The Golden Ratio (GR) Helix

Posted on 14th April 2012 in Theory

Golden Ratio Helix Fractal

What direction are you going and how are you going to get to your destination? What is your trajectory?

 

Unfortunately, for most of you I guess, there are things you call mathematical equations that offer a reasonable representation of how things are moving through time-space. I prefer the term “relationship” instead of “equation” because that is what it is. We’re investigating the nature of your motion through time space. This motion may be of your body, it may be of your mind, it may be of the balance of your bank account. Whatever the case, leave it to a scientist to find some set of equations to describe the universe. Better yet, let’s get rid of the term scientist and replace it with philosopher and simply say that a bloke or bird is trying to come up with a description of what is going on with something – a set of relationships describing a natural occurrence. In this case, you’re the natural occurrence and we, or I, am going to come up with a set of relationships to explain your behavior. Well, yes, we’re all somewhat predictable.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to get that out of the way because scientists have such a bad rap for being cold sterile reductionists with a pole up their ass who miss the big picture. This is so with many of the scientists I have known, but some of us are, in fact, decent, pole-less, creatures who simply utilize the tools of mathematics to help us understand nature’s complexities and don’t actually need to control or manipulate anything to make money. There is a difference.

 

The Golden Ratio Helix is a beautiful model to describe the desired trajectory of conflict. Ahhh, desired trajectory of conflict you are wondering. What the hell does he mean by that. Well, think about it. What is the desired outcome of an event? Do you want to know how much fuel per body stack you need to get the pile of bodies to burn by themselves? Do you want to find a way to peaceful resolution of a situation? Well it works both ways and has been employed to both ends. I hope those of you reading this are more interested in mutual beneficence than you are in personal gain through the exploitation of others. In any case, whatever your disposition, you’ll probably appreciate this – at least once I get done talking and get on with the cool images.

 

For those of you who done know what a helix looks like, here are some visuals:

 

The most famous of the helices

kick your ass helix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who don’t know what the golden ratio looks like, it is based on a simple mathematical progression and the ratio of successive terms which, as the sequence is propagated, the ratio of successive terms approximates a number which is called the golden ratio.  This ratio appears all over the place in nature. The following images illustrate the GR’s appearance in many forms in nature:golden ratio in plant
golden ratio in a plant

 

 

If you put the helix together with the spiral you get the GR helix. The nature of the helix – depending on which way you travel along it –  is an ever diverging or converging trajectory. With respect to conflict, we travel one way along it and we are spiralling towards convergence – which I argue represents a state of stability. Travelling in the other direction represents a divergence, or escalation of conflict. In one case one is spiraling into control. In the other case one is spiralling out of control. The idea, however, is taken to represent the fact that, in the normal course of action of Conflict Transformation (CT), one hopes to reduce the term and severity of conflict towards a state of peace such that each time conflict arises, the intensity and duration of the conflict diminishes. It should be noted, of course, that motion along these trajectories can be, and often is, controlled directly by external forces with a clear intention. That is to say that some peoples, groups, governments are in the business of conflict escalation.
                                                                                       

 

Think about this in terms of one of your personal relationships. Each time you engage in conflict with your partner, hopefully the duration and intensity of the conflict diminishes. If not, you are definitely lost (or maybe wandering) in the enchanted prison. In the case of warring parties (great phrase), we should hope that the behavior is the same. However, due to the complex nature of internal and external forces in, say, the case of Palestine (the Palestinian peoples vs the Israeli government), where the nature and origin of the forces are so complex that peaceful resolve, as we have seen, is the more difficult road to travel as conflict escalation seems to be the name of the game. If the external forces could be isolated and eliminated (i.e. if the US would stop funding the Israeli military – yes, I realize it is not only the US government, I am only providing one example),  the dynamic would be more manageable.

 

Of course, if the interests of different state, and non-state,  actors in the Middle East were based on human needs and human rights, the conflict helix…the game… would be of a much different nature. In fact, if the goal were mutually assured creation there would  be little or no conflict and we would be talking about the peace helix in which an inversion of trajectories would take place and the divergent trajectory along the spiral would represent an unbounded growth of mutual inclusion and mutual beneficence – a veritable transcendence of ego (on the personal level) and nationalism. The inward spiral along the trajectory would represent a collapse into selfishness.

 

How do you deal with the internal and external forces in your life and the lives of other as you spiral along the Golden Ratio (conflict/peace) Helix?

 

As we shall investigate later, your well being is intimately tied to the well being of others. Yeah, there’s some math for that – there are a set of relationships which show how we are all intimately intertwined (and, as you expect, some of the visual representations of these dynamics are pretty cool). The more your government, your god, your parents, your partner, etc, can condition you away from this understanding of the infinite relationships we are continuously engaged in, the more you will be content serving your term in the enchanted prison.

 

The next topic shall be on “Transcending Nationalism for a Soft Landing into Extinction” or something along those lines – coming in the next day or two.

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The Power and Potential of Nonviolent Struggle by Gene Sharp

Posted on 13th April 2012 in Articles

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Occupy Identity

Posted on 13th April 2012 in Notes, Self Determination

One of the most profound principles and practices I have recently been exposed to deals with the occupation of one’s identity. This came at a time when I was investigating the nature of occupation vs inhabitation – a concept introduced to me by a friend, poet/publisher Michael Annis, who was talking about Derrick Jensen and his discussion of that issue. Basically, occupiers are selfishly motivated and the result of their actions are exploitation of living beings and the land base which sustains them whereas inhabitors enter into mutually beneficial relationships with all of their surroundings – Mitakaye Oyasin (“All of my Relations” – for seven generations, baby!).

 

I was discussing this idea with my Michael –  before the Occupy movement started – as I was experiencing an internal conflict over my external environment. The reasons for this are many and I may or may  not get into them later. Certainly, they would be instructive but perhaps too revealing about my personal life which is unnecessary for my ends – as far as I can tell now. In any case, if there is some insight to be gained from my personal life I shall divulge what is necessary.

 

Essentially, what I was experiencing was a loss of identity based in trauma. In my case the trauma was from a death in the family – a normal course of life. What it bred, internally, was a conflict between the principles I believe and espouse vs my conditioned behavior – reactions and responses to external stimuli. That is to say, my practices and principles were not in resonance with one another and, in this state of dissonance, I experienced what can be considered [albeit, on a small scale] an attrocity producing circumstance. As one friend put it, “You got sick on your own medicine.”

 

In any case, I do believe that the conditions that led to my experience are similar to circumstances leading to atrocity producing conditions  on a larger scale. That is, the trauma is not inflicted as a perpetuation of one’s own choices due to an irreconcilable situation that is part of the normal course of life. Specifically, discussing the plight of the Palestinians under military occupation and decades of violence, the trauma inflicted is carefully calculated as a means by which to occupy one’s identity  as Jonatan Stanzcak, one of the co founders of the Freedom Theatre of Palestine said during an interview for a benefit concert I promoted:

“… the occupation is not only a physical phenomena, it is not only the checkpoints and the wall and the settlements and the military invasion, it is much deeper than that. It is a fear, it’s a sense of suspicion that is everywhere. It’s the occupations ultimate aim, the occupiers ultimate aim is to occupy the identity of the people. It’s to manage to inject fear into the core of society and to make people suspicious between themselves. In that kind of situation all kinds of coming together and challenging that fear is a form of resistance…”

 

Of course, the contrast between a calculated occupation of one’s mind in the case of the Palestinian peoples – as pointed out by Stanczak – vs. my personal experiences are quite different in the sense of the origin of the trauma and the magnitude yet, at the same time there is an important similarity between the two circumstances – namely, the occupation of identity can be a continuous presence as in the case of the Palestinian people and it can also be a cultural indoctrination that is invisible and works its way – like a disease – through the core of one’s being. Elucidating this inculcation – that is, psychically unravelling to understand how this indoctrination into a culture of denial and disconnect functions, one realizes that the goal of the occupier of one’s identity is the same as the goal of military occupation.

 

The fact is that we are not educated to understand who we are as free willed individuals. Rather, we are bred in ignorance and fear to serve something other than ourselves most often without any personal gain. In my case, which really serves as an example of a human living in a ‘free’ society, my servitude in the enchanted prison was less obvious – certainly to myself at the time. In the case of the Palestinian people, their enslavement is completely obvious to most of the so called free-willed of the world.

 

Some of the basic principles of conflict deal with will, desire and expection. I would add “need” to this this list as well. A first round of things to cosider is where do our will, desire and expectations come from. Are they driven from our core temperament or are they derived by messages from an external force who is out for personal gain (i.e. God and the State) by controlling our thoughts and actions. Cast these principles into the realm of reality (what is happening), possible realities (what could be), and irrealities (what can’t be, though we may have the will, desire and expectation to create such a reality depending on our level of delusion) and add to that the internal and external forces influencing will, desire, and expectation and you’ve got a very complex situation at hand.

 

Those of us who have experienced personal trauma and have worked our way through it understand the difficulties of drawing resonance amidst all of the competing principles, forces and messages we receive. Those stuck in an environment where the external forces are ever present and relentless in their tactics to control are, essentially, in an intractable situtaion.

 

Understanding the nature of the forces, principles and messages and how to manage them to transform and transcend this occupation of identity is to be a focus of this blog and, so, I will continue to elaborate on these ideas as I learn more and gain more insight into the nature of occupation carried out by a power structure that wants nothing more than to keep us in mental slavery locked up in the enchanted prison.

 

Listen to the interview with Jonatan Stanczak

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Welcome to the Enchanted Prison

Posted on 10th April 2012 in Notes, Self Determination

You have ended up here by no error or accident. You come here seeking freedom from either side of the bars. Here you will find instructions and stories that will give you some survival skills for the enchanted prison. As you well know, there is one thing and one thing only that is necessary to embrace and that is self-determination. Knowing it and living it are two different things. The more we psychically unravel, the more we realize how deep the conditioning is. The more we understand about how deep our indoctrination, the more able we are to navigate the enchanted prison and make decisions based on free will according to our “original instructions” and our core temperament.

 

As we navigate through the enchanted prison we shall be dealing with information in the realms of psychokinesis, Buddhism, Shamanism, Conflict Transformation, human needs, human rights, international law, the effects of atrocity producing circumstances, trauma, and transforming trauma into prana, or Qi. Other things that will come up are the idea’s of change and transformation, transcendence, relationships and dynamics, relativity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, population dynamics, history, racism, species-ism and more. Get a grip. This should be fun as we learn about the history of violence, the continued violence on Earth, and many of the common misconceptions about conflict, war, destruction, violence, and there positive counterparts.

 

I should note that if anything comes off as being the slightest bit humorous, I apologize in advance. The issues presented here will be very serious. There is nothing funny about any of this stuff.

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