Spirt of the Whole

Dear Dialecticians,

Numenon Noumenon Noomenon

What IMAGE shall we name as standing-for
(representing ) The Spirit of the Whole?

contention
consensus conciliation
conversation

DIALECTIC



IT is not data.
Not information in the usual sense.
No accumulation of facts and statistics
pie-charts and graphs, anecdotal and
expert accounts, specialized knowledge
of Kant and Leopold or Iriguray,
Marx, Milton, and negative entropy,
you know quantum? deep ecologic?
read the New York Times daily?

That’s not IT.

IT’s whether we can put IT in play or not —
what we know, what we got, what we
bring to the table. A practice.

APORIA

Mostly what any of us bring (just describing
here: not judging) is Ignore-ance & Confusion
which, if we could convert to STUPIDITY
(what…? what the…? what the hell…?
the stunning prerequisite to STUDY)
we would be in a position to transform our
infinite resource into the type of energizing
-it-takes to be practicing dialecticians.

Here’s how IT goes…

(redundantly, and note—the more trivial
the token content, the easier to see thru it
to the structure & pattern; otherwise we
get sucked into the subject matter; notice
how often philosophers talk about CHAIR
when they are trying to illustrate Platonic
Forms and Ideas…) :

I or any one says
blah blah blah
(thesis)
You or any one says
whatta buncha crap, Sam
(anti-thesis)

or:

Dr Kalinowski says: “The Republic is
a respectable political treatise” and I say,
“Hell no: a metaphor for soul work: virtue.”

AND IF we can keep

BOTH IN PLAY
thesis & anti-thesis
protagonist & antagonist
the symbolic & the diabolical

& let neither side WIN:

THEN: we’re in business, in game.
THAT’s how it goes & goes. Dialectical Practice:
anticipate synthesis, a revelation that does no damage
to the thesis and its opposition, hero & opponent, a
George Bush, say, and his Saddam; Hillary & Barack
strange bedfellows at last.

This is “school” mode, yes? not your "church" & "state."
Try not to collapse, conflate, and confuse these
noetic realms

If blah blah & whatta buncha crap
Or Kalinowski & Scoville don’t do justice
to the IDEA of thesis & anti-thesis, you can
improve my terms and images, but don't fudge
the distinction, blur the appropriately hostile
opposition “in-game” between both.

Polarize! So as to relate, or where do ratios
come from? Rationals & rationalizations?.

You can see: it’s not a matter of what we know
or don’t know: BOTH Knowing & Not Knowing:
sub-ordinate these Siamese twins to the Super-
Ordinate Liberal Art practice. It’s a mind-set.
Attitude.

Play & Be Played. School & Be Schooled.
Compose & Be Composed. What do we
have to lose? What’s a college for?
Numinosity? Noel & Noetic
exercise? Invention?
Generation?

xxxooo, Sam