworldly. But once this has been recognized comes the most intriguing aspect of this exercise in observation which is how each side handles this other-worldliness in his own behavior toward “the other”.

An extension of this comparison to other civilizational centers, like Africa, the Tri-Continental-Area also viewed by the Europeans as being the Middle-East, Russia, Latin-America, or surviving native people anywhere around the world, would be a useful complement but I don’t have the necessary depth of knowledge to extends this comparison by myself.

If someone, who has the appropriate knowledge, was willing to write a comparison between part 2 of this article and any one among the cultures I just mentioned I would be only too happy to add it as an ending to this part 3 (if interested you can reach me at the contact page of my website).

 

3.1. contextual Condensation

Logic wants us to approach the analysis of phenomena from a holistic perspective. There is a good reason for that. Our observation is indeed easily distracted. For example when people are lost in a vast forest they often turn in circles and walk day after day without finding their way out of it. Many have died like that because they lost touch with their innate sense of the wider context in which the forest fits in. And while writing “Modernity” I discovered that the abstraction of “the reason that is at work in the transformation of money into capital” also distracted the attention of Western Europeans from the big picture constituted by “the First Principles of Life”.

Having glorified its long distance merchants Western Europe expanded the rationality, at work in “the reason”, to all there is under the sun which eventually gave rise to philosophic rationalism and the scientific method. Within the span of 3 centuries this expansion of rationalism is confronting us with the consequences of its short-comings in the form of a mass extinction of life on earth !

The precipitation of our species in the throat of extinction is solely due to our distraction from the holistic perspective over the last 9 centuries and is proof enough of the narrow-mindedness of rationalism. It is thus most appropriate to situate “the continuum of the societal cultural field” in a holistic perspective.

3.1.1. The first principles of life

Individual particles in an ensemble are interconnected for the good reason that they are parts of a common whole. The whole is made of the assembling of interconnections of all its parts and this reflects automatically back to the parts. That assembling of interconnections may be held subconsciously or may be configured in a bio-physical or bio-chemical states. The form of the communication does not change the nature of the interactions.

Seen from a human perspective biological and societal evolution constantly force the individuals to try to comprehend the “working principles” of the whole that are active in its interconnections with its parts. Such a comprehension allows the individuals to sense that better fitting in the whole could gain them some reprieve from suffering. And this reprieve from suffering is a strong enticement to engage in societal knowledge formation to devise pragmatic principles to live in harmony with the order of the whole.

This, in short, is what animated, for some 100,000 years. the formation of animist knowledge by tribal (wo)men of knowledge. The advent of power societies, and more particularly Modernity, detached us from such a holistic vision of knowledge formation. But when the paradigm of Modernity drove humanity straight into the jaws of its predicament, during this Late-Modernity the necessity of survival started to awaken the most sensitive individuals among us to the paradigm of “the reason that is at work in the First Principles of life”.

This new paradigm is now being sown in this Late-Modernity and it is thus soon going to start sprouting. The most sensitive among us are already starting to feel an irresistible attraction for everything relating to life that is estranging us from “the reason that is at work in the transformation of money into capital”. This is how I came upon “the First Principles of Life” in my personal approach to knowledge formation.

The following “8 First Principles of Life” indicate how human life fits in the “Working of the whole universe” :  (1)

1. Life emerges in the form of interconnected species
   
   Millions of living species inhabit the earth today but they represent barely 1% of all the species that ever existed. Homo-sapiens is one of the youngest among these 1%.



2. Species strive to survive and to reproduce over the long haul
   
   All species act to ensure their continuity. It is as if continuity was their core mission. How could it not be ? The fact is that life stops with the death of the individual, or the collapse of societies, or the extinction of species. In light of this it evident that any other dream, than life in the present, is necessarily bound to play out as a second fiddle... The primacy of life is continuity through reproduction. Anything else has to fit this principle or its falls outside of the reality of life.



3. Species ensure their continuity (life) through “the dance of their polarities”
   All entities in the universe are animated by the dance of their complementary polarities. The complementary polarities of living species are societies and individuals.
   
   
   • Society = the conservative majority = the weak polarity
     
     The majority, of silent individuals, constitute the weak polarity that aims for continuity and advocates for the conservation of things.
     
     The road toward more complexity induces fragility, high risks of collapse, and eventually the extinction of the species which is something that societies fiercely resist. Societies are indeed always prioritizing the continuity of the existing state of affairs (conservation) over any risk of breakage in the continuity of the “species’ chain of reproduction”.
     
     That’s why in the grand scheme of things the majority, of silent individuals, is called the weak force. The “species’ chain of reproduction” is composed of different links — individual reproduction participates in family reproduction — family reproduction participates in the reproduction of societies — the reproduction of societies, in turn, participates in the reproduction of the species — the reproduction of species participates in the reproduction of other species.
     
     These links are fragile and they can easily be broken with the introduction of more societal complexity. That’s why the large majority of the individuals, society or the weak force, deem it prudent not to perturb the existing state of affairs to avoid a crash of their own individual chances to reproduce.
   
   
   • The individuals = the minority of innovators = the strong polarity
     
     The strong force, manifesting in some individuals, is attracted by change or novelty. Some individuals are driven spontaneously to novelty. These individuals generally form small active minorities. When the novelty they propose is being implemented successfully the path of their society opens to the emergence of more complexity and, if these elements of complexity are successfully integrated by their society, other societies generally follow suit, which may eventually expand to the whole species. But this whole process is fraught with resistance from the weak force that is composed by the majority of the individuals which explains why so few novelty proposals are being adopted by the species.



4. The dance between polarities is fraught with conflicts 
   
   The balancing act, between the complementary polarities of species, constitutes a remarkable selection process that sifts the novelties introduced by a minority of individuals.
   
   Societies, in which this balancing act breaks down, get very rapidly destabilized and they are soon confronted with the prospect of their collapse. Western societies have entered in this twilight zone of disruption that is leading to their demise. But we have always to remember that, seen from an individual perspective, this process appears very long indeed while, seen from the perspective of the human species, this process appears to happen like in the blink of an eye.
   
   The contradictions between the urge for novelty and the urge for continuity can appear so entrenched that a reconciliation appears unattainable. This is when conflicts set in. But conflicts have a positive contribution. Their resolution is indeed what is powering societal evolution. It reconciles — the continuity of the species’ “reproduction” — with the integration of the elements of change and complexity that the majority of the individuals deem not threatening the societal continuity.
   
   Continuity is the 1st and core mission of a species and its 2nd mission is the search for more complexity that has to fold and adapt to the parameters of the core mission. The 2nd mission is the active ingredient of the evolution of species into more complexity.
   
   Continuity is the most fundamental among all principles of life and it constitutes the foundational reason for the existence of societies. Societal institutions are indeed first and foremost in charge of the reconciliation between the common good of continuity and the drive for change.



5. Societies act as arbiters between two forces that have antagonistic goals
   
   
   • The weak force 
     
     The weak force is the voice of the majority of the citizens who prioritize the continuity of societal reproduction. This weak force is the yin or female principle of life that is shared by the majority of citizens who represent their society.
   
   
   • The strong force
     
     The strong force is the voice of a minority of individuals who are driven by change. This strong force is the yang or male principle of life.
   
   
   • Societal arbitrage
     
     Societal institutions are arbitraging the conflicts between these two forces.



6. The conflicts between polarities, that get resolved, solidify cultural memes
   
   When the societal arbitrage between the weak and the strong force concludes, with a negotiated settlement, societal institutions ensure the implementation of the settlementn.



7. Synchronization of the continuum of the cultural field
   
   The implementation of a negotiated settlement synchronizes its meme inside the worldview. In analogy to biological genes, that replicate over the long haul and get synchronized in the continuum of the biological field, cultural memes, that replicate over the long haul of multiple generations, get synchronized in the continuum of the cultural field.



8. This synchronization sets in motion societal evolution 
   
   The synchronization of the individual perceptions about the present societal context, with their societal worldview, fosters the culture of the day that adapts the present context to the institutions and habits while pacifying the citizenry.
   
   But when change is very fast, as it is in these first decades of the 21st century, this process has no time to follow the rhythm of change and a disconnection takes place between the context and the culture of the day.
   
   This disconnection plunges the citizenry in uncertainty. And when this cultural disconnection intersects, with an explosive social context, like poverty and inequality for example, individual emotions are increased by a notch. This is when social violence takes hold of the street. Such, moments have sometimes been characterized as pre-revolutionary moments that just await a box of matches to ignite a revolutionary fire.

3.1.2. about The societal cultural field (2)

We all have, at one moment or another, come to the realization that the meaning of the word culture varies widely, from one individual to another and also from one society to another, which generates a lot of confusion and misunderstandings.

The reigning confusion about the meaning of the concept culture originates in our mix-up of the different substances in which culture manifests itself in different time-scales. And we have, as a matter of habit, come to designate these different cultural substances under the unique appellation “culture”. But the fact is that the cultural substance, that emerged in these different time scales, is of a different nature then the substance of our daily culture.

In other words the daily culture of our society is of an other nature than the worldview of our society or than the civilization our society belongs to. The daily culture of a society certainly absorbs some of the substance of the societal worldview and of the civilization the society belongs to for the good reason that the reality of daily culture is the outcome of the synchronization of the individual perceptions of the societal context of the day with that worldview and with the axioms of its civilization.

This constant adaptation of the present, to the cultural substance that emerged in different time scales, indicates that culture is a field that traverses time. And if its substance in different time scales weighs on daily culture that means that there is a continuity in the cultural field of societies. I refer to this continuity as “the continuum of the societal cultural field”.

This continuum forms the field of culture in any given society and that field flows with ups and downs, but in continuity, over the entire span of society. This continuity ultimately results in the society’s daily culture. And so the most important differences of the daily cultures of different societies are arising due to the impact of their different axioms of civilization and worldviews on the individual perception of contemporary contextual settings.

3.1.2.1. The foundations of civilizational houses

A civilization acts like the foundations of a common house that is shared by one or multiple societies. Civilizational foundations are given by the axiomatic proposition that sustains the foundational worldview of a power-society. This axiomatic proposition addresses a master axiom, and its derivatives, that extend as the field of culture of the societies that happen to form and develop within the territorial realm of a civilization.

3.1.2.2. The walls and the roofs of societies

The walls and roofs, built on top of a civilizational foundation, are constituted by the narrative, of a foundational societal worldview that supplies its vision of reality to a first power society while sharing its axioms with its citizens.

Worldviews are shared over the long haul historical era that spans the societal cultural continuum. The sharing of a worldview by the citizens strengthens their trust in each other which leads to a stronger societal cohesion that in turn eases the reproduction of their societies over the long haul of many generations.

Worldviews are constantly synchronizing with the daily culture to ensure the actualization of the societal cultural field to the evolution of society while the civilization's axioms that sustain the worldview are stored in the subconscious and remain thus unchanged. Only by confronting one’s conscious certainties with one’s subconscious visions can we eventually take back the control that our civilization's axioms have over our individual behavior !

3.1.2.3. The decoration of the walls and roofs of societies

Daily culture is like the decoration that adorns the walls and roof of the societies sharing a common civilizational house. It is the sum of all human ideas, behaviors, actions, fashions, and other that are expressed by the individuals within a given society in the present moment.

A society’s daily culture is thus evolving from one moment to the next by synchronizing the individuals’ perception of its present contextual settings with its cultural continuum that is given by its axioms of civilization and its foundational worldview. >

3.1.3. Cultural evolution = the evolution of the continuum of the societal field of a society

Societal evolution addresses the way individuals organize and cooperate in order ‒ first to maximize the satisfaction of their biological needs also called objective needs ‒ then to maximize their mental needs also called subjective needs. And history shows that humanity transitioned — first from small bands to tribes during the Eamian Inter-glacial period — and later from tribes to power societies at the tale-end of the Younger-Dryas. Societal evolution was an organizational adaptation to evolving contextual settings in which climate change played a determinant role.  In light of this the present bout of abrupt climate warming, plus "the great convergence of Late-Modernity", indicate that humanity is now most probably on the verge of a 3rd great turning that I call After-Modernity...

3.1.3.1. Small bands

Chimpanzees and bonobos live communally in groups consisting most generally of 20 to 30 individuals that occasionally grow to 120 for chimpanzees and 80 for bonobos. Chimpanzee communities consist of an alpha-male, adult females, subordinate males, and adolescents (3).  Chimpanzees respect hierarchy and their power relations of dominance are regulated by alliances and coalitions among males. When he is weakening the dominance of the alpha-male gets challenged by mature younger males. Bonobos, in contrast to chimps, live in egalitarian societies that are supervised by old females. The different species of the genie Homo lived in small-bands at the image of chimp or bonobo hunter-gatherers communities.

The genie Homo shared a common origin with both Chimpanzees and bonobos who split from their common ancestor some 6 million years ago while emerging as two distinct species some 2 million years ago. Homo-Sapiens seem to be the youngest species in the Genie Homo and reached their modern biological build-up some 300,000 years ago.

"Since its split the genie Homo has naturally evolved by privileging some specific genetic characters at the contact of the contextual settings in its habitat and it split further in cousin Homo species.

It's been about 6 million years since the death of the last common ancestor we shared with chimps and bonobos. Since then, we humans have channeled our inner to share and cooperate on a massive scale.

But we've often acted more like chimps, whose murder rate in the wild is comparable to our own, when it comes to behaviors like violence against members of our own species.

… Humans do not share bonobos' assumption that every stranger is a potential friend. Studies show we may not even consider a stranger fully human if they belong to a group perceived as other and threatening. " (4)

The genetic characters of Chimp and bonobos were already present in their common ancestor which implies that the human species inherited both those characters. And, as suggested by the “Lola ya Bonobo center”, our evolution has sometimes privileged the chimpanzee character and at other time the bonobo character.

3.1.3.2. Tribes

During the Lower paleolithic the different branches of the genie Homo lived in small bands of 20 to 30 individuals. Some were governed under the physical power of an alpha-male like the chimpanzees while others were governed in an egalitarian fashion like the bonobos (5).

Sometime around 128,000 years ago an abrupt climate warming resulted in a sudden abundance of food which resulted in a growth of populations that destabilized the model of organization of small bands (6). After thousands of years of trial and errors bands were finally superseded by a new tribal form of societal organization whose population fluctuated between 120 and 180 members which seems to have favored the bonobo behavioral character.

The tribal model of organization had no hierarchy, no structures of power, and life was uniformly egalitarian. It was governed through the unanimous agreement of its members and lasted till — sometime around 10,000 years ago in the Tri-Continental-Area when its societal model was overwhelmed by an abrupt climate warming that occasioned a sudden population growth which destabilized tribal societies and led to a transition toward power-societies — sometime around 6,000-7,000 years ago within the territory of present day China when the symbolism of the sage, representing the unity of tribal cultural confederations, morphed into a form of governance that was better adapted to the necessity of managing great anti-flooding works.

It has been observed that larger communities, or larger groups, after having managed large works over the long haul, always finish by adopting power governance structures and with the emergence of power the relations between their members changed favoring the chimpanzee behavioral character of authority and violence.

3.1.3.3. Power-Societies

After the destabilization of tribes a transition, based on trials and errors, set in that, between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago, concluded with the emergence of cities, early kingdoms, and empires that succeeded to reproduce their institutions over the generations. That is when the ruling class took up the power to levy and collect taxes, decree and implement laws, etc... And so emerged class structured societies with their unequal distribution of resources. Power societies are governed under the power of a cunning and manipulative elite that imposes its will on the majority of citizens.

But the geographical spread of those societies needed something more than violence to hold the citizens together and to stabilize a model of governance that could successfully reproduce its institutions over the generations. This something appeared to be societal worldviews shared by all.

But from West to East worldviews diverged dramatically suggesting that the differences in their contextual settings favored one set of inherited characters above the other. The Western side of Eurasia, it seems, inherited more of the chimpanzee character while the eastern side inherited more of the bonobo character.


3.1.4. cultural evolution pulls Societal evolution

The societal evolution, that I refer to here, was impulsed by the dramatic contextual changes wrought by climate change. As I understand it the transition from Modernity to After Modernity will force humanity into a 3rd great turning from which will eventually emerge a 4th historical model of society.

What is important to remember here is that these historical models of societal organization were caused each time by changes in the earth’s geo-bio-chemistry that pushed the balance of the contextual settings in the habitat to the limits of human livability. At each turning humans have been forced by necessity to experiment new forms of societal organization that are better adapted to the new contextual settings.

Societal transitions eventually stabilized after thousands of years of trials. The model of power-societies, for example, stabilized some 5,000 years ago with the reproduction of the institutions of power over the span of many generations. And after its stabilization a new form of societal evolution set in that gradually initiated an internal form of evolution that shaped “the cultural field” of power-societies.

The “societal cultural field” is a concept derived in analogy with the concept of field in physics (7). I apply this concept to the domain of cultural evolution that is the driver of societal evolution (8). Physical fields “are not visible to us directly, but only through their effects”. The same goes for the “societal cultural field”. It is not directly visible to us but we can observe how it shapes the daily culture of any given society.

The “societal cultural field” is not as complex as physical fields in the sense that it was shaped along the path taken by societal evolution. We can approach it by studying its three dynamic components and their interactions :

• the axioms of civilization

• the societal worldview

• daily culture

Human behavior in the present is indeed being forced by these three components of the “societal cultural field” and by their interactions that force a synchronization of our individual perception of the contextual settings in our societal present. The “continuum of the societal cultural field” leaves not much space for individual free-will. But our illusion of free-will is nevertheless forcing us to adapt our daily culture to the changing conditions in our habitat. In that sense the “societal cultural field” is gradually forcing us to behave in a more sustainable way while our illusion of free-will is forcing us to adapt to contextual changes.

But in Late-Modernity this push to adapt to a changing context is nevertheless far from sufficient to keep up with the changes that are popping up at an ever more rapid speed. This leaves thus a growing distance between the present context of “the great convergence of Late-Modernity” and the approximations of reality that founded the axioms and worldviews which drive our culture. And in this sense our culture becomes ever more alien to our contemporary context.

 

 

 

 

3.2. The formation of daily culture in the West and in China

In, the introduction of Volume 1, I wrote the following :

“Culture is at the heart of societal evolution like genetics is at the heart of biological evolution”.

In this vision genetics and culture are the outcome in the present of a long process of evolution in their respective fields. And culture is thus not the product of an exceptional human inventiveness as is the belief shared by most of my fellow-citizens.

Western contemporary behaviors portend the following :

1. Personal gratification is prime
   
   The minds of the individuals can’t resist the satisfaction of mental needs even if that comes at the cost of being captives in the rat race.



2. Beliefs shape daily culture
   
   The individuals' minds are stuck in the continuum of their society's cultural field and more specifically in the axioms of their civilization and the theorems of their worldview that color their daily culture.



3. The minds are captives of the illusion of Free will
   
   The fact is that our subconscious is governed by the continuum of the cultural field of our society and free will is therefore no more than a subjugation of the mind to the cool-aid of the beliefs that shape our daily culture which in Western countries are beliefs in "the reason" and rationalism...

The axioms of civilizations set the societies, within their geographical realm, on a given path of thinking and on a given behavioral road. And the fact is that the individuals always drive further down that same old road while being completely unconscious of the fact that they are on a cultural freeway to nowhere.  And in their non-conscious state they have no clue at all that there are exits...

The reason for this is quite simple. Over the centuries the axioms, derived from the foundational worldviews of civilizations, dropped out of the individuals’ conscious minds and they are now hidden in their subconscious while the individuals are stuck in the rituals of their worldviews.

Rediscovering the axioms of one’s civilization is technically feasible but it is not an easy task. It takes a long journey to discover and understand that we live in the bubble of our “societal cultural field”. And after mastering the knowledge about the cultural field of our society we need to have the will to re-align our behavior.

Immense difficulties await us in the search for the axioms of our civilization which is why so few individuals ever realize that such axioms exist at all. These axioms are hidden in the subconscious and so the individuals never come to understand how these axioms force their thinking and their behavior. So their chance to see that there are exit ramps on the road of their civilization is nil indeed. Only old wise-men eventually come to see these ramps and if they have the necessary level of wisdom they can leave the road and enter the unknown outside of societies.

Laoze was feeling so helpless in enlightening his countrymen that he literally left the road. Taking an exit ramp, while leaving the ordinary world, he wrote the “Dao De Jing” for the future consideration of his countrymen. Did he access the ultimate consciousness after that ? Nobody knows. But what we know is that, while the “Dao De Jing” (9) was a prime source of inspiration for many over the last 2,500 years, his society is still driving fast and furious along its civilizational path.

The fact of the matter is that the axioms of civilization nullify the possibility of individual free-will for nearly all of us. Free-will is thus a pure illusion. Only wise-men see through the illusion. But they are very rare in Late-Modernity.

Power-societies push this illusion of free-will down the throat of their citizens in order to encourage them to adapt their cultural field to the changing conditions in their habitat. Political decision-makers are as much under the spell of this illusion as anybody else. This illusion is like a ball rolling down a mountain road accumulating ever more snow and eventually crashing in a mirror down the slope when life leaves the body.

The fact is that, while the axioms of civilization nullify the possibility of individual free-will, they are forcing a map of the world, a view of what reality is all about, in the minds of the individuals. Some of them eventually gain an understanding of their worldview’s public narrative and are then powerfully incentivized to adapt the narrative of their worldview to the cultural memes that actualize their daily culture to the changing conditions in their habitat.

And so the illusion of individual free-will performs the necessary synchronization, of a changing habitat with a society’s cultural field, that gives the daily culture of society.

Having said all that lets now observe how this works out in real life. Lets take the example of peoples' behaviors in our present Geo-political moment.


1. Beliefs and behaviors of those in the West

• 1.1.   Dualism  =   Conflict  =   Rupture
  
  
  
  • 1.1.1. Dualism is the confrontation of opposites trying to eliminate “the other” that Christianity symbolizes in its opposition of god representing  goodness and the devil representing evil.
    
    Centuries of practice of this symbolism matured a mental automatism that focuses the minds on 'me me me' while separating 'me me me' from the world around it. And so starts the Western story of 'me me me'.
  
  
  
  • 1.1.2. Me me me believes being on the side of god ; me me me believes being good ; me me me believes being exceptional.
  
  
  
  • 1.1.3.  Me me me believes her or his country is a beacon of freedom on top of the hill.
  
  
  
  • 1.1.4.  Me me me believes her or his values are unique and universal
  
  
  
  • 1.1.5.  Me me me believes her or his systems are the most efficient ones.
  
  
  
  • 1.1.6. Me me me believes in Western exceptionalism → democracy, separation of powers, human rights, free markets, open borders, … → and so me me me naturally believes that Western systems should be adopted universally which ends diversity and brings “the end of history”
  
  
  
  • 1.1.7. Me me me experiences the difference of “the other” as something intolerable for god and her or his love for god forces her or him to convert “the other” or to fight “the other” to the death.



• 1.2. Unlimited insults against “the other” = me me me versus “the other”. In the past Westerners have gone so far as thinking that “the other” is not even human !  Today they merely hurl insults around and accuse "the other" of all sorts of lies...
  
  
  • 1.2.1. Putin is a killer
  
  
  
  • 1.2.2. "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power" (10)
  
  
  
  • 1.2.3. The Russian system of governance is an autocracy, an authoritarian dictatorship, that wants to annex its neighbors
  
  
  
  • 1.2.4. The Chinese are not civilized
  
  
  
  • 1.2.5. The Chinese governance system is an authoritarian dictatorship only capable of stealing Western know-how and technology
  
  
  
  • 1.2.6. The Chinese governance system forbids freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, stacks Uighur's in concentration camps, terminated Hong Kong’s British given freedoms, chased the Dalai Lama out of Tibet and keeps the region under a regime of terror, and so on and on.
  
  
  
  • 1.2.7. China is coercing other countries through wolf warrior diplomacy and debt traps
  
  
  
  • 1.2.8. Covid-19 came out of a Wuhan lab and China has to indemnify the world…



• 1.3. Pushing “the other's" back on the wall : me me me is constantly pushing and threatening “the other”. The US has 900 bases around the world to put pressure and to extract the submission of “the others” to its orders. And the US finances that while letting its own people live in misery proving that democracy is definitely not a political system focusing on peoples' needs. 
  



• 1.4. Bombing “the other” back to to the stone age : me me me killing “the other”.
  
  
  • 1.4.1. Irak and Libya have been bombed to the stone age for daring to propose a replacement of the US dollar as the world currency of trade…
  
  
  
  • 1.4.2. Iran is under sanctions since 1979 !
  
  
  
  • 1.4.3. Earth : 248 armed conflicts after WW2 ; US started 201 (81%), killing 30 million so far. Arrests are when ? Now ?” (11)

2. Beliefs and behaviors of those in China

• 2.1.  Complementary polarities  =  animation of life   =  continuity
  
  
  
  • 2.1.1. Complementary polarities
    
    The Chinese believe that all entities are animated by their complementary polarities which they abstract to a “Yin and Yang cosmic polarity principle" that equates with “female and male” or “strong and weak” or “hard and soft”, and so on.
  
  
  
  • 2.1.2. These polarities are complementary. Their interactions generate the energy that powers the “being” of all entities in the universe. And the universe itself got animated by its Yin and Yang polarities.
    
    The general understanding in Chinese cosmology is that the infinite potential of the universe got liberated through the animation of Tàijí or Tai’Chi by its Yin and Yang polarities. Tàijí is the oneness of the supreme state of 'undifferentiatedness' (“Supreme Ultimate"). And the yin-yang polarities are “the cosmic first principle” that shifts “the oneness of the supreme state of 'undifferentiatedness' "  into the infinite potential of the universe.
  
  
  
  • 2.1.3. The liberation of the infinite potential of the universe awoke “the ten thousand things” or all the particles and sub-ensembles in the whole. Black and white are the extremes in the entity called colors. Black is no colors at all while white is all colors all at once. In Chinese eyes these extremes are very rare occurrences. More important is the infinity of grays, at the image of the variety of characters in life, that lays in between these extremities.



• 2.2. The Chinese encounter with “the other”  =   curiosity
  
  
  
  • 2.2.1. The Chinese view their country as one among many and, while they think of it as having the most advanced societal cultural field, their ambitions are limited to produce the best daily life that they can for their families. This attitude is called pragmatism and it contrasts rather favorably with  Western ideological thinking and attitudes…
  
  
  
  • 2.2.2. Faced with “the other” the Chinese express curiosity in her or his beliefs, in her or his daily culture, in her or his goods, in her or his production methods, and so on. Their curiosity is motivated by their interest for novelty. Along their entire history the Chinese acted like sponges absorbing all novelties, that they view as useful, in their own daily culture...



• 2.3. The Chinese respect of “the other” = gift making.
  
  The contrast between, Western insults and violence, and Chinese attitudes of respect could not be starker as was documented in history and is constantly on display today for all to see in the Geo-political field.
  
  
  
  • 2.3.1. The most amazing and shocking difference was given by Western and Chinese radically different attitudes when they ventured on the seas in voyages of discovery around the world.
    
    Columbus left Spain with 3 little boats and enough food to feed their ninety sailors to last until they landed and once there they were hunting and gathering but mostly looting the natives.
    
    The outcome of these Western voyages was centuries of genocide and looting that destroyed civilizations, societies and untold million lives.
    
    In contrast Zheng He left with immense boats that stored enough food for the entire voyage and they also had gifts at the attention of the natives hoping to attract exchanges of visits between sovereigns.
  
  
  
  • 2.3.1.2. The contemporary behaviors of nations are there for all to see.
    
    The facts are simple enough but Western propaganda is so relentless and intrusive nowadays that very few escape being brainwashed.
    
    On one side is a vision of exceptionalism rooted in dualism that views the difference of “the other” as a danger that has to be vanquished. On the other side is a vision of “a community with a shared destiny” that views the difference with “the other” as an opportunity to gain knowledge and commerce.
    
    The first views national relations, between competitors, always ending up in inequality while the other views national relations between equals forming a “community of common destiny”.

3.3. How are behaviors affected by the other-worldliness of the other ?

The difference of “the other” disturbs the normality that is imprinted in Western minds. They are scared by “the others” and want to be separated from them.

Blacks have been parked in ghettos. Native Americans have been parked in reserves. Japanese were parked in concentration camps during the second world war. And what about the Chinese after the first missiles start to land in both countries ?

Westerners are boosting about their multiculturalism at home but they are nevertheless averse to share in the differences with “the other”. White racism separates whites from people of color who are parked in ghettos and live in squalid misery.

Another constant is that the West always feels a strong inclination to loot and to extract the resources of “the others” in far away places.

The separation of the West, with the rest, is rooted in this Western inclination whose deleterious effects on “the others” are plenty visible to whomever is willing to see.

While I’m writing this the news is falling that Nancy Pelosi’s plane left Singapore for Taiwan. A few hours from now we’ll know how the Chinese authorities handle this provocation. For how else could we characterize this utterly bizarre behavior in nation to nation relation ? Whatever happens this incident is going to deepen the animosity between China and the US while the world is already one minute before midnight on the atomic clock of the bulletin of atomic scientists. (12)

Some 20 hours after writing this last sentence the Chinese media’s rendition of the CPC’s answer, to this US provocation, is gradually taking shape. Its reasoning goes something like this :

1. The US unilaterally changed the status quo on Taiwan. David Goldman, from Asia Times, gives the best description of why Pelosi’s visit indeed changed the status quo :

   US diplomatic relations with China began with the Shanghai Communique of 1972, which states:
   
   The US side declared: The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves.
   
   … In an off-the-record discussion with Asia Times, one of the original members of the Richard Nixon delegation to China in 1972 stated that the Pelosi visit “clearly violates the spirit of the Shanghai Communique.” That stems from the Constitutional status of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
   
   ... Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the Speaker of the House of Representatives is next in line to the vice president for succession. Because of the Speaker’s Constitutional position, she is the third highest official in the United States. A presidential or vice-presidential visit to Taiwan would cross China’s red line. A visit by the Speaker nudges the red line.
   
   ... After a series of missteps and official corrections, notably including the State Department’s fact sheet on US relations with Taiwan and Biden’s impromptu promise in Japan to defend Taiwan against a mainland military incursion, the Pelosi visit looks to Beijing like an American attempt to blur a red line that for Beijing is a raison d’etre of the Chinese state.
   
   On August 2, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of American “perfidy.” (13)




2. China catches the opportunity, of a changing status quo by the US, “to irreversibly change the Taiwan Straits situation and speed up the reunification process” (14).
   
   This 3rd of August Taiwan is de facto encircled by PLA forces. The Chinese ministry of defense informed the world to stay outside of Taiwan’s airspace and maritime zone because PLA exercises with live ammunition starting this Wednesday will last until Sunday 7th. It looks like China is blockading Taiwan which begs the following questions :
   
   ◦ Will Pelosi’s plane be allowed to leave Taiwan ?
   
   ◦ A gas tanker is scheduled to supply a load of gas this 4th or 5th and the talk in Beijing is to keep the tanker outside of Taiwan’s waters. But electric turbines in Taiwan are running on gas and the island’s reserves will be empty by Saturday 6th. This is the hot season and if electricity production stops Taiwanese citizens will be really pissed off !
   
   With this blockade China is giving proof, to the US, to the Taiwanese population, and to the world, that it definitely has the power to bring Taiwan to a stand-still and that nobody can do anything about it !
   
   But the story does not stop there. It seems that China wants to extend its control over Taiwan’s airspace and maritime space through the promulgation of a new law ! If this comes to pass China will have the full control over all personal exchanges between Taiwan and the outside world which means that Pelosi style provocations will be a memory of the past…



3. This ‘Taiji move’ is not only going to change the status quo. It is writing the new Geo-political narrative of the East-Asia sea.
   
   ◦ It will exclude the US from the Taiwan-Strait and from Taiwan-island. China has taken position and is transferring military reinforcements from all around the country to the East-coast which means that further provocations from Taiwan-island will be answered with missiles reaching its military bases while the provocations of foreign aircraft-carriers will be calls for the signature of hypersonic DF-21D’s.
   
   ◦ This could definitely stop outside political meddlers in the affairs of Taiwan.
   
   ◦ It could also break the US navy’s hold on the first island chain and the East-China Sea which is at the root of the maritime containment of China that had been conceived, during the Korean War, by John Foster Dulles.
   
   ◦ It will force the Taiwanese people to take note of the new realities. The West will use its megaphones but Taiwan will be left alone.
   
   ◦ The US, Japan, and South-Korea will be faced with a “fait accompli”. Once the new realities have been digested Korea and Japan will discover that the West is naked and that their only possible future is a community of common destiny with China at the core.
   
   ◦ But above all, the whole world is witnessing the mastery of China at surfing on the Dao while taking advantage of the stupidity of the hegemon to force the emergence of new realities without resorting to any deaths. And so the world is sure to have a good laugh at the sight of the sore loser that is this mean American teenager!

This detour through the actualities of the day gives a good overview of the different nature of the thinking of Chinese people and of Westerners. As a European living among the Chinese since nearly 4 decades I developed the concept of “The continuity of the societal cultural field” as an analytical tool to comprehend how Westerners and Chinese are thinking, behaving, and acting so differently and how these differences emerged in the early morning of human history. 

 

Here above I have been reading the actuality of Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan through the prism of that concept.

Notes

1. This is a copy-paste, from volume 2 “Modernity. 5.2.1. the First Principles of Life”, that I slightly edited for the circumstance.

 

 

2. This is a copy-paste, from volume 1. “1.5. The cultural field”, that I slightly edited.

 

 

3. "From Top to Bottom, Chimpanzee Social Hierarchy is Amazing! ", Jane Goodall Institute. by Brittany Cohen-Brown. 2018-07-10.

 

 

4.  “Bonobos And Humans: Kindness May Have An Ancient Connection”, in NPR
‘Goats and Soda, by Jon Hamilton. 2021-03-20.

 

 

5.  Multiple archaeological discoveries point to a cultural shift that appeared during the Eemian Inter Glacial Period. The most significant among these discoveries is the use of tools to produce clothes.

"Study suggests earliest use of bone tools to produce clothing in Morocco 120,000
years ago", in Archaeology News Network, by Julie Russ. Source: Arizona State
University. 2021-09-16.

 

 

6. "The Concept of the ”FIELD” in Physics". Department of Physics & Astronomy of the University of British Colombia. 

 

 

7. Societal evolution : a domain that parallels the domain of biological evolution but running in an accelerating fashion. I developed the idea in the first 20 articles of my series titled “From Modernity to After-Modernity” but the first time I use the concept “societal evolution” was in “What is going on “ 7.1. on the emergence of societal and art”. I later expanded followed up in “A first blow in Late-Modernity. 7.2. Reflections on the lessons from history, and 7.3. the principle of life”. And finally, in volume I of the series “From Modernity to After-Modernity” I integrated societal evolution as the outcome of the evolution of the societal cultural field. 

 

 

8. Laoze (Lao Tze) lived sometime in the first part of the 6th century BC. He is the author of the DaoDeJing whose 81 chapters constitute the foundation of philosophic Daoism (Taoism) which itself became the foundation of religious Daoism. (the link gives free access to 75 different interactive English translations)

 

 

9. "Biden says of Putin: 'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power' ", NPR, by Deepa Shivaram and Avie Schneider. 2022-03-26.

 

 

10. "America Has Started 81% Of The Wars Since WWII", Investment Watch Blog, by IWB. 2015-07-04.