Daily reality and the news about it. Foreword & Afterword

Foreword

Emerging facts, that are separated from the context in which they appear, make no sense for the good reason that it is their context that procures them substance. In themselves facts are incomprehensible. Their meaning is in the outcome of the process that formed them. In light of this the imposition by the media of facts that are divorced from their context is necessarily a highly suspect act that reeks of propaganda, as the Hamas story that fills our media today plainly attests.

To be of any value, daily news should at the least teach us how daily culture emerges from the unconscious synchronization, of the citizens' perception about their contextual settings, with the cultural field of their society. Their current thoughts, behaviors and actions, are indeed the outcome of this synchronization.

Those who are aware that such a synchronization shapes the nature of current societal thinking, behavior and actions, know that they can shape their emerging form. Propaganda thrives on this faculty. But, since it is at the service of the men of power, it fakes the facts for the sake of their interests. By reconciling the current thinking, behavior and actions, with the patterns of what works in biological and societal evolution, truth-seekers can fortunately  establish the truthfulness of facts.

Afterword

Facts are the outcomes of processes that started to operate in the dawn of the systems that are animating the ensemble in which those facts emerged in the first place.

In the present era of Late-Western-Modernity we, human animals, perceive these ensembles, their systems and processes, in light of the rationality that animates our present societal life. But while we are under pressure in the present moment to understand, how it comes that the predicament of extinction affects our societal life, it is imperative that we question the rationality that animates the societal life that brought us to that point !

We have to recognize that we are easily accustomed to cognitive habits that leave us captive of choices which we initially thought were entirely justified. The fact is that our present predicament emerged after having practicing Western-Modernity for centuries. Our societies were entranced by the rationality of Western-Modernity. This rationality animates all our societal systems and our habits of thoughts have narrowed to the sole concern for the technical rationality that validates the process of capital accumulation.

But in matter of fact, over the last centuries, Western-Modernity has annihilated the rationality that is at work in the process of biological and societal evolution of the process of life ! And our species has landed itself in a maelstrom of contradictions. Humanity’s current predicament demonstrates without a shred of a doubt that, under the rationality of Western-Modernity, our societies are misfiring with huge consequences for the future reproduction of Homo-Sapiens.

Our doubt, about the future reproduction of our own species, should be proof enough that the rationality of Western-Modernity has reached the end of its validity. To survive as a species humanity has now to adopt a new knowledge paradigm that is better adapted to our present contextual settings. We need to revert to an ontology that is rooted in the primacy of the reproduction of life. In other words the imperative necessity is now to shift the priority of humanity from the rationality of Western-Modernity to the rationality that is at work in the biological and societal evolution of the process of life.

Our failure to operate such a conscious shift, as a species, unavoidably implies the collapse of our societal systems and the reconciliation of their search for more complexity with the primary need of reproduction which would inevitably be followed by the cleansing of the ensemble earth from the non-functional inventions of Homo-Sapiens ! What I mean to say here is that Western-Modernity failed to adhere to “The First Principles of Life” that sustains my series about “the transition from Western-Modernity to After-Modernity”.

This first rule stipulates that life substantiates into living species that are animated by the interactions between their polarities :

1. Reproduction of life    (persistence)
   The reproduction of life is realized through the biological reproduction of the individuals which is systematically pursued by the assembling of individuals in societal groups.


2. Search for more complexity    (novelty generation)
   The search for more complexity is realized through societal selection of novelty by the most creative individuals.

It so happens that a group of scientists just published an article validating the first among “the First Principles of Life” that form the guard-rails of societal evolution which I described in “Societal knowledge formation. ‘6.2.3.4.2. The First Principles of Life force the path of societal evolution’ and in ‘6.2.3.4.3. Dynamics of the First Principles of Life’ “. In sum these scientists argue that evolution is a macroscopic law of nature :

"The universe is replete with complex evolving systems, but the existing macroscopic physical laws do not seem to adequately describe these systems. Recognizing that the identification of conceptual equivalencies among disparate phenomena were foundational to developing previous laws of nature, we approach a potential “missing law” by looking for equivalencies among evolving systems. We suggest that all evolving systems—including but not limited to life—are composed of diverse components that can combine into configurational states that are then selected for or against based on function. We then identify the fundamental sources of selection—static persistence, dynamic persistence, and novelty generation—and propose a time-asymmetric law that states that the functional information of a system will increase over time when subjected to selection for function(s).“

In the words of this team of scientists evolution rests on 2 principles : — persistence — novelty generation.

In my series about "the transition from Western-Modernity to After-Modernity" I propose that these two principles act as the polarities that animate life within all sub-ensembles of the universe :

1. Persistence = reproduction → the primary principle 


2. Novelty generation = the search for more complexity → a subsidiary principle.

In my personal vision all entities in all ensembles are animated by their polarities which implies that the whole universe is alive as well as its sub-ensembles and their parts.

I described as follows the systemic nature, of the animation of all entities in the universe, in “Societal Knowledge Formation. 6.2.3.4. Necessity to clarify our conceptual framework” :

“We have seen earlier that all individual particles are interconnected and that their interconnectedness forms an ensemble that evolves its own rules of the game. The ensemble’s rules reflect to the parts its vision of the world. That view may be transmitted consciously, subconsciously, or may be engaged by a particular Geo-bio-chemical state or other.

From the perspective of the particles their biological and societal evolution eventually sets them on the path of knowledge formation which gives them access to the “Working Principles” of the ensemble they belong to. Human individuals eventually came to feel a vague sensation that better fitting in the whole could gain them some reprieve from suffering. And this reprieve of suffering was a powerful enticement to engage in societal knowledge formation.

After discovering that the truth, about U or the whole universe is unattainable, they understood that certainties are merely ideological illusions and knowing that illusions generate suffering they started to focus on the pragmatic principles that allow to live in harmony with the order of the whole.

I have tried, over the last 10 years, to summarize these pragmatic principles in what I call “the First-Principles of Life”.

“In philosophy and science, a first principle is a basic proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.” 

In light of this definition “The First-Principles of Life” are basic propositions, or assumptions about life, that can’t be deduced from any other assumptions.”

Seen, that “facts are the outcomes of processes that started to operate in the dawn of the systems that are animating the ensemble in which these facts emerged in the first place”, the reconciliation of current thinking, behavior and actions, with the patterns of what works in biological and societal evolution, implies that truth-seekers are sitting quiet in contemplation of the whole universe, its sub-ensembles and their parts. I'm afraid that it would be presumptuous to invite news peddlers to sit quiet seeking comprehension in such a contemplation.