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FRAGMENTATION OF BEING and the Path Beyond the Void by Kent D. Palmer
copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved. Not for Distribution.
In this chapter, the meaning of what has been discovered about the roots of the Western tradition will be explored. This will lead to a consideration of meaning in general as it is generated by the tradition. It should be clear that the roots of the Western worldview are very ancient. We have traced those roots back via linguistic and mythic structures which reflect each other and support a unified interpretation. Now it is necessary to put that unified interpretation in perspective -- laying out the hidden jewels that have been discovered in the buried treasure chest of our past. The work of bringing these ancient structures of Indo-European community thought to light must be accompanied by some effort to appreciate it.
A case has been made that the original pattern was a modification of the binary heuristic pattern for understanding opposites in the world. As such, the extremes of opposites and their imbalance were used to generate abnormal energies. The transgression of opposites provided the motive to introduce conflict between opposites. The fundamental mutation led to the development of the Flaw which took on a particular structured form of successive meta-levels of Being.
These meta-levels are intensifications of clinging and craving which are not infinite but stop at level four because of a boundary of unthinkability. This stratification of layers of clinging has as its inverse and natural dual the separation of Indo-European thought and social structure into the original pattern of Primal gods. These gods are converted to linguistic signs which make up the fragmented roots of being. The Indo-European project unified these into a single world with multiple meanings that became Primordial Being. Primordial Being was the center of Greek civilization and its use gave that civilization its extraordinary quality. We can see this because of the relation between Primordial Being and the complex of Zeus' children which explicate this same meaning structure. In the transition from the mytho-poetic to the metaphysical eras, this meaning complex was further unified into a conceptual unity with the production by Parmenides of Conceptual Being. Up until recently, Conceptual Being has been held as the axis of the Indo-European worldview. However, since the turn of the last century, this axis has begun to wobble, and Conceptual Being has fragmented. Its fragmentation has revealed the same cleavages that existed since the flaw developed. The meta-levels of clinging have become apparent again. Conceptual Being has fragmented into four separate kinds of Being as nihilism intensifies beyond all bounds. This fragmentation shows itself in the emergence of different kinds of technology. This is because each element within the world actually fragments as the worldview itself fragments. Thus, as Hephaestus was a central element representing technology within the Primordial pattern, it must fragment along with all the other elements. This means we can expect not just technology to fragment, but each of the other axes represented by the other gods. So, for instance, Hermes and Persephone represents the axis of change. We would expect this axis to fragment as well, so that each new thing must pass through four stages, one for each kind of Being as it manifests within the fragmented Western worldview. The same may be said of the Apollo-Artimis and Ares-Eris axes. The vision of wholeness as well as the vision of strife and lack of wholeness also fragment. This means that the four kinds of Being define the action of the formal structural system as well as its production of nihilistic background upon which it can be seen. Likewise, the axis of nihilistic opposition which arises out of the eightfold in the form of the Dionysus-Athena opposition must become fragmented in its essence. Each of these primary elements which define the center of the Western worldview reflect the deeper fragmentation of the Western worldview.
In this way, the original pattern of the four meta-levels becomes embedded in the eightfold as separation asserts itself over artificial gatheredness. The whole Western worldview's will to power involved forcing artificial unity to an incredible extreme on the world. As a result, because of the working of the laws of opposites, it has inherited extreme fragmentation and disunity -- utter separation which flows out of the heart of the Western worldview and infects its view of everything. The Western worldview attempted to enforce a superficial unity on everything, but this only accentuated its own internal fragmentation. That internal fragmentation has now become manifest as the totalitarian regime breaks up -- it loses its grip on everything including itself. We are the witnesses of this wholesale disintegration of the Western worldview. That demise shall not be a pretty sight. There are many ugly episodes to come as it spasmodically attempts to regain control of itself and of the world which it dominates by its gaze or view on that world.
However, this explanation of the fragmentation of Being and its ancient sources leads to a question as to the form the inverse of the stratas of Being take. In the primal pattern, there were six gods whose relations between each other were defined by the intensifications of clinging represented by the meta-levels of Being. As the Western worldview disintegrates, we would expect these powers to reemerge and the total organization of Western society to operate in terms of these ancient powers. The question is whether we can identify these powers or their representatives as the Western worldview spontaneously reorganizes. This is a difficult task because we are just beginning this process of reorganization based on the original template. However, we can expect the organization to take place along much the same lines as it did in ancient times as the meta-level interfaces are the same.
For Muslims, it is clear that this process can be understood in terms of the arising of the Dajal -- the so called anti-christ. We expect this spontaneous reorganization of the Western worldview, and its form has been treated in the prophecies of Muhammad, peace be upon him. However, how these changes will take place within our current historical milieu is unclear.
From a metaphysical perspective, it is possible to understand these changes in terms of the relation between ontology and epistemology. The stratas of meta-levels of Being differentiate; so too, must the ways of knowing. This is why ontology and epistemology together form part of metaphysics. They are duals of each other. So when ontology discovers the fragmentation of Being, that must translate into a fragmentation of knowledge. Thus, we might expect a new episteme in Foucault's sense in which there are several kinds of knowing associated with the ancient gods that arise together and form mutually contending ways of relating to the world.
Let us attempt to construct the different epistemic nodes. The first of these epistemic nodes is the Other as constructed by the Western worldview. This other is what Levi Strauss calls the Savage Mind. It might more appropriately be called the Primal Mind. It is the mind of the fourth world peoples who are untainted by the Western worldview. Unfortunately, probably there are no other peoples left to be discovered and thus corrupted by the dominant culture. The native mind is a nostalgic artifact projected by those trapped within the dominant global culture who wish to regain what has been lost. The primal mind is projected as a unity opposite the Western mind. Levi Strauss contrasts the bricoleur with the scientist. But in truth, there is not one primitive mentality. This unity is the fantasy of the Westerners. The primitive mind was originally extremely varied -- it is only with the demise of the primitives themselves that the primitive mind is projected as something unified opposite the Western mind.
The best brief introduction to the primal mind is by Jamake Highwater. He explains the primal mind in terms of its different approach to Image, Time, Place, Motion, Sound and Identity. Here we will not explicate the primal or savage mind. We will only note that the only unity that this otherness has is its dialectical opposition to the Western worldview.
Our concern is with the differentiation within the Western worldview. The major differentiation there is between male and female orientations. This difference has been suppressed until recently. Now women writers are searching for a genuine feminine perspective on the world from within the Western worldview. An excellent example of someone striving to develop such a genuinely feminine perspective is Sara Ruddick in her book Maternal Thinking. Thus, we will call the fundamental feminine perspective maternal and believe, along with Sara Ruddick, that it is just as thoughtful in its own ways as the Western ideal of male thought -- the rational man which has suppressed its feminine counterpart.
Now we have three parts of the differentiation of the Western worldview into epistemic nodes. Both the feminine and masculine parts bifurcate again. The masculine part must bifurcate into Varuna and Mithraic aspects, while the feminine part must give rise to the equivalent of the Discouri. We can guess that these two bifurcations are actually reflections of the same thing in the masculine and feminine spheres. We expect these two bifurcations as a result of the fragmentation of Being. The bifurcation actually occurs in the realm of the masculine thought and the arising of the Discouri or the compensation within the realm of feminine thought. Already we have noted how the rationality of the scientist-hero is passively nihilistic, but that it contains within it a moment of active nihilism. We expect the first breakup of the scientific human ideal to occur with the arising of an independent epistemic node of mithraic energy involving active nihilism. At this time, the actively nihilistic forces are amalgamated into the representation of the rational man himself. He is Dr. Jeckal and Mr. Hyde. We expect this image to split and a completely different epistemic node to develop that exemplifies mithraic active nihilism. The deconstructionist movement is perhaps the first signs that anti-subjectivity is becoming its own intellectual position. Deconstruction actively destroys meaning in the name of a greater truth that subjectivity is an illusion.
However, anti-subjectivity must itself split again into both its mithraic and its Varunic elements. In that split some even more destructive than the mithraic active destruction of meaning must come into being as a separate epistemic node. This epistemic node we will call the Dajal. The Dajal is the Muslim name for the ultimate transformation of the Western worldview. It is the arising of the unnamed mithraic god with lion's head and serpents wrapped around its body, called in Egypt Mios. It is the epitome of the transformation transforming itself, like the planet in Stanaslav Lem's vision of the intelligent planet. It is captured in some way in Sartre's concept of the dialectic, treated itself dialectically in his Critique Of Dialectical Reason. It is perhaps Adorno's idea of a negative dialectic. It is difficult to say that it is like as an epistemic node since it has not actually arisen yet -- to my knowledge. However, it is clear that whatever is to be worse than mithraic active nihilism is to be feared by all. Of course, to the believers who follow that way of knowledge, it will be as if Christ himself had returned to earth. Only the Christians are prepared to believe in the divinity of a man. He will be called the Maytraya. Like Varuna, he will perform miracles by a potent magic. According to Islamic tradition, the Dajal will raise the dead -- who he himself has killed and cut into many pieces. He will finally realize the intent of the Indo-European sacrifice.
As the Mithraic and Varunistic modes of knowledge arise within the fragmenting Western worldview, there will be a reaction within the maternal sphere. This will be the arising of the Discouri. It is a good chance that the arising of male and female gay rights groups in the West will supply the basis for these new points of view within the maternal sphere. Male gay and female gay viewpoints will be closely linked and will feed upon each other, but will represent a perspective very different from the viewpoint of maternal thought. These homosexual viewpoints, openly expressed, will build into the opposite of Varunic (Dajal) and Mithraic viewpoints.
As can be seen by the diagram, this means that the epistemic nodes of scientist and rational man which stands opposite that of maternal thinking will be working at cross purposes to those of the bifurcations to which they gave rise. The Western worldview will tear itself apart through these competing and conflicting epistemic nodes. It is a truly sad situation, but one which occurs because the internal contradictions within in the Western worldview have finally come to the surface after centuries of suppression.
This interpretation may be wrong, but some such fragmentation of the modes of knowing are expected within the Western worldview which coincide with the fragmentation of Being which has already occurred. These separated epistemic nodes are the realization of the Abyss recognized by Western philosophy that underlies all their efforts to establish secure foundations. In the absence of secure foundations, there is no reason to accept the central authority of reason any more. Other viewpoints within the Western worldview are equally valid. It is just a matter of waiting to see how these other viewpoints will divide up the territory of the ineffective totalitarian regime of reason.
The fact that we can identify possible epistemic nodes that correspond to the ancient gods of the Indo-Europeans, allows us to get a view of the whole cluster of meanings in its modern context.
However, we want to go further than this. What is really needed is an analysis that pushes back to the limits of the Indo-European pattern in the modern context. This means unraveling the original pattern which has been discovered and showing not just how the levels of Being relate to epistemic nodes, but how we can unravel the original pattern itself in order to understand the unfolding of our current worldview. It is not enough just to say that our worldview has ancient roots. We want to go further and show how those ancient roots inform the modern worldview. This makes necessary a peeling back of the successive layers until we reach the center of the onion. It is that process that will be walked through in the rest of this chapter.
We will start with an observation by Karl Wieck in The Social Psychology Of Organization which he calls "Thorngate's Postualate" which says that you can't have simplicity, generality, and accuracy in a theory all at the same time. You must trade off any two of these with the other.
Either you have a theory which is simple and accurate but not general; or you have a theory that is general and accurate but not simple; or you have a theory that is simple and general but not accurate. Usually theories are simple and general but lack accuracy. As one adds accuracy one either moves away from simplicity or generality. Quantum Mechanics is general and accurate, but is far from simple. Any number of local theories are simple and accurate but lack generality. Thorngate's Postulate emphasizes that in the real world there are always trade-offs where in when one parameter is optimized other parameters become sub-optimal.
Using Thorngate's approach we will build a general theory of the relations between the elements of a theory of Being. We begin by asking what is the center of Thorngate's triangle. The answer is TRUTH. If we could optimize all his parameters in relation to a theory we would have achieved a theory that was completely TRUE. The next question to ask is what are the opposites of each of the parameters of Thorngate's quandary:
Immediately, it becomes clear that Thorngate's quandary is really a statement about the relation between TRUTH and REALITY. Reality is specific, complex and approximate. Our work in building theories attempts to build general, simple and accurate models of reality, and this does not work because whichever of these we try to optimize, the nature of reality must be expressed in the final parameter. For instance, if we overcome the specific with the general and overcome the approximate with the accurate, then complexity becomes the last refuge for reality, and so we cannot achieve simplicity. And so forth with each attempt at optimization.
Now what we notice is that TRUTH and REALITY are two of the three meaning groups within the concept of Being. So this brings us to ask how IDENTITY would be fit into this picture. Rather than develop this step by step, I will merely present the whole picture for the reader's consideration. The thing about Identity is that it may be anything at all. Identity is the tautology. The purely identical is a meaningless statement. Truth, on the other hand, is constrained, and we expect it to be coherent and consistent. Coherence and consistency are traded off against constraints so that as an extension of Thorngate's postulate you cannot have anything that is completely coherent and consistent which also meets all its constraints. This is because coherence refers to structure, whereas constraints reverse to form, and consistency refers to patterning models. Taking the structuralism of George Klir as our point of departure, we can note that structure and model form an infinite regress. Structure refers to changes across discontinuities as the formal system changes intime. Model refers to patterns within patterns within patterns like a fractal series.
Klir's infinite regress of structure and patterning models says that for any system the formal description based on axioms gives a basic level of constraint which is played out as the formal system is elaborated. Like when in geometry, one starts from Euclid's axioms and develops the formal system of geometry. Eventually the limits of this formal system is reached and a discontinuity appears which can only be crossed by changing the axioms, as when non-Euclidean geometry was developed by varying the axiom of parallel lines.
Now the formal-system can apply to a new realm in which many things are different. For a given formal-system there are an infinite number of structural levels which bridge these discontinuities. On the other hand, there are also an infinite number of patterns within patterns within patterns, i.e. forms within forms within forms, needed to get closer and closer fidelity to the system being described. Each of these levels have their own constraints. Thus, because structure and pattern models diverge, constraints multiply. Thus, our own theoretical systems cannot achieve truth even if the world were purely mathematical. The mathematical realm has its own ideal differentiation which cannot be reduced. So even if we could achieve theories which were simple, accurate and general, we would still have the internal theories of the theories to deal with which are ruled by Godel's proof.
Pure Identity would be free of this structuring of the mathematical realm. It would be free of constraints of form contained in axioms, free of the need for coherence implied by structural considerations and free of the need for consistency between levels of patterning. With a free form, free structure and free modeling, pure identity might be achieved. But with all this freedom comes pure tautology, and this is meaninglessness. Without some differentiation, even if it is only from mathematics itself, nothing significant can be said. Such a statement of pure identity would be uniform, interchangeable and symmetrical.
The opposite of these quantities describes Reality. Reality is heterogeneous (not uniform), unique (not interchangeable) and asymmetrical (not symmetrical). There is something in Reality that fights against Identity. We must attempt to impose identity which is a pure abstraction -- the perfect gloss with no content. We can impose any system in a totalitarian way that we make up. We are free to impost any form, structure and model. However, if we do so, it is not True. It only becomes true if we give it coherence, consistency and constraint. Through constraint, Truth interacts with Reality, and so the realm of the totalitarian ideational system is broken, and reality floods in again. If in imposing identity we did not take into account Truth -- as all tyrants do -- then we still have problems because if something is purely symmetrical and uniform, it cannot interchange because there is nothing to interchange with. Interchangeability implies difference with the other parts of the engine, for example. If interchangeable things are symmetrical with each other, then they cannot be perfectly uniform. So here again is a form of Thorngate's postulate. Even within identity there is a minimal amount of difference between repetitions. Aprime and Adouble prime are, as repetitions, strictly different.
Through this difference within repetition, the symmetricalness of the equation may be stated, and the uniformity of the "A"s noticed.
Here "A" is not symmetrical nor interchangeable because there is no repetition. Uniformity has triumphed completely. But there is no identity, because identity is a function and there is no space for identity to appear without repetition. Interchangeable things are not necessarily symmetrical, even though they may have uniformity between instances that repeat the same things over and over. Symmetry means to be able to perform an operation so that after the operation is over, there is no change.
Symmetry implicitly has a temporal dimension even if the operation is not performed because we see the symmetry in our mind's eye. Interchangeability implicitly has a spatial component. We take this one out and put another one in its place, even though the things being interchanged are not symmetrical. Uniformity implies no changes in time or space. Thus, we can hold space or time constant and obtain spatial uniformity or temporal uniformity, but not both. So even in the narrow confines of Identity, there is a version of Thorngate's postulate that operates.
Of interest is the fact that the relations between these three versions of Thorngate's dilemma emphasize one partner over another in each case. For instance, Truth gets focused on and reality is obstinate. Identity is also focused on by the one postulate, and Reality is still recalcitrant. Truth is focused on, and identity lacks focus.
In the model, we see a fleeing from Reality and a dominance of Truth over Identity. This is interesting because we can see an asymmetry here within the three components of Being that has not been noticed up until now. This asymmetry gives rise to the fundamental structure of science.
We start with reality and formulate a hypothesis. As an idea, the hypothesis can be freeform, but it is not until we structure it using mathematics, that it becomes testable. The idea is bounced back off reality by experimental science. If shown true, the hypothesis becomes the focus of more work. Truth is doubly focused, both in its application of mathematics and its application of experimental proof. Reality is doubly unfocused as it does not give itself up to either Truth or Identity. Identity alone is balanced, half focused and half unfocused. Identity mediates between Truth and Reality. The double focussing of truth is an extreme that balances the doubly unfocused nature of reality. Only Identity balances these extremes.
The model is shaped like a funnel. Reality is pushed in one end and squeezed and filtered till pure truth comes out the other end. Between these two ends, identity which is the substructure of ideation, is the central mechanism relating these two extremes. We may speak of the process of turning reality into truth as a distillation, like the production of alcohol. Grapes go in one side, and pure alcohol comes out the other. The process of squeezing reality by applying ideation results in a condensed form that is easy to hang on to.
This is a truth. Easy to write and remember, but which condenses a lot of empirical evidence and theory into one simple equation. But in the process of condensation, a lot is lost as well. Thinking of the system of meanings within Being as a way of condensing reality by applying ideation, makes clear the fundamental presuppositions upon which science is founded. The action of the Western worldview is to condense everything to as concise a form as possible because this gives us something True to hang onto as things change dynamically. Dynamic clinging needs the pithy Truth produced by the funnel of Ideation in order to have something to relate to through the transformations that are occurring. Likewise, dynamic clinging needs Reality as the transformational matrix which produces the continuous changes to which it must cling. Reality is like the horse which is bucking, whereas the Truth is like the stirrup, saddle horns and reins. Truth is the condensed points of clinging in a discontinuous non-linear transforming situation which is Reality.
However, this situation in which the doubly unfocused is controlled by the doubly focused can lead to the suspicion on our part that Truth and Reality are both in some sense artificial projections of ideational identity. It is as if ideation had two sides, like a coin. On one side was the condensation of Truth, and on the other side is the out-of-focus nature of Reality. Ideation alone in this picture is in focus. Identity is THE focus of this system of mutual references. One suspects that reality could not have been condensed if it was not first put out of focus. This suspicion is reinforced when we realize that Reality is projected beyond what we experience to have the characteristics of Truth and Identity.
When we consider Reality, we may mean what we experience directly. This has been characterized as specific, complex, approximate, heterogeneous, unique and asymmetrical. However, one may instead mean what I will call Identical Reality, which is beyond what we experience, and is usually referred to as the unity of object beyond experience. In Kant's philosophy, this is called the noumena. Or beyond that, we may refer to the True Reality which would be something like the unity of intersubjective projections on Reality in which Reality is completely unified beyond our experience of it.
It is clear that the set of concepts -- Identity, Truth, and Reality themselves -- comprise a Thorngate dilemma. If you optimize Identity and Reality, then you sub-optimize Truth, and so on. If you were able to optimize all of them, then you would have rta/asa/arte/right, the core Indo-European idea of rightness or cosmic harmony. Rta is not a projection of truth and identity beyond reality, but is the internal coherence of this set of ideas. Rta is ultimate correctness, what is sometimes referred to as righteousness (but this term has lost its original meaning for us). Rta is the core of the concept of Being. It is the intersection of Reality, Truth and Identity.
We can see how this fits with Heidegger's analysis of Dasein. From a phenomenological point of view, the essence of Reality is that we find ourselves in something we do not totally understand. But we do have some understanding pre-given. That primordial understanding is the basis of our ideational processes. The ultimate ground of truth is our ability to talk. Truth, to exist, must take place in languages. If we could not make statements, there would be no truth. Thus, phenomenologically these concepts of Truth, Reality and Identity express themselves as the givenness of experience, the inherent understandability within that experience and our ability to express our experience in language. These are the three structural elements of Dasein, or being-in-the-world. The intersection of these structural elements, for Heidegger, is Sorge or Care. This means that there must be some inherent relation between Care and Rta. Heidegger has reduced the conceptual components of Being to their phenomenological substrate. Likewise, we might postulate that Care is the phenomenological substrate of Rta. Care, of course, is clinging. We already know that the different types of Being are intensifications of clinging. But how does this relate to the Indo-European concept of cosmic harmony.
If we postulate that the whole key to the Indo-European relation to the world is the development of dynamic clinging, this type of clinging -- as to the back of the bucking bronco -- requires a harmony between discontinuous nonlinear system (the horse bucking) and the rider. If we see the core of the rider as his care for himself which induces him to hang on during his wild ride, then the harmony between rider and horse, within the limits of the disharmony of the horse gone wild, might be seen as Rta. It is a special harmony exhibited by rider and horse within an overall disharmony of bucking. In such a situation, the rider must be loose and flexible to respond continuously to the gyrations of the bronco. So Rta is not so much cosmic harmony as the harmony between rider and bronco where the rider is overcompensating for the fact the horse is not cooperating. This makes Rta the harmony internal to disharmony. This makes it a kind of meta-harmony. It is harmony with the object in spite of the object's disharmony with you. For the person with Care for his life, this kind of meta-harmony is extremely important to find. It is the calm within the storm. Dasein is in a state of falling. He is grasping at objects -- also falling with him -- in attempt to break his fall. This does not work. The fall is more like a tumble. The falling subject is grasping at straws and being buffeted by the winds of change as he falls toward death. Rta is like a little pocket of calm within the overall storm. If the falling Dasein can stay within this region of calm, he can prolong his fall in spite of the violence of the storm.
This pocket of calm in which symbiosis can be achieved in spite of the protest of the system being cooperated with, is defined by three parameters. The external storm is the reality of the situation. It is complex, unique, and asymmetrical, heterogeneous, approximate and specific. It is wild, turbulent and filled with the unexpected. Yet within that turbulence, there is the sheltering pocket in which harmony can be achieved in spite of disharmony. One may only find this calm within the storm by vanishing. Each response one makes must be the mirror image of the turbulence. If one stiffens up at all and resists the slightest, then chaotic positive feedbacks between ones self and the overall system would appear and throw one out of the calm, leading to destruction. Thus, identity is the ability to become one with the external system by disappearing. When two things are identical, they cannot be distinguished. The cowboy merges with the bronco, and they become one turbulent system. If there is even the slightest difference between the two, then the spell is broken, and the cowboy is thrown. So identity becomes the means by which true symbiosis is achieved. There are no longer two systems, but only one identical with itself. The reason for the extremity of the concept of identity is that it allows Dasein to function in a highly turbulent system without being destroyed by banishing all difference. Extreme measures are called for in extreme situations.
Once the shelter of identity has been found, then it is possible to negotiate that landscape and find elements which continue, even for short times, that allow one to cling even tighter. These are the truths. For the cowboy, the harness, bit, stirrup and horn of the saddle represent these points of clinging. Yet even for the bareback rider, the turbulence of the horse is itself a rhythmic set of arhythms. No overall coherent system can produce totally random motion. Even the turbulence has some meta-order. This meta-order within the disorder is the truths which the rider learns to exploit to give himself some semblance of control of himself within the overall "out-of-control" situation. Truths are concentrated points for clinging with the turbulent and unpredictable situation. This explains why Reality is doubly unfocused and Truth doubly focussed. It is because Reality represents the extreme of a system in turbulence. Truth represents the counter extreme of meta-stabilities within the turbulence. Identity represents the calm within the turbulence which allows clinging to occur against all odds. Truths enhance this situation and allow some control of the individual over himself in spite of the turbulence with the calm.
From this perspective, Truth, Reality and Identity make sense as components of dynamic clinging of Being. Rta is the harmony produced between the one who clings dynamically and the turbulent system. The meta stabilities represented by truth gives the rider some input into the overall system with which he has become identical. So the rider is indeed riding the wild horse because he can exert some minor control over himself, and because he is identical with the horse system in turbulence, he is indirectly exerting control over the horse. So Rta is something more than purely merging with the horse's dynamical system, but can only be achieved after that merger has taken place.
The final component of the Identity, Truth and Reality system is metaphor. Metaphor makes it into a minimal system. Metaphor is the unity of the external unities of Identical Reality, True Reality and True Identity. These merge into metaphor. Metaphor is the overarching gloss of these artificial external concepts which is opposite Rta. Metaphor is the mechanism of projection itself. It says, now that I have dominated by means of dynamic clinging, I can apply this to everything. Everything becomes amenable to this type of method. Even systems at rest. Dynamic clinging is the basis of imperialism because once you know how to do it, one realizes it is possible to apply to all dynamic systems so there is no limit to what can be controlled. Metaphor allows this projection to everything to take place. It is the ultimate analogy of clinging. Having clung to the horse bucking, I am able to cling to anything. A is like B implies some differences. If there are differences, then A and B will not be able to stay together if the system becomes unstable. "A is B" says these sub-elements will be able to stay together even if either of them become turbulent. There is the possibility of dynamical clinging between them. In effect, it states there is a meta-stability which is not apparent when the individual elements are at rest. "The man is a lion." A meta-stability exists between man and lion which makes them identical in a non-obvious way which would become apparent if you saw the whole spectrum of their mutual system states. Metaphor is a powerful concept growing out of a dynamic clinging which has been realized.
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