& leaps of faith—the opposite of
certainty
Turn up the conflict. Put it in play.
“We’re just going around in circles kicking
each other in the ass.” a student observed
last class.
yes! Yes! YES! I suggested, aiming to
make virtue—teachable momentum from
what was disparaged as waste of time
& demoralizing: as if no benefit could
derive from circular ass kicking.
Show & Tell
circular ass kicking
covering ground
cerebral circular ass-kicking gettingRdone.
Same deal, yes?
On the one hand: Intangible, immediately
impractical, immeasurable long-term
dubious benefits of circular ass-kicking,
questioning everything, getting no where,
sustaining opposition putting conflict in
play, noetic and affective hackysacking,
brain storming, bully stochasticizing—
unceasing exploration and “the end of all
our exploring will be to arrive at where
we started and know it for the first time.”
On the other hand: in a SACS heartbeat
we’re on task, checking bench marks,
marching through georgics straight on
down the line power point & bullets,
getting us some where from beginnings
to middles to endings & if this is alternate
Friday we should be in chapter 3. No
recycling. No ass-kicking.need apply.
We measure our success. Predict it.
Knew it from the start. .
Informational Theorists tell us NEWS
comes from NOISE & innovative
self-corrective (sustainable) systems
do what it takes to access helter skelter
upside down flamingo croquet &
different drummer rat-a-tattoos
of irresolute
conflict,
crisis,
crash &
collisions
that mother invention.
The genesis of Invention, Humor,
and Art says Arthur Koestler: all 3
derive from the same kind of event,
which he calls in language worthy
of the Chronicle of Higher Education”
a bisociation of two or more matricies
See that hot spot right in the middle of
the crossroads? Signs of bumper cars,:
round and round kicking ass, so to speak
Intersection. Converse action. Ooops,
oh damnit, hmmmm, hello!.
`I have coined the term `bisociation' in order
to make a distinction between the routine skills
of thinking on a single `plane', as it were, and
the creative act, which, as I shall try to show,
always operates on more than one plane.'
Bisociation is `the perceiving of a situation
or idea ... in two self-consistent but habitually
incompatible frames of reference.'
dilemma
contradiction
paradox
conundrum
inconsistency
incoherence
bafflement
consternation
conflict
Gordian not.
a-poria
Just right for the beginnings of Liberal Art.
(Not to be collapsed, conflated, & confused
with the liberal arts: courses of another color.).
xxxooo, Sam
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