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 13 Apr 2008 @ 09:47
Mysticism and Science: A new Union
1. Phi is the constant of self-similarity
It is my belief that the way forward involves the coming together of mysticism and science, to give a new holistic discipline which will combine the quantitative strengths of science with the holistic and qualitative strengths of mysticism.
What I am writing is not “sacred geometry” or “sacred mathematics”, but just plain true knowledge. My first assertion is that the number or ratio Phi, known from antiquity, is the constant of self-similarity. Let me illustrate this with a simple numerical example. Take the Fibonacci sequence
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 … … …
each number is the sum of the previous two terms, thus 8 = 5 + 3. It is very significant that if you divide any term by the immediately preceding term you derive a fraction which is alternately greater then less than Phi, and which quickly closely approximates its value of 1.618…. For example 89 divided by 55 is 1.61818, whereas 55 divided by 34 ( the preceding number) is 1.617647058
Now, the next thing to observe is that this sequence is self-similar:
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21
taking away each previous term, in sequence leaves a sequence which is identical to the original one. The whole thing appears to be nested and self-similar, and this process can be repeated ad infinitum.
Now let us look at the famous right-angled triangle and Pythagoras’ theorem. There are, it seems, hundreds of valid proofs of the theorem that the square on the hypoteneuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. One of the least well-known of these proofs is the one which uses the fact that the two small right-angled triangles formed when you drop a perpendicular from the original right-angle to the opposite hypoteneuse, are similar to each other and to the larger triangle. In other words this is another example of self-similarity. It is possible to construct spirals ad infinitum around the vertices of the ensuing smaller and smaller right-angled triangles which you can construct within these two triangles. And where you find equiangular spirals you will always find the ratio Phi, approximately 1.618
There are many other sequences e.g. the Lucas sequence, which like the Fibonacci show the Phi ratio, and they always display a form of self-similarity. I will leave it to you to investigate.
Phi is indeed the constant of self-similarity.
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9 Apr 2008 @ 09:25
CyberEnlightenment, Political Correctness and Fascism
The Enlightenment which issued from the declining feudal society of the mid-18th century and which culminated in the French Revolution and the transformation of Europe is with us again. It has returned in a new different form.
Anything which is partial, incomplete and fragmentary, if it is raised up and made into a totality, a false totality and a false whole, becomes demonic and very dangerous. This is what happened to the Enlightenment. Here, the rational faculty, at the expense of feeling, emotions and intuition, was raised up to the heights and made into Everything; which it of course is not. The result was very predictable. What is thrown out by the front door comes back unannounced through the back door. All the dark, irrational forces of emotion, Unconscious etc. exerted themselves and burst forth in the French Terror, Nazi Germany , Stalinism and all the other horrors of recent times. So much for the past.
But I assert the same thing is happening now. New technological developments in communications and information technology over the past 50 years have created, and still create, a new hyper-rationality, hyper-logicality which I call the Cyber Enlightenment. Evidence of this is all around us. Apart from personal things like obsession with computers and programming and logical ways of doing things, there are disturbing trends at the social and political levels. I am talking about the situation in England but I daresay the same thing is happening in other parts of the world, most notably the USA. The biggest example of what I am referring to is “Political Correctness”. This has gone from a tiny seed of 15 to 20 years ago, flourishing in the last ten years of the present Labour government and threatens to become an ideology as entrenched in our society as Stalinism was in the Soviet Union. A certain amount of “Political Correctness” is fine, conducive to showing respect to minorities and other groups, but it has become an overweening power in the land and threatens to become a major plank of some sort of totalitarian ideology which is a stealthy restraint on our liberty. It is now impossible to mention publicly or in private very many pressing problems and iniquities in our society without being accused of political incorrectness and worse. I repeat, when the truth cannot be expressed in this way, it is a restraint on our liberty.
Other planks of this emerging soft totalitarianism are the “nanny state”, “Health and Safety”, omnipresent bureaucracy and stealth taxes. We are all too familiar with all these things to need any detailed analysis and elaboration. These are all examples of Hyper-Rationality.
I believe that just as the 18th century Enlightenment was followed by great turbulence and a descent into darkness, similarly we are heading on the same trajectory now unless something is done to change course.
When someone criticises a situation they are often asked if they have anything better to offer themselves, with the implication that if they haven’t then they should shut up. Well, I do have something to offer which I believe is superior to this CyberEnlightenment and CyberSavagery which are closing in on us.
The only thing which can be raised up as a totality is a whole; is a totality. A real totality and not a false one, which is really only half of something, as the Reason is only half of us.
God/dess is the only real totality but on the human level a whole person is a real totality. A person who combines Yin and Yang, male and female, good and bad, intellect and feeling, heart and mind, Body and Soul and so on. Such a person blows away the cobwebs of “political correctness” like a whirlwind. That is the only answer to the current ills which threaten us, and such a person will say a lot of things, different aspects of the truth, that are unwelcome to more conventional people. I am talking here about self-realisation or Enlightenment. Real Enlightenment, not just of the intellect. And not just of one person but of the whole of society. That is the solution to all the problems that are facing the world today. More >
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7 Apr 2008 @ 10:59
Dialectical analysis of the Sudoku puzzle
A sudoku is a puzzle composed of 81 individual squares or cells, which join together into 9 larger squares of nine cells each. It can be looked at also as an array of nine columns and nine rows, each composed of nine cells.
The rules are what defines a game or puzzle and they create the contradictions in it. The basic rule of sudoku is that all the numbers 1 to 9, in any order, have to be in every row, column and square. But the defining rule or characteristic is that no number can recur in any row, column or square. Thus the main opposites here are “Identity” and “Difference”
This puzzle is constructed as a logical deduction puzzle whereby it should be possible to deduce all the absent numbers from the ones that are given, one by one, serially and piecemeal.
Now, just as the logical deductive process focuses on the rule that the numbers must be different, and uses that fact to deduce the outstanding numbers in the grid, so contrariwise, the dialectical method uses the opposite fact that in some parts of the grid, not subject to the rules, the numbers will be the same, will recur. This will give rise to certain characteristic patterns which can be used to intuit, guess and deduce the complete picture, holistically.
There are many patterns that arise in this way, but I will only mention three to illustrate my point.
Firstly, numbers cannot recur on rows, columns or in larger squares because of the rules. But they can and do recur when counted along diagonal lines. Thus on a diagonal across the whole grid it is sometimes possible to count three or four recurrences of the same number for example 4 or 7. Every diagonal is of a different length and there are sub-patterns within them that will reward study.
Secondly, what I call knight’s-move pattern. In many cases this pattern, created directly by the rules as a natural consequence of them, follows exactly the move of a knight in chess, and the same number recurs in the next column or row in this position. However, the rule that no number can recur in a larger square sometimes affects this pattern, and the same number recurs in a slight variation of the true knight’s-move, in an extended version.
Thirdly, it is noticeable that when a number is in a small square within a larger square, as we move from one column to the next, or one row to the next, the position of the same number is usually different, relatively, but not always. Thus, for example, in the top large square a 3 may be in the top left-most small square. In the next large square underneath it may be in the middle small square, while in the bottom large square it may be that it is in the right-most small square.
These and other patterns can be observed and learnt. When doing a sudoku you can use knowledge of these patterns to intuit, guess and deduce the overall distribution of the numbers throughout the whole puzzle, rather than just using a mechanical, solely deductive process to solve the puzzle piecemeal. These are examples of the Taoist and Confucianist methods of solving problems that I have written about elsewhere. Of course, it is possible to combine the two methods to get the best result.
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29 Mar 2008 @ 09:32
Social Unconscious, Civilization and Sexuality
The rational mind was the great celebrated faculty of the Enlightenment era, after which came the French revolution and Terror, and even worse things in the 20th century. All this was followed by the scientific elaboration of the notion of the Unconscious mind by Freud, just over one hundred years later which threw rationalism into turmoil.
Just as the individual has a rational or conscious mind, and also an Unconscious, so too, I now propose, does society as a whole. The analogy of society/individual is an old one, but I think this comparison of a social conscious and a Social Unconscious is new. Certainly society tries to be very rational with its theories, sciences, laws, rules and regulations and so on, and this corresponds naturally to the rational mind of the individual. What of the Social Unconscious, what does this consist of ? We are at an introductory stage in the study of this subject and I now propose three areas to look at, though I am sure that in due course more will come to light. These areas are Civilization, Sexuality and a structure in society which I call the Pyramid or triangle, which I will not be elaborating in this piece but will cover at length in an essay dedicated solely to it.
Civilization is a very strange subject and area of study. In one way it is a specific form of society as delineated by anthropologists, Marxists etc. but in another way it is a thing about which people have very personal and emotional, even irrational views and they feel very threatened by any criticisms of it to the extent of accusing you of wanting to destroy it if you make anything in the nature of a critique of it. Furthermore, there is no proper study of this subject. It is very broad and considered too much so for any one academic discipline. It is the area of dilettantes like Freud who wrote “ Civilization and its Discontents” and many other writers who weren’t specialists in this field. Every subject under the sun has an academic discipline devoted to it, except this one. Even though civilization is presently under great threat from climate change and other dangers, and every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed, there is still an incredible reluctance on the part of most people to talk about the subject, discuss it rationally And make plans to save it from destruction. All of these things, and I could say more, suggest to me that this subject of civilization is part of the aforementioned Social Unconscious. To say that society and people have a total blindspot to this subject is a vast understatement. Like many blindspots and neuroses and states of denial it can prove fatal if not brought to light and subjected to therapeutic treatment.
Much the same can be said about the subject of sexuality. One can discuss it rationally but many people can’t, and seem very ill at ease in any proximity to the subject. I have sometimes tried to discuss the ideas of that genius Oscar Wilde with seemingly intelligent people, only to be told “ I don’t want to talk about that homosexual”. Obviously their own problems with their own sexuality makes it impossible for them to even talk about any subject even approximately close to their difficult feelings. It’s not just individuals who have these problems with sexuality, society as a whole has taboos, no-go areas, evasions, distortions, denials, hypocrisies and double-standards of all sorts and that too suggests that sexuality is part of the Social Unconscious.
In a later writing I will look at a structure in society which seems to be unknown to social and political scientists, which in itself suggests that it may be part of this Social Unconscious, and which I have termed the Pyramid or Triangle.
Just as neurotic individuals need to do therapy to become healthier people, so our society needs to do some social therapy. It needs to look at the subject of civilization closely and discuss it widely. The same with the taboo areas of sexuality and all the connected issues. This is not an option but a necessity.
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25 Mar 2008 @ 10:01
Commonplaces
#1) Men make counterfeit money;
in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men
Sydney J. Harris
Aphorisms
#1) Mind over Matter
Matter UnderMined
#2) There is an art of Politics but politics is not Art
Politicians tell the truth or half-truth in order to lie
Art tells lies in order to speak the truth
#3) The evolution of the Butterfly shows the survival of the flittest
#4) Man (or woman) may be "the measure of all things", but only of those things that are measurable. They are not the measure of those other things which are beyond Quantity and Measure.
#5) The Best things in life are free. The Good things in life are quite expensive.
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3 Mar 2008 @ 12:50
Problem 3: How to bring fresh water from a nearby river to a small Chinese town.
This example is given by Joseph Needham in his book Science and Civilization in China as illustrating the main differences between Confucianist and Taoist approaches to doing things. The problem is how to provide fresh water to a small town from a nearby river. The Confucianist approach would be to divert water from the river at a convenient point well below the town and then use much man-power, mechanical devices and expense to lift it up again to the level of the town and so distribute it. This will solve the problem while generating employment, circulating money, aiding the invention and perfection of mechanical devices and generally keeping everybody busy. The Taoist approach would be to divert the water at a convenient point above the level of the town and using the natural tendency of water to find its own level, that is to run downwards, create an aqueduct to lead the water to the village or town and so distribute it. This method uses nature’s properties to move the water rather than human effort, creates much less employment (a one-off aqueduct rather than constant lifting of water), circulates less money and does not need inventions or mechanical devices.
This example clearly reveals that Confucianism is a social philosophy, and its solutions to problems are designed to benefit society in creating wealth, employment and invention. The Taoist method is one which is based on the individual, addresses the essence of the problem rather than appearances, and is in tune with nature. Instead of expending effort in lifting water upwards after we have allowed it to run downwards, we just divert it at the right point to run by its own momentum (with gravity’s help) into the town.
Conclusion
Clearly, there are simple, easy ways to solve problems and there are difficult, tedious ways. It seems very much the case that civilized society, with its obsession with externals, appearances and irrelevant details prefers the difficult way to do things. This is in keeping with its greatly over-yang nature. Over-Yang means giant, mechanical, crude, external, superficial and so on but most importantly, over-masculine. There is a clear link between the problems in our society and problems in our psyches concerning sexuality and gender. The solution must be to redress the balance and level-off with an equal emphasis on Yang and Yin values. Yin, after all, represents the small, the inner, the subtle, the essence and naturally, the feminine. If we are in harmony then society is in harmony.
It is my belief that every problem, whether it is Fermat’s Last Theorem, or CERN’s accelerator, or getting cheap energy through FUSION, has a simple solution as well as a difficult, complicated one. But our society’s obsession with doing things the Confucianist way, in order to create wealth and employment and inventions, means that people have forgotten, to a large extent, the ancient Taoist (and universal) approach that seeks simple, easy and cost-effective solutions to difficult problems. People just don’t believe that there are simple solutions to many of these problems. If the experts can’t solve them then they must be impossible, they think. But maybe the experts are looking in the wrong place, and the wrong way, and from the wrong perspective.
I am not asking people to abandon completely the Confucianist approach, which is so engrained in all of us, particularly men, by our upbringing and education. All I ask is for the imbalance to be less completely one-sided and total.
Ideally we should use both techniques to solve difficult problems, both the Yin and the Yang, both the ‘left brain’ and the ‘right brain’, both Taoist and Confucianist. More >
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3 Mar 2008 @ 12:47
Taoism and Confucianism
Confucianism and Taoism are seemingly opposite but also complementary ways of approaching life and solving its problems. They are world-views which originated in China but that are both universal. Confucianism is named after the Chinese Sage Confucius (Kung Fu Tse) who incidentally was not a Confucianist, and developed a moral and ethical philosophy, six centuries before Christ. Taoism is the nature mysticism local to China and is far more aimed at individual development and enlightenment than social. Both are universal in that Confucianism is a way of doing things which comes naturally to civilized, organised, bureaucratised and conformist (official) societies world-wide, while Taoism is part of the perennial philosophy and is the personal ideology of the individual, the lover, the eccentric, the spiritual searcher after truth, the rebel and the seeker of simple solutions to life’s problems and union with Nature.
In this paper I will briefly outline a few problems of a simple kind and present Confucianist and Taoist treatments of their solutions.
Problem 1: Opening a vacuum-held jar lid.
The Confucianist approach to getting a top off from a jar, held tight by a vacuum, is primarily to apply brute force externally to the lid and force it off. This is done with either the hands or a mechanical device, a lever. With small jars this is a practical technique but with larger and larger jars and lids, it becomes exceedingly difficult and tedious.
The Taoist technique is to release the vacuum. This addresses the essence, not the externals of the problem – because inside, the lid is held on by the power of vacuum in the top of the jar. The vacuum is released by inserting a wedge – sort of object, it could be a spoon or other strong object, between the side edge of the lid and the jar top. Applying a small amount of pressure causes the two to separate allowing air into the top of the jar. The lid then unscrews with the minimum of effort.
Comparing the two techniques, it is clear that the Confucianist method uses a cumbersome, mechanical approach which does not address the essence of the problem. With large jars it would be completely inappropriate and impractical. On the other hand the Taoist method is quick, simple, costs nothing and is exactly the same whether you are dealing with a tiny jar or a large one. The Taoist technique is geared to the inner essence of the problem which the Confucianist method ignores, looking only at external superficial appearances in trying to deal with the problem.
The second problem 2: Calculating the number of games played in a knock-out tournament.
This simple mathematical problem is given by Edward de Bono in his book on lateral thinking as an illustration not of Confucianism and Taoism but of his technique at lateral thinking. A teacher wants to keep a class busy for half-an-hour with a simple, mechanical but tedious sequence of calculations that lead to the desired answer. However, one bright student, using ‘lateral thinking’ solves the problem in a matter of seconds. What is the problem? Imagine a football or chess tournament which has 16 teams or players in it. How many individual games need to be played before a winner emerges? The Confucianist technique is to calculate the number of games piecemeal. First there are 8 pairs of teams, then when the winners go through this becomes 4 pairs, then 2 pairs and finally one pair in the final. The total number of games then becomes (for a tournament comprising 16 teams), 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 15. So the answer is 15.
The lateral thinker or Taoist uses a different approach. Instead of concentrating on games won he or she looks at the opposite, that is games lost. With clear intuition he realises that in the tournament all teams or players will lose a game except the final winner. So the number of games lost is the same as the number of games won, except it is much easier to calculate. If there are 16 teams in the tournament then 15 losses occur = 16 – 1. Both techniques arrive at the same answer but one is much more simple and quick than the other. The Taoist technique takes seconds and it doesn’t matter whether there are 16 teams in the tournament or 256. The method is essentially the same. If there were 256 teams in the tournament the number of games played (lost) would be 256 – 1 = 255. Using the Confucianist technique to calculate the numbers at each stage of the tournament piecemeal would take hours in this case.
So in this example, we see slightly different aspects of the difference between the two techniques. The Confucianist method is slow, laborious and we suspect, primarily designed, in this case, to keep a class busy and out of mischief for half an hour. The Taoist method goes straight to the heart of the problem and instead of being misled by society’s obsession with ‘winning’ it solves the riddle by looking at the key to the problem which is that the number of games lost is equal to the number of games played. All that can be said in favour of the Confucianist approach is that it is useful to society and in generating the result generates additional statistics and data about the different stages of the tournament and finally suggests a mathematical relationship between the sums at the powers of 2 (8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 2^4 – 1).
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24 Feb 2008 @ 09:25
Two Conjectures concerning Fermat’s Last Theorem
For most of my life, I have been an amateur mathematician and interested in the problem called Fermat’s Last Theorem. Like most other people I was delighted when Prof. Wiles came up with his proof in 1994 and I only regretted that I was not able to understand the advanced mathematics which it contained. I have always believed that Fermat had a proof of his own and that it has to be based on the mathematics available in his time. So I continued to struggle with this problem.
My recent researches have led me to two interconnected hypotheses which, if proven, lead to a solution of this problem and which arguably could be the same approach which Fermat used.
My first conjecture concerns the equation:
X^3 + Y^3 = Z^3
If we assume that there are indeed two cubes which when added together equal a third cube then we realize that since a cube has six sides, each of which is a square, then we have the interesting fact that the first cube has a square equal to X^2, the second cube has a square equal to Y^2 and the third cube has a square equal to Z^2. This obvious fact leads me to a question which I believe is original, as I have never come across it in conversation with other mathematicians or seen it in the literature. Is it possible, I ask myself, that given the hypothetical existence of these sides x, y, and z and these squares X^2, Y^2 and Z^2, that there is a definite relationship between these three squares.
The surface area of the first cube is 6x^2, that of the second cube is 6y^2 and that of the third cube 6z^2.It is clear to me that since cubes are based on squares and squares are based on Pythagorean triangles, that it is the underlying Pythagorean triangles which make it impossible for two cubes to add to another cube or two fourth powers to add to another fourth power and so on. In fact I would say that here X^2 + Y^2 = Z^2 though this implies a contradiction.
This is paradoxical and clearly impossible. Prof. Wiles, whatever the merits or demerits of his proposed solution, does nothing to clarify the amazing contradiction at the heart of the Fermat problem.
If this is indeed so, the fact that X, Y and Z must be Pythagorean triples leads me to my next conjecture. I believe, though I cannot prove, that the same relationship between N=2 and N=3 in the Fermat equation
X^N + Y^N = Z^N
Exists between N=3 and N=4 and in general between any two consecutive powers. In other words, the values which satisfy the equation for any N must also satisfy the equation for N+1. So the solutions are like a set of Russian dolls or nested boxes in that each is contained in the previous one. Since we know that there are no solutions for N=3 then establishing these two conjectures would immediately prove Fermat’s Last Theorem.
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22 Feb 2008 @ 09:33
Edward Carpenter, Gandhi and the politics of Identity
Edward Carpenter was a Victorian writer, anarchist, socialist and spiritual adept who,famous in his own time, was forotten for most of the twentieth century and is now being rediscovered. He appears very different from Gandhi, who was famous in his own lifetime and whose reputation has continued to grow since his death, so that now he is considered one of the greatest figures of the last hundred and fifty years.
But Carpenter is comparable in many ways to Gandhi. He came from an upper middle class family as Gandhi did. He followed a conventional path and career until the chance reading of the poetry of Walt Whitman sent him on a path of simple and unalienated living in rejection of the false values of Victorian society. Gandhi went through a similar, if less dramatic, transformation through reading many deep and powerful books.
Carpenter was a mystic and had the honour of being profiled by Maurice Bucke in his classic book “Cosmic Consciousness”(1900) as a living example of the state of consciousness he terms “cosmic” and which he also ascribed to Buddha, Walt Whitman, and other historical figures such as St.John of the Cross, Jesus and Mahomet. Gandhi is known by everyone as “Mahatma” or Great Soul.
Both were visionaries and prophets. Gandhi saw that the gradual evolution of the world would lead touniversal peace and realised that the key to this was the practice of non-violence and truth. Carpenter predicted correctly many subsequent developments of society and the world.
Both had a radical view of civilization, which is a subject close to my own heart. Carpenter had a critique of civilization which is on the same level of insight as the ideas of Freud, Fourier and Marx. Gandhi used the word civilization in an ideal sense as a state of society not yet attained and famously stated that western civilization “ would be a good idea”. It is not very well known but in Chapter 6 of his 1909 book “Hind Swaraj” Gandhi wrote:
“Several English writers refuse to call that civilisation which passes under that name. Many books have been written upon that subject. Societies have been formed to cure the nation of the evils of civilisation. A great English writer has written a work called ‘Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure’. Therein he has called it a disease.”
The writer to whom Gandhi is referring is none other than Edward Carpenter.
But all this comparison of Carpenter and Gandhi would be of little point if it were not the case that Edward Carpenter has something to say to this present generation which is acutely relevant.
Carpenter was a prolific writer and dealt with themes that were taboo in Victorian times such as sexuality and homosexuality. He was one of the first to write about what we would today term “minorities” and “equal opportunities”. His own situation gave him an insight into something that is now cutting-edge and critical. He saw the wretched position of women, both poor and rich, in Victorian society. Also, the marginalisation of people seen then as deviants and criminals. All this was not alien to him and is not alien to us. And of course Gandhi was right there too. Gandhi felt passionately about the plight of Indian women, not a minority surely, but a marginalised majority. He worked hard to combat the evils of the caste system, particularly as it created the stigma of “Untouchability”. He cared greatly for the Muslim minority in India and tried to avert Partition.
The poet Rilke made a profound observation to the effect that “ Our deepest fears are the dragons that guard our richest teasures.” We can rephrase this to say “Over the gateway to the Free Society stands the sign of Identity”.
Ever since the first photograph of our blue planet was taken from outer space, the question of identity has grown more and more powerful. Inner space is the new frontier and has been for the last thirty years.
If we are prejudiced against Jews, or Muslims, or gay bishops or disabled black women or any other expression of the infinite variety of human diversity, then we cannot move forward through the gateway to the Free Society.
As Gandhi often pointed out, quoting the Bhagavad Gita, the real battle is the one which goes on inside ourselves, our own psyches. Gandhi and Edward Carpenter are in agreement here and this is part of their continuing relevance to the ongoing struggle for Freedom.
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19 Feb 2008 @ 09:48
Freedom and Identity
As we have seen, the most free part of us is our spirit, then out psyche. Then our economic behaviour. As we move up the levels of society, through groups to politics and finally military force, we become less and less free.
And of course, the thing about us that is free, our spirit, is characterised by individuality. And what comprises our essential unique individuality is the million and one different aspects and identities that make us what we are: the colour of our eyes or skin; our race or ethnicity or religion; our age or physical and mental (dis)abilities; our gender or sexual orientation and literally thousands more characteristics.
If our society is to attain to freedom or enlightenment and we with it, then our spirit has to be realised. And that means in the form of the celebration of great diversity in human individuality and the uniqueness of each identity. In the unfolding of this freedom and celebration it is obvious that minority groups have a huge part to play.
Conclusion: SpiritMind over Matter----- Matter Undermined
This summing-up and conclusion pertains to the whole project I undertook just before the millennium to update the views I held on the subject of alienation and civilization. Theories of civilization are not rare, even radical and deep theories. Yet to get a theory that combines depth, plus wide-ranging knowledge and erudition, plus a mystical and artistic display worthy of a master or mistress, one has to look at someone as remarkable as Edward Carpenter.
Karl Marx produced a radical if somewhat fragmentary and partial account of civilization, and even wrote poetry as a young man. Yet he was no mystic; indeed a materialist. One prejudice he shared with the vast majority of his contemporaries, will help eventually to render his theories obsolete, just as much as faulty notions of surplus-value or the State (dictatorship of the proletariat).This flaw in his theory is the lack of understanding of the importance of identity and particularly sexual identity.
Edward Carpenter, though born only 25 years after Marx, was a visionary and mystic and was indeed 100 years ahead of his time and in advance of what Marx saw. Edward Carpenter was homosexual, at a time when it was considered a heinous offence and social deviancy. Yet he realised the importance, as no other, to the freedom project of the issue of identity and particularly the centrality of sexual and gender identities. He was one of the first to write about what we would today term the minorities question.
Identity is important because it links spirituality with individuality. Yet our sexuality links our spirituality with our physical body. Spirit with Nature. It is part of our innermost, intimate identity. If spirit itself is alienated, as it always has been, in the form of our Egos thinking we are separate, lonely and cut-off “individuals”, then it was only when this alienation, or Ego, affected our relationship with surrounding Nature and our own gender and sexual identities, that society left the tribal, community path it had been on for countless millennia, and undertook the ”Great Separation”, as the Taoists call it.
This is the path of alienation and ultimately civilization on a global scale. The whole of modern history is not just the evolution of the spirit of freedom, as Hegel claims, but the reclaiming of our whole identities in all its richness and variety: our religious, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual and particularly our identities as part of Nature.
Matter is being supplanted gradually by Spirit. Matter is being interpenetrated and gradually suffused by spirit. This may be what Teilhard de Chardin termed the “Omega Point” Nobody who has witnessed the bizarre events of the last few years, such as the flooding of New Orleans, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, or the earthquake in Kashmir, can doubt that matter’s reign over the world is coming to an end. Nature, while a form of matter, is also a form of spirit.
Mindspirit over matter----matter undermined.
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