Control Issues

Steven Pinker (The Stuff of Thought) claims
(something like): every utterance has 2
agenda:

Taking Care of Business (TCB)
and
Negotiating Relationship (NR)

Taking Care of Business is the text of
any exchange, say.

Negotiating Relationship: contextual.

A figure/.background dynamic . Mine may
be the only courses for whom CONTEXT
is actually text and the texts are mere
tokens for context.

This is something LIKE making
Negotiating Relationship (NR)
the Taking Care of Business (TCB) agenda,
and Taking Care of Business (TCB):
Negotiating Relationship (NR).

A collapse, conflation, a potential confusion?
A foolishness of which I am somewhat aware.

....................NR
TCB TCB
................(whole-y grail)

Reversing the Figure Background
RELATIONSHIP
so that figure becomes background
and background becomes figure.

TCB and NR are “hostile” values, and
incommensurate (can’t assess either in
terms of the other without doing injustice
to both. Need we argue?).

On the other hand: the opposition is also
complementary & “whole-istic” as the
Nu Agers might say.

It’s an open question, whether in fact it is
possible to manipulate the Negotiation of
Relationship as a Taking Care of Business
agenda. Can I control and regulate and
manipulate COMMUNICATION?

I’m asking.

The Weather?
The Economy?
Deep Ecology & Meta-Sustainability?

xxxooo, Alan Greenspan