07/27/22

Looking at Matthew Crawford’s Essay (2022) “Covid Was Liberalism’s Endgame” (Part 6 of 10)

0029 What does it mean to unravel a mystery?

The intersection unravels into a resolution, where one nested form emerges from (and situates) the other. A two-level interscope results. One nested form goes into the content level. The other occupies the situation level. The two-level interscope is discussed in A Primer on Sensible on Social Construction, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

0030 Say what?

To start, what would produce the conditions where a mystery resolves into a heresy?

The intersection₂ is the union of two actualities₂, so it₂ should enter the slot for actuality₂ in a nested form. So if the normal context₃ shifts, then the internal dynamics of the actuality₂ may change.

Crawford suggests that the recent political response to the novel coronavirus completes a historic transition, from modern liberalism₃ to hypermodern (some would say, “postmodern”) technocratic progressivism₃.

0031 Here is a picture.

0032 In liberalism₃, the goal is to move the mystery₂, in a spiritual sort of way, by exploiting democracy’s and leviathan’s abilities to remake humans₁. Appeal to the people’s commonsense. Set limits to what is acceptable. Offer inspiration. Apply peer-pressure. Certainly, liberals think that they are smarter (or better, more enlightened) than other citizens. But, they respect the wisdom of tradition, particularly the Christian tradition. Indeed, liberalism₃ seeks to practically implement the Christian vision in a fallen world, by calling the individual to be reasonable and by cajoling individuals to recognize their weaknesses.

0033 In technocratic progressivism_3b the goal is to move vulnerable persons_2b, in an efficient sort of way, by using the leviathan_1b to situate the impulses of human nature_3a. Insist that commonsense_2a is defined by technocratic calculations_1b. Frame every challenge as a fear-inducing crisis. Offer scientific and technical explanations, using terminology that confounds the literal meanings of words. Insist that alternate policies have dire consequences. Label the opposition, “malevolent”.

0034 The result is a new relational structure, “the unraveled individual”, which casts a shadow upon the originating mystery.

Vulnerable persons_2b virtually emerge from (and situate) commonsense_2a.A mystery unwinds into a heresy.

07/26/22

Looking at Matthew Crawford’s Essay (2022) “Covid Was Liberalism’s Endgame” (Part 7 of 10)

0035 A mystery resolves into a heresy. An intersection unravels into a two-level interscope. One nested form goes into the content level. The other nested form enters the situation level. Two configurations are possible. Typically, one predominates.

What is a heresy?

You tell me. The answer appears before you.

0036 In the heresy of technocratic progressivism₃, leviathan_1b virtually situates democracy_1a.

What is leviathan_1b?

Leviathan_1b is the potential of a state that will protect us (from one another)_1b. Another way to describe this term is the potential of feelings of security_1b, in a world filled with sociopaths_2a.

0037 The implication is that human nature_3a coheres with purely calculated judgments_2cA, dispassionate perceptions_2bAand stoically accepted sensations and decodings_2aA.

Such dedication to reason means that humans are basically sociopaths, unable to register the emotional reactions of others. There is no way that these sociopaths can govern themselves. Therefore, democracy_1a, the potential of self-governance_1a or the potential of a state arising from people being reasonable or sensible_1a, must be virtually situated by a leviathan_1b, underlying a state of nature_3b.

Human nature_3a is sociopathic_3a.

The state of nature_3b is a state of fear_3b.

0038 Yes, the state of fear_3b, which describes what the leviathan_1b apparently aims to prevent, becomes the normal context favored by technocratic progressivism₃, as it₃ brings the actuality of the unraveled individual₂ into relation with the potential of ‘remaking humans’₁.

0039 Surely, this does not makes sense. Yet, it is precisely what Crawford witnesses during the lockdowns.

Human nature_2a is ruthlessly_3b suppressed by sovereign acts and decrees from a department of the leviathan_1b aiming to protect vulnerable people_2b, on the basis of a threat to health from the state of nature_3b. Lockdowns and mask requirements violate commonsense_2a, yet anyone questioning the sovereign acts and decrees is regarded as a sociopath_1a, who does not care about the health of vulnerable people_2b.

I suppose that Crawford’s witness implies that the state of nature_3b is a state of fear_3b that, contrary to rational calculation_3a, arises from the potential of a state that aims to promote feelings of security_1b and to provide both material and psychological safe harbor for vulnerable people_2b.

Does that sound like lockdowns and stimulus checks?

07/26/22

Looking at Matthew Crawford’s Essay (2022) “Covid Was Liberalism’s Endgame” (Part 8 of 10)

0040 A suprasovereign liberal civic religion dies with the unraveling of the individual₂, defined as the intersection of commonsense_2V and vulnerabilities_2H.

In the normal context of technocratic progressivism₃, a mystery_2cC unravels into a two-level interscope. But, the unraveled individual_2b does not make sense to humans in their natural… um… state_3a.

0041 The two-level interscope characterizes sensible thought. However, the emotional judgments_2cA, phantasms_2bA, impressions_2aA and feeling_2aA of vulnerable persons is more like a religious experience_2b, compared to an exercise in commonsense_2a.

Yet, this religious experience_2b is sensible in the normal context of a state of fear_3b, where the leviathan has the potential to declare a state of exception_1b. Consequently, in technocratic progressivism, the perspective level_c does not come into play.

Or, at least, it_c appears not to.

0042 Here is a diagram.

0043 How does Locke’s human nature_3a become regarded as sociopathological_3a?

How does Hobbes’s state of nature_3b manifest as a state of fear_3b?

The original normal contexts do not seem exceptional.

The latter normal contexts do.

0044 Crawford writes that, in the 1990s, social scientists dispose with the “rational actor” model of human behavior. Cognitive psychology (and evolutionary psychology) sees humans as unconsciously employing evolved cognitive modules.

Along the same lines, bureaucratic criteria_1b, such as performance metrics_2b, replace commonsense judgments_2a. Examples include so-called “evidence-based medicine”, standardized tests and curricula, and self-driving automobiles. These policies are designed to protect vulnerable persons_2b, given the sociopathic (unconsciously employing evolved cognitive modules) nature of doctors, teachers and ahem… people who drive.

0045 Here is a picture of what human nature transitions to under the normal context of technocratic progressivism₃. Evolutionary psychology informs us that human nature is full of sociopathic tendencies, due to our “selfish genes”. Cognitive psychology models human thought processes as circuits of unconscious modules, working in tandem.

Commonsense_2a gets redefined.

Some call this progress. Others call it, “dehumanization”.

0046 During the 2000s, theatrical political initiatives introduce a perspective-level actuality_2c, the state of exception. Astate of exception is declared in order to confront emergent vulnerabilities_2b. These declarations do not need to satisfy commonsense_2a, in the old sense of the word, because “commonsense” has been redefined. In fact, the original concept of human nature_3a has been narrowed by scientific inquiry into a suite of sociopathic tendencies_3a.

Technocratic progressivism₃ dons the mantle of science in its pursuit to remake humans₁.

0047 Here is a picture of the transitioned unraveled individual.

Figure 19

0048 Of course, the most recent theatrical incident coincides with a complex sequence of conjunctions among Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in the Houses of Capricorn and Aquarius. See Razie Mah’s blogs for March and April 2020. A novel coronavirus (the common cold) rages through Wuhan after the New Years Festival celebrating the Year of the Rat, then spreads to the world. The virus’s progress is marked by the technocratic implementation of a polymerase chain reaction test.

Never mind claims that the test also shows positive for influenza. Hospitals in China and Italy are overwhelmed with old people in the middle of winter suffering complications and the doctors are calling for experts to save them with medical protocols. Corporate television reports the breaking news.

Disease translates into data. Data feeds panic_2b.

07/25/22

Looking at Matthew Crawford’s Essay (2022) “Covid Was Liberalism’s Endgame” (Part 9 of 10)

0049 The federal government responds. But the term, “federal”, is now delocalized. It used to refer to a federation of sovereign states in America. Now, it means a federation of sovereign states in both America and Europe, even though the Europeans have not recognized the subtle shift in terminology.

Technocratic progressivism knows how to shift the meanings of words.

0050 Here is a picture of the plague-unraveled individual.

0051 The normal context of the federal government_3c brings the actuality of a medical state of emergency_2c, complete with quarantines of healthy citizens, into relation with the potential of ‘biosecurity’_1c.

The normal context of a state of fear_3b brings the actuality that the novel coronavirus endangers vulnerable persons_2b into relation with the government apparatuses of subsidiary states, such as Germany and Italy, as well as America and Canada_1b.

The normal context of the sociopathic reactionary resistance_3a brings the actuality of common folk denying the well-publicized dangers_2a into relation with the potential of a countervailing democratic initiative_1a.

Of course, the federal government_3c and the leviathan_1b can manage the anticipated_3a commonsense_2a democratic_1ainitiative. That is where the control files on politicians, influencers, corporate media celebrities, religious leaders, and so on, enters the picture.

0052 How about some anecdotal evidence?

Crawford describes his observations of people in the California Bay Area, a technocratic progressive heartland.

First, people wear masks outdoors, not so much for personal protection, but because zero covid is a heroic battle, requiring a literal effacement of the individual.

Ah, wearing masks_1a signals one’s virtuous solidarity with vulnerable persons endangered by the virus_2b. It is an expression of democracy_1a in support of the leviathan_1b, rather than common folk, who do not care about those designated as “vulnerable”_2a.

0053 Here is the virtual nested form in the category of firstness.

The normal context of biosecurity_1c virtual brings slogans from the leviathan_1b into relation with the potential of affirmation by democratic expression_1a.

Here is a diagram.

0054 What about lockdowns?

Does staying home during a lockdown show democratic assent?

Here is a picture of the virtual nested form in the realm of actuality.

0055 Crawford describes how lockdowns force social isolation. Social atomization is one of the conditions that support the rise of totalitarian movements. The Party offers the only way to… um… party.

Also, social isolation purifies the citizens of the Bay Area, who democratically assent_1a to the leviathan_1b rather than what used to be called “commonsense”_2a. Those wearing masks outdoors dance to the cultish vibe of hygiene maximalists. Here are the uncontaminated spiritual warriors of a nascent hygiene state.

Crawford waxes eloquent about a social scene that makes common folk want to puke.

0056 Here is a picture of the virtual nested form in the category of secondness.

0057 Need I continue?

The denizens of the San Francisco Bay Area abandon commonsense_2a and embrace medical tyranny_1b.

Denizens?

Well, they aren’t individuals anymore, are they?

07/25/22

Looking at Matthew Crawford’s Essay (2022) “Covid Was Liberalism’s Endgame” (Part 10 of 10)

0058 The coronavirus of 2019 ends liberalism as a civic religion.

These diagrams, inspired by and roughly coherent with Crawford’s text, provide complementary food for thought. The resolution of the mystery of the individual marks the death of liberalism and the coronation of technocratic progressivismas a suprasovereign being. A religion is supplanted by its heresy.

0059 The liberal religion holds a mystery as the object that brings all into relation.

The individual is the intersection of commonsense and vulnerability. Crawford notes that individuals have a certain nobility. Liberals never strive to destroy that spiritness. They desire to create a better individual, the old fashioned way, through reform and renewal.

0060 The religion of technocratic progressivism (which I also call big government (il)liberalism), suspends the lively, spontaneous party that defines individuals, and imposes a three-tiered interscope, where the normal context of the federal government_3c virtually brings the actuality of a state of fear_3b into relation with the potential of a reactionary resistance_3a.

The virtual nested form in the category of thirdness is prophetic, since it suggests that an ultimate state of exception_2c will occur when common folk become dangerous to vulnerable persons_2b because of the common folk’s tendency to use commonsense and value self-governance_2a is declared to be “toxic”. In short, “commonsense_2a” (in the original sense of the word) is regarded as “criminal_2b” (according to the leviathan_1b).

0061 Indeed, what Crawford does not say stands just beyond his mournful lament of the tragic end of individual spiritness.

What Crawford does not say is prophetic.

0062 The website is UnHerd.

Michael Crawford contributes regularly.

0063 The overall argument is introduced in Razie Mah’s masterwork, How To Define The Word “Religion”.

The topic of the individual is discussed in A Primer on the Individual in Community and in points 0081-0086 in The First Primer on the Organization Tier, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

06/29/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 1 of 17)

0001 Twenty years pass since Professor Peter Redpath publishes an article, titled, “The Homeschool Renaissance and the Battle of the Arts”, in the Summer 2000 premier issue of Classical Homeschooling Magazine.

Homeschooling is one alternate to failing public schools systems, which are unlikely to be reformed, because these systems are governed by acolytes of the religion of big government (il)liberalism.

0002 Homeschool parents face difficult choices. There are no paths to guaranteed success.

But, certainly, homeschooling is better than the path to failure embodied by public school systems. Even the child who is accepted to a fast-track program or School of the Arts or Sciences, becomes a loser in a house divided. There is only one house, the House of God. No one knows that more than the newly minted postmodern disciplines of resentment.

Homeschools seek guidance about the Big Schoolhouse, where everything that rises must converge.

0003 Often, homeschooling parents turn to great books programs. The classics are ideal for recovering the former glory of Christendom. Here is where Peter Redpath stands, 20 years past. He is a guide to the big Schoolhouse, where the liberal arts are born again.

Classical Homeschooling Magazine illuminates the way.

0004 Today, the winds are more insistent. The leaves of disenchantment rustle through public schoolyards, as entrepreneurs follow Redpath in offering their wares, for the Big Schoolhouse, to many little schoolhouses, and to many many home schools, networked in patterns hitherto unimagined.

0005 In the following blogs, Razie Mah looks at Redpath’s whirlwind tour of a failure in the Italian, later European, Renaissance. Mah uses tools derived from the first postmodern philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce. These simple tools, wares on offer for the education of young minds, include the category-based nested form, the three-level interscope and the triadic structure of judgment.

06/28/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 2 of 17)

0006 Small mistakes at the beginning of a grand enterprise become larger mistakes at the end.

So notes Thomas Aquinas, at the opening of his overtures to both God and fellow man.

0007 Peter Redpath wants to avoid making initial errors.

Small errors may eventually culminate in misfortune.

To magnify this insight, Redpath tells a tale…

0008 … about the last great rebirth of Western civilization.

Oh, to be born again. We wash away the sins of prior eras. So, we imagine. Then, we don white garments with tiny flaws that will unravel slowly, at first, then exponentially, at the terminus, when the once-birthed era ages and rips apart.

Redpath identifies the start of the Italian Renaissance with humanist Francesco Petrarch (7104-7174 U0′).

Why the strange dates?

Subtract 5800 in order to get to AD.

0 Ubaid Zero Prime nominally corresponds to the formation of the Ubaid culture of southern Mesopotamia. The First Singularity and Its Fairy Tale Trace addresses the importance of this culture, at the dawn of our current Lebenswelt. The current year is 7822 U0′.

The time-distance between today and Petrarch is one tenth the distance between Petrarch and Adam.

0009 Petrarch reads the ancient Latin writers and longs for the days of Rome. Petrarch envisions a return to political actuality, arising from Christendom’s spiritual potential. The actuality of Rome is political. Yet, Petrarch lives in a world where the capitol, Rome, governs a theological and organizational network and weighs upon sovereign states. The network is based on a religious construction, seeking to portray itself as sensible, operating according to the criteria of the most sensible philosopher to have walked the face of the Earth, Aristotle.

One could say that the Catholic worldview, where God encompasses both reason and revelation, might have entangled a small error. The tear becomes a harbor, for Petrarch and his fellow travelers, to lobby for a political capitol arising from the spiritual capitol.

0010 The Italian humanists offer an alternate to Christendom’s vision.

0011 First, philosophy is not sensible. It is apocryphal, initiated by the most prophetic person to have walked the face of the Earth, Moses.

Second, Moses is a humanist. He is a poet.Third, a new politics, that is, a new “polis” or “city”, will arise from the network of Christendom, as humanist learning, the poetry of governance, flowers in the rebirth of Rome.

06/27/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 3 of 17)

0012 Poetry, what is it worth?

Surely, it is valuable in the arts of seduction, inspiration and adornment.

But who needs these, when God is Love, Commitment and Awesomeness incarnate?

0013 The Italian humanists face a problem. How do they place poetry and the writings of classical Rome front and center?

The academics in the room have an easy answer, “First of all, get rid of logic in the curriculum.”

0014 Ah, does that not sound like a small error?

Starting with Petrarch, Italian humanists alchemically place the actualities of Greek philosophy and Western history₂ into the novel context of the liberal arts₃, emerging from the potential of five disciplines₁: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics.

The result can be portrayed as follows, according to A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form.

0015 The dyadic actuality of Greek philosophy [and] Western history₂ is placed in an alchemic vessel₃ alien to its original, natural and organic milieu₁. Plutarch’s liberal arts₃ is a normal context that excludes Aristotle’s realist philosophy₃. The pentagram of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics₁, whose points operate independently and in combination, constitutes a digestive organ potentiating transformation.

06/24/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 4 of 17)

0016 What is this [and] between Greek philosophy and Western history?

0017 According to Charles Peirce (7639-7714 U0′), the category of secondness is the realm of actuality. Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements. The nomenclature is one real element [contiguity] other real element.

Here, the contiguity, [and], describes a substance that coheres to the most rudimentary causality, the contiguity between matter and form. Or, should I say, style and form? The nomenclature is Greek philosophy [and] Western history.

0018 The [and] composed by Thomas Aquinas (7025-7074 U0′) takes Aristotle as Greek philosophy and the Bible as the foundation of Western history. Does that sound like matter [and] form or style [and] form? The normal context is scholastic inquiry₃ and the potential is understanding₁, formatted according to the synthetic and analytic logics of Aristotle’s four causes.

0019 The tradition of Petrarch alters the normal context to the liberal arts₃ and the potential to the pentagrammatic disciplines: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics₁.

Do these alterations elevate style [and] form over matter [and] form?

Do these alterations serve as an alchemic vessel₃ and digestive juices₁ for the meat of scholastic inquiry₂?

Is the contiguity, [and], the same for the scholastics and the Renaissance humanists?

0020 Petrarch and his fellow travelers assert that common folk, traditional Christians, cannot appreciate the lofty metaphysical grammar and moral realities offered by the ancient poets. A Christian knows that the Greek and the Roman pantheons are simply not true. These gods are idols.

But, change the normal context, and let rhetoric, poetry and history work their magic, then newly digested truths become palatable.

These pre-digested morsels are valid in the normal context of the liberal arts₃, which excludes all other normal contexts, and thus is universal. Only after digestion by pentagrammatic modes of inquiry₁, do the allegorical and figurative meanings of Moses₂ turn into the stuff of Renaissance, and later, Enlightenment ideals. Only a nominalist can delineate the pathways from Moses to Socrates and onwards to the Christians and Neoplatonists. Only a nominalist can reveal the mysterious [and], the contiguity between Greek art, philosophy and wisdom and Western history.

0021 [And], the contiguity between ancient Greek and Roman literature and the glories of Rome, takes on the substance of revival.

06/23/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 5 of 17)

0023 The Renaissance program sets the humanities against Aristotle’s logic and naturalism. It undermines the union of philosophy and scholastic theology.

Poetry gains attention.

Logic is neglected.

Before: Philosophy (including logic) stands as a handmaiden to theology, the queen of the sciences.

After: Poetry is the transcendent queen of the arts.

0024 Of course, I speak allegorically.

According to Redpath, the humanist ascent of allegory has historic precedent. Allegory appears in Hesiod’s attack on Homer’s veracity, the Ionians critique of mythological reasoning, and Plato’s interpretations of epic poetry. Then, allegory is used to counter-attack, arguing for the truth of Homer, myths and epics. The truth is found, not in fact, but in fiction. The truth is concealed within a rhetorical facade. By the time of Augustine, rhetorician and philosopher are one and the same.

0025 I pause and ask myself, “What on Earth is allegory?”

Allegory is a technique, characteristic of our current Lebenswelt (and perhaps, the Lebenswelt that we evolved in), whereby symbols associate to concrete or material forms.

For Renaissance humanists, the forms are literary. The symbols are political.

Style becomes matter. Symbols of the glory of Rome are matter, and ancient literary works are the corresponding forms.

On the one hand, matter [substantiates] form. On the other hand, form [informs] matter.

Now, style [substantiates] form. Form [informs] style.

What is [informs]?

[To inform] is [to be substantiated by].

0026 Here is a comparison.

An Archaeology of the Fall

A Horror Story by Razie Mah

Tag Archives: Peirce