The 7th set of questions deals with aspects of Rank, Hierarchies and Authority.
What have I learned about rank from being married? The photo above is that of my wife 'Yaa' who is a farm girl from Northeast Thailand. Dealing with our relationship with spouse or partner is one place to look at the question of authority among human beings!
What is Metapolitics? Can an example from mathematics give us a clue?
Radomila has written: My favourite subject to discuss! As division by zero is forbidden in math, how could you prove that any number multiplied by zero or zero, multiplied by any number is zero? What is zero? A number? The beginning of numbers, the middle or something that doesn't exist :-)
James F. Holwell <[email protected]> replies: My dear student, one must notice that dividing by zero and multiplying by zero are totally different topics. There is nothing 'forbidden' in math!
Yes, zero is a number. It is the number that answers the question: one plus negative one. It is the number that answers the question: n minus n. In multiplication, we multiply n times zero and the answer is zero, and intuitively we can accept that. [ You take 4 apples zero times and who took the apples? ] (<-;}
Division is the inverse of multiplication. That means, for example, that m divided by n is BY DEFINITION the number that, multiplied by n, will equal m.
Thus, 10 divided by 2 is that number you can multiply by 2 and get 10. In exactly the same way, zero divided by 2 is the number that multiplied by 2 will equal zero. Since zero times 2 equals zero, we say that 0 / 2 = 0 is true.
HOWEVER ... Turn it around, and see what happens why you try to divide 2 by zero. By our definition of Division, it has to be the case that 2 divided by 0 equals a number which, when multiplied by 0, equals 2. Is there such a number that equals 2 when multiplied by 0? No, and THAT is why division by zero is forbidden.
To tell a child that something is forbidden without showing her WHY is a form of mind control, which in turn is a form of child abuse, preparing the little dears to fit in and follow the prescribed formula for success.
You see, my dear Rada, this is why it is not possible to separate politics from ANYTHING ELSE. The study of how we manipulate the minds of children is part of the science of Metapolitics. It is the space, the context, the habitat, the field in which all politics lives.
Metapolitics is beyond Duality and Dialectics; we are not looking at Hegel's interpretation of thesis - antithesis - conflict - synthesis any more, because that leads only to endless repetition of the same cycle.
Sample, witness how the Insurgency of 1776 (13 colonies against the vast British Empire) has morphed into the terrorist empire of the third Millennium, which gained new momentum in 2001.
This band of insurgents, under General George Washington, succeeded in its 'antithesis' and through more than two centuries of armed aggression, against every tribe of indigenous people in what we now call the United States (including Hawaii - and what we did to that queen and her family is perhaps the most disgraceful of all our plundering), we have become the greatest terrorist empire humanity has seen in recorded history.
So Rada, please understand that every time you say you are not political you are lying to yourself .... because that statement itself is as political a choice as anyone can make. AND I'M NOT ASKING YOU TO BELIEVE THAT. Stop looking for someone to believe. Pay the price, review the evidence, discard all beliefs ... and see where you wind up. Or, look around and live in hope.
It is the choice of a chess player who desires to be strong and defeat experienced players, living always in hope, but seldom doing what is necessary; never stops to review the games of Masters; lives in 'hope' that the opponent will not see his traps. "This is a hard saying, and who is able to listen to it?" ... Jesus