Friday, February 18, 2011

Summary of a talk given by Jan Cox, Dec.3, 1990

The conservative, bland nature of ordinary existence is for the sake of cultural continuity (and transition), and it effected via speech. E.g., "interviews" where the interviewee uses the interviewer's question as the initial part of his response. One person's ending is the start of someone else's beginning. Also, teasers/promo of upcoming news coverage during network news programs; this is the height of efficiency in giving episodic consciousness a feel for the seamlessness of life.

Alcohol/drugs interfere with personal continuity; this is disturbing to others (thus to Life and its agenda-of-growth) and Life causes many to be critical of such behavior. Continuity is a very important ingredient in the machinery of energy distribution within the Body of Life.

When men entered into the civilizing process by beginning to band together, note that the first institution necessary for culture/civilization growth is commercial exchange, i.e., trade. The ultimate trade is in information, particularly cultural info. The trade in transformational info (outside the range of continuity) is the ultimate info exchange, but it has no commercial market, i.e., there is no one to trade with. Therefore one interested in transcendence must find/re-invent a marketplace. This requires a sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice: sacrifice of your own ordinary knowledge. But it is the most impossible of all sacrifices while appearing to be the easiest. And this sacrifice of knowledge must be effected without keeping the memory alive of having done so, for memory is the agent of individual continuity.

No comments: