Monday, December 31, 2012


On the Absurd and the General Truths

Truth is divided into 4 categories. At the first level is based on the Ultimate truth which is according the Dalai Lama in his book My Spiritual Autobiography that which recognises inherent reality in phenomena which in my book Skizzi Assurd I write it perceives our existence our reality. Thus I add this is the Absurd. Then there is the Relative truth. This is done for examples by society that changes its attitude by the process of evolution such as Pragmatic ethics suggest and perhaps now if it wants also by design as Edward De Bono proposes as we are all artist in the end as Joseph Beuys and Novalis said and believed. This is seen for example how something is seen by a process of time at time by society and by authority and how it changes by time. This is based on circumstance. The second level is Constructive truth which is basically is Mathematics and Logic. Mathematician and logician can more explain well this. This is because it starts from axiom such as 1+1 and we construct 2 (Gödel's incompleteness theorems, etc). This is very powerful within it area of application, but it is limited. The third is Perceptual truth. Everything is governed by perception as the mathematician logician and every person thinks with his Logic to make it more accurate as Friedrich Nietzsche stated in 1878 in Human, All Too Human thought "logic [came] into existence in man's head [out] of illogic, whose realm originally must have been immense. Innumerable beings who made inferences in a way different from ours perished". Thus there is the idea that logical inference has a use as a tool for human survival, but that its existence does not support the existence of truth, nor does it have a reality beyond the instrumental: "Logic, too, also rests on assumptions that do not correspond to anything in the real world". Perception is based on a believe system(a making sense of things the circular system in which belief sets perception that reinforce the belief as that is how Edward De Bono describe belief system in his book I am Right You Are Wrong), there is no law of contradiction it is neither right or wrong but rather the absurd I add and also objectivity and experience as we look at the world while our mind organise what we are seeing at the moment as the behaviour is of a self-organising patterning system that is totally different from the table top logic of traditional reasoning I am Right You Are Wrong states again.
“The new thinking of the New Renaissance are to be based on the most fundamental of all bases, more fundamental than philosophical word-play or belief system. They are to be based directly on how the human brain works and in particular the way the human way creates perception” Edward De Bono writes in the book I Am Right You Are Wrong. He continues that the last renaissance received and polished the methods of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle the golden age of Greek philosophy. It is possible that that the argument method was in use before and De Bono continue that Socrates developed it in a formidable procedure. Then there is a remarkable paradox of how history made the revival of Greek argument thinking in the last renaissance while he proposes a new renaissance that of design that is an evolution of such thinking. But on the last renaissance it served a dual purpose. On the one hand used by humanistic thinkers that used the system of logic and reason to attack the dogma that suffocated society. On the other hand, church thinker led by the genius of Thomas Aquinas of Naples developed the same argument of logic into a powerful way of defeating the numerous heresies that were forever surfacing. Perhaps this is not so surprising, since the new method was such an obvious advance on existing thinking method. He continues that truth is a destination is a very powerful motivator. We may never claim to have reached the truth but we journey in that direction for Buddhism is enlightenment for Catholics is self improvement and I add that I hope also for any person in the end that is to agree with the philosopher’s journey of search. In his book Teach Yourself To Think Edward De Bono writes “From Plato came an obsession with truth and the belief that we could establish this logically. This believe has been a powerful motivator to all subsequent thinkers and he adds that Plato was a fascist. From Socrates in this book he writes that we took argumentation Dialectics criticism that is more important to construct what is wrong that what is useful and ultimately from Aristotle we inherited that which is based on “is” and “is not” and avoidance of contradiction. He says that the past used logic is called Rock Logic that is permanent and unchanging absolute and we need to use water logic instead which is a flexible logic and which rock logic can also be in as rocks are in the sea, in water. This is based on “to”.

This time circumstance change with shape and that know we should not neglect development in the creative perceptual and design you can analyse the past but you need to design the future. Judgement for Edward De Bono is good were future is the same as the past but he adds that nowadays it totally inadequate in changing the world as the old boxes do not apply today that why we need to design Jean Baudrillard write; “The end of history is, alas, also the end of the dustbins of history. There are no longer any dustbins for disposing of old ideologies, old regimes, old values. Where are we going to throw Marxism, which actually invented the dustbins of history? (Yet there is some justice here since the very people who invented them have fallen in.) Conclusion: if there are no more dustbins of history, this is because History itself has become a dustbin. It has become its own dustbin, just as the planet itself is becoming its own dustbin” ^ The Illusion of the End, or Selected Writings, p. 263. In I Am Right You Are Wrong De Bono writes if we felt that we were already operating at the limit of our thinking system there would be little hope and in his book Teach Yourself to think he writes that rather than argument we use the six thinking hat method while he believes that analysis is useful for description such as language is in the end but analysis is useless for operations. Thus we construct creative, design and constructive energy with our methods of thinking and we start dealing with perception. He also start his book Teach Yourself To Think by writing “because you need thinking to make plans, take initiatives, solve problems, open up opportunities and design your way forward” and that this may be fun and enjoyable. Thinking deliver you were you want to enjoy values and feelings to the maximum potential. Thinking without values is an aimless action he writes. Thus forming a pyramid at the first level we have feelings and values that come from perception and then up we have thinking. In Water Logic he writes that perception which is the way we look at the world or the way our mind organise what we are seeing at the moment is the only reality for the persons involved and he adds that the flow of our attention over the outer world is strongly influenced by the perceptual patterns we set up in the inner world our mind that means. He adds that from water logic he takes the concept of fit into circumstance or condition and same thing of flows that take place in dynamics.

In the end a thought once thought cannot be unthought he writes in I Am Right You Are Wrong.

Language is just a form of constructed description tool for communication which means a limitation of language and the imperatives of the media and yet a great power to change sentiments. Thus we can have a description done by language that construct reality as it affects perception or do a model that should embody mathematical reasons for example. But still there is no truth in perception maximum a proto truth that is an absolute that we hold so long as we are trying to change it as Edward De Bono suggests.

Also Language for Edward De Bono in his book I am Right You Are Wrong states that language is a poor thinking system, yet it dominate our thinking till know and it create the seductive dichotomies which we need and create in order to operate the logical principle of contradiction of good/evil, Either/or, us/them etc. Jacques Derrida the inventor of Deconstruction also created the theory of binary oppositions that is a belief in pairs and opposites and of one of the pairs that is suppressed while the other is brought above thus for him good has no meaning unless evil exist thus this is because we are in the Constructive age rather than the Perceptual age.

Thus the absurd truth exists because it cannot be defined. Thus it exists. This is because of the reclusiveness that occurs. Thus is to words when in the end they cannot be defined and the language games that exist. Thus is why we cannot understand the absolute the void or the not void and thus we keep questioning the absolute. This is seen in the simple sum of 1+1=2 were we has something that we need to prove. The 2 is proven but the ones are not in reality the sum is (x=1) +(x=1) =2 and the x is recursive. Thus a positivistic paradox exist a stairs that never finishes and thus we need existentialism to finalise our thinking till know as the preposition of the absurd becomes the centre off everything while therefore we recognise that we believe more than that we can prove, and that we know more than what we can say as Michael Polanyi argued in reality while Martin Heidegger put it ontology is before epistemology. Thus any method is to reduce this absurd while building on it in the end thus we need to live in this Absurd and that is the Post-Post Modernism with our knowledge the truth thus the absurd watches and is present and we try to simplify it in the end as I live cause of the absurd as we have our leap of faiths philosophical suicides in Albert Camus words. Being in the book Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology written by Jean Paul Sartre he identifies both being-in-itself and being-for-itself but the latter is a destruction of the former. Absurdism thus is the point of reference the being for itself. Therefore it is nothingness absolute negation which according to the book Does God Exists? By Hans Kung according to Hegel absolute negation is the power of life. Thus I add the existence of the example x is beyond the essence/identity which is the 1 the being-in-itself the non-conscious being which is the sort of phenomena that is greater than the knowledge that we have of it while consciousness achieves the recognition of such existence as it affirms such existence and thus the same absurd is perhaps the power of life that perhaps it does perceive our existence as a preposition

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd” Voltaire

“If the world were clear, art would not exist” The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus

Friday, December 21, 2012


Mark Montebello On Anarchism and Institution



1) First of all I say that I liked the book Il-Fidwa ta L-Anarkiżmu and it would be great to be translated into another language such as English. So therefore do you consider yourself an Anarchist and can you tell me the history of such Facultative Anarchism that you propose for the best solution for humanity and how come such idea came up in your perception?

Most people think of anarchism as total chaos. This is the popular perception of anarchism which cannot be farther from the truth. Anarchism is a system wherewith people can come closer to their natural being as free agents. For this reason, anarchism is opposed to all forms of oppression or coercion, whether it comes from cultural factors or from institutional entities. So, if you ask me whether I am an anarchist in this sense, not in the popular sense, I have no doubt to answer you, yes, I am. Now what I have called ‘facultative anarchism’ is one of the first steps in the process of individual and collective liberation from the shackles of oppression or coercion. It is a psychological way, if you like, of preparing oneself to be autonomous and independent, a way which may remove a person from virtually being a slave of others. This I have learnt close up by living in a society the institutions of which are practically absolute, and where dissent is unaccepted. Throughout the literature and practice of anarchism, say from the 18th century onwards, such a personal liberating culture has been at the basis of any other action for the freedom of society.

2) Is Facultative Anarchism possible? Do you think you are an Idealist?

What I call ‘facultative anarchism’ is certainly possible since it related to psychological attitudes which do not be necessarily overt. On adopting such an attitude one may not bring an immediate revolution to one’s life styles. Nevertheless, it may be the beginning of a transformation which, in the long run, will make a lot of difference. If one is not mentally and affectionately free, one will never be able to accomplish further stages of freedom, autonomy and independence. Considering this, of course I am an idealist. I believe that it is possible for people to escape the many modes of oppression and coercion that surround them. I believe that this is achievable, and that it has already begun to take place.

3) Dostoyevsky once wrote that if Jesus would return and preach his message of liberation he would be again crucified. Also the church which makes the Catholic religion is an organised religion that makes part of an institution therefore we can see resemblance with what happened in the end to Jesus to Marx where his aim to free the consciousness from the tyranny of economic exploitation was turned to a system of repression in the U.S.S.R while also to Sigmund Freud which his discovery of psychoanalysis was then said to have become by Michel Foucault to have turned as an institution. Also how would you comment to this statement and do you see that doubt can lead to a more true religious conviction and were such Anarchism suggested in your book Il-Fidwa ta l-Anarkiżmu that create doubt and check up make such institution more open such as an open society giving more credibility to the institution existence?

Institution are from their very nature oppressive. They cannot change their nature. Also, we cannot not live within institutions, at least how our lives are organised at the present moment. Nonetheless, we must all strive to increase as much as possible our personal freedom while still living within institutions. Not to change institutions, for this is not possible, but to await a time when we can do with the least institutions as possible. This can be personal and it can also be communal. Revolutions which failed all follow a pattern. They began with eliminating the oppressive and coercive institutions before transforming personal attitudes and social consciousness. That’s putting the cart before the horse. Jesus never spoke of institutions. He spoke about conversion of the heart and mind. It was only later that institutional concepts crept in and distorted the philosophy of Jesus. The male-dominated world is obsessed with institutionalisation. This is the perfect recipe for domination. Religion cannot liberate people. It is just another form of domination and oppression. Only spirituality can, for this is a question of attitudes, character, and ways of thinking and behaving.

4) Do you think that what you described in Il-Fidwa ta Anarkiżmu occurred in the Nationalist party institution that "criminalised" Franco De Bono?

Surely but not only. De Bono’s case is a known one. However, in all sectors of life and employment people go through the same situation. They are generally not known but to their inner friends and family. Each and every one of us needs to discover what I call ‘facultative anarchy’, that is, the faculty to be free despite everything and everyone.

5) How can you realise that somebody is living his life authentically or is suffering effective disability or is in power for hedonistic purposes or only because he is accepting effective disability?

There are a number of signposts. Conforming is one of them. People who want to play the institutional game give up their freedom and submit to the obligations of their institutions. They become as if they were an extension of their institutions. Another marker is their readiness to submit the welfare of individuals to the needs of institutions. They lack the profound respect due to each and every person; persons are only considered to be numbers, clients and files who, even unwilling, assist in the power which the institution amassed for itself. Yet another pointer is a person’s double-standards, wherewith an aura of compliance and formality is upheld for the functionability of institutional requirements while a private sphere will be completely or partially different. These are some of the indications that a person is consciously and willing submitting to be effectively disabled. There is no authenticity in this. There is only a will to take a ride over the institution’s back, even if this means relinquishing one’s freedom and integrity.

6) What benefits are you going to have being with authentic people?

The benefit of being true to oneself is the greatest benefit of all. But there are others. There are the pleasures of doing the work one likes to do, to be content in one’s employment, to be free to express oneself as one feels and desires, to discover the blessings of community living, to enjoy the fruits of one’s own work, to take pleasure in leisure, and others.

7) What benefits you are going to have being with socially excluded people?

People excluded from one social group are people included in another. The idea here is not to be a happy hermit living a life of seclusion and isolation. The idea is to live within a community. We never live in communities, very often not even within our families. Very often we are simply people who happen to be together. This is not a community. Discovering anarchism is being a living stone in the edifice of a community, where communication is held as the cementing material of all members, and where love ― not force, threats, coercion, etc. ― are the rule of the day.

8) Do you think that Facultative Anarchism will be part of a post-post modern world were there is much more awareness for an open society to be real, more awareness for democracy as Facultative Anarchism would be applied in the spheres of institution, more awareness for the environment. Therefore as Max Weber believed that ideas and values have transforming power. Thus in modernism we got oppressive institutions while in the post modernism we have the beginning of breaking of these institutions ultimately in post-post modernism we arrive to the ultimate liberation were this need time to continue developing while we would not end destroying ourselves such as the population of Easter Island as you once told me?

The concept which is being developed to today is to aspire to live in a ‘post-human’ world. What this could mean is that we unfetter ourselves from the idea that human beings are something special amongst other animals and in nature. What I call ‘facultative anarchism’ is the first step towards a free love relationship with other fellow human beings, with all living creatures and with all creation. The ideal is not confined to the human sphere alone. Post-modernism, by abandoning concepts such as those of grand-narratives, the truth, and objectivity, amongst others, have opening up a world of possibilities and adventures which were unknown before. Nevertheless, in the process it also squashed and snubbed the value of love, community, fraternity, equality, freedom, and other important ethical ideals. Post-modernism relativised everything; it made everything flat; it reduced everything to mere whims, transitory impulses, passing urges, quirks, fads, and caprices. Post-modernism deflated, and rightly, the supposed grandiosity of human beings. Nevertheless, this might have not been what was needed; or better, this is not what we need. We need to re-discover the value of human beings, not as special, unique or extraordinary creatures, for we are nothing of the sort. We are part of nature. We are nature. We are one being amongst all other animate and inanimate beings that exist. We have to re-discover our oneness with nature. Only anarchism can do that.

A copy can be downloaded from this website http://markmontebello.blogspot.com/p/free-download.html

The ideas of the interviewee may not represent the ideas of the interviewer.