Hope, And The Dependable (But Entirely Unpredictable) Appearance Of The "Tertium Quid"
Sure, there are many times when it seems reasonable that all hope is lost, and that despair is the only wise outlook.
But it is wiser still to keep hope alive, even after we reasonably conclude that The Wreckage is total.
Why?
There is a phenomenon in our world called the tertium quid, which means "the third thing."
The tertium quid refers to the dependable, but unpredictable way in which -- amidst our passion for dialectical, either/or thinking -- there emerges in human history a totally unexpected, unpredictable and transformative "third thing" which make all our hopeless certainties come crashing down, and -- mirabile dictu! - the "same old, same old" ever-accelerating "disaster cycle" is replaced with something entirely new.
Even at times of great crisis, when it seems that all is lost, and despair appears entirely justified, the tertium quid suddenly takes the wheel, and a whole new panorama populates our collective screen of consciousness.
When the tertium quid manifests, we suddenly see that our customary despair was only a prelude to a new manifestation of wisdom, and we're looking out on "a new earth."
In our current set of circumstances, with such a surfeit of ecological and political horrors (although it must also be said that the world is always packed with immeasurably more good, fine and noble acts than “newsworthy” horrors), it becomes a "given" that the tertium quid is alive and well and will quite likely make an imminent appearance, because it is tertium quid’s nature to appear at The Darkest Hour.
Oddly, we "moderns" -- especially we "gringos" -- are habituated to despair.
We are fast approaching a kind of sophistication in which despair is deened prudent.
What's wrong with this picture?
I believe the reason for our habituation (as is true for many of our collective character flaws) is our unrelenting passion for CONTROL.
And so, ironically (if not paradoxically) we take a weird, even macabre, comfort in despair, because it seems to impart a kind of control: we know (or think we know) it's all going to hell in a handbasket, and therefore by confirming the upcoming catastrophe, we somehow "control" it, or at least acknowledge its inevitability which is to say: "Ruination is upon us! And because we are wise enough to predict the inevitability of ruin," we enter into conscious alliance with what MUST BE.
In effect, everything is as it must be because there is some kind of "deeper order" (not entirely unlike The Deep State) that has ordered our destiny.
And because we sign off on the perceived inevitability of our "fate," we feel that we are aligned with it, that we are in a perverse (but certain) way in harmony with the overarching necessity of reality-gone-wrong.
It may not be what we want, but by subscribing to despair, we "befriend" it, we come to terms with it - indeed we prove that we are wise for surrendering to the inevitable forces that REALLY control our fate, no matter how much we want it otherwise.
Consider this historical model for how the "tertium quid" operates.
The Neanderthals, as they approached their "dead end," could not have imagined the emergence of Homo sapiens, just as prehistory could not imagine the Greeks; nor could the Greeks have imagined the Romans; nor the Romans, the Dark Ages
The Neanderthals, as they approached their "dead end," could not have imagined the emergence of Homo sapiens, just as prehistory could not imagine the Greeks; nor could the Greeks have imagined the Romans; nor the Romans, the Dark Ages
A pertinent aside: Rodney Stark argues that the Dark Ages were the most beneficial, transformative moment in human history! https://www.amazon.com/Victory-Reason-Christianity-Freedom-Capitalism/dp/0812972333
Just months ago this "companion piece" was broadcast by "On The Media" (which I consider the single most meaningful program on radio): https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/case-bright-ages-on-the-media
Moving along...
Nor could the Dark Ages imagine the Middle Ages; nor the Middle Ages, the Renaissance; nor the Renaissance, the European Enlightenment, and, although history has yet to pronounce on the exceptionally mixed bag of "The American Experiment," that experiment is either coming to an end, or perhaps more accurately, The American Experiment seems perfectly constellated for the tertium quid's next "appearance."
Although the nature of the tertium quid is to be unpredictable, it can be said (at least for purposes of this argument), that recent advances in the containment of nuclear fusion promise an endless supply of clean energy which could, even in my lifetime, come to pass.
It seems to me, we are all conditioned to extrapolate current trend lines. But beyond the fact of this "automatic extrapolation," trend lines - no matter how impressive they seem at the moment - always come to an end, and routinely come to an end when no one expects them to.
Although the nature of the tertium quid is to be unpredictable, it can be said (at least for purposes of this argument), that recent advances in the containment of nuclear fusion promise an endless supply of clean energy which could, even in my lifetime, come to pass.
It seems to me, we are all conditioned to extrapolate current trend lines. But beyond the fact of this "automatic extrapolation," trend lines - no matter how impressive they seem at the moment - always come to an end, and routinely come to an end when no one expects them to.
Consider the recent "Red Tsunami" resulting in the sudden expiration of Trump's "shelf life."
Overnight, Malignant Messiah went from a mortal threat to toast.
Hubris, a completely unbridled form of proud presumption, serves no one well, and has long been considered not only the "cardinal sin," but the cardinal sin of pride in its very worst manifestation.
Again (for the purposes of this argument), I hold that our increasingly commonplace assumption that humankind's goose is cooked, is a form of hubris, perhaps in its most vicious, mistaken manifestation ever. (It is appropriate here to point out that "vicious" is a direct derivation of the word "vice," and so it is that the people who have given themselves over to vice tend to become vicious, not only to others, but to themselves.)
And so it may be that the smartest of us have gotten into the nasty, self-destructive habit of being vicious to ourselves, because our self certainty refuses to look beyond The Tyranny Of Now -- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr? -- to admit that the tertium quid - not to mention the over-arching Magnum Mysterium - are always afoot, constellating the way forward in macro-level ways that are beyond our ken.
Hubris, a completely unbridled form of proud presumption, serves no one well, and has long been considered not only the "cardinal sin," but the cardinal sin of pride in its very worst manifestation.
Again (for the purposes of this argument), I hold that our increasingly commonplace assumption that humankind's goose is cooked, is a form of hubris, perhaps in its most vicious, mistaken manifestation ever. (It is appropriate here to point out that "vicious" is a direct derivation of the word "vice," and so it is that the people who have given themselves over to vice tend to become vicious, not only to others, but to themselves.)
And so it may be that the smartest of us have gotten into the nasty, self-destructive habit of being vicious to ourselves, because our self certainty refuses to look beyond The Tyranny Of Now -- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr? -- to admit that the tertium quid - not to mention the over-arching Magnum Mysterium - are always afoot, constellating the way forward in macro-level ways that are beyond our ken.
Magnum Mysterium
A name of God
If all this seems too Pollyannish, I will describe my interaction with Air Force General Arthur Clark (retired), a good friend who began his career as a Berkeley geologist before joining the Army/Air Force in 1941, taking up his first post in China during World War II. Notably, Arthur went on to become a widely known environmentalist, a person who has visited over 200 countries, many of them now defunct, as well as visiting both polls twice!
15 years ago, Arthur and I were waiting at a Panera Bread restaurant for the arrival of lunch companions when I asked Arthur what "the filthy rich" would do when it finally became clear to them that rising sea levels were causing the displacement of incalculable numbers of human beings.
Without missing a beat, Arthur replied: "They will move to higher ground."
In this regard, it is not flattering to observe that we humans are as resilient as cockroaches.
In this regard, it is not flattering to observe that we humans are as resilient as cockroaches.
But we are.
And if the tertium quid weighs in, it may be that we will not only adapt, but thrive.
I do not say the following with any degree of certainty, but it is conceivable that our ongoing (and increasing) environmental catastrophes are in process of putting an end to planet earth over a "population problem" - possibly with the repetition of a meta-level historical sequence, not unlike Greece giving way to Rome giving way to The Dark Ages giving way to The Middle Ages giving way to The Renaissance giving way to the Enlightenment giving way to The American Experiment.
Again, beyond these speculative possibilities, what is certain is that the tertium quid is alive and well, operating in the background, even now, and that humankind will survive just as we survived the last Ice Age -- just 10,000 years ago -- an unimaginable, unprecedented event that covered the northeastern United States in a mantle of ice, all the way down to my central, North Carolina home.
Think about that for a moment.
Although we are currently in environmental extremis, what we are experiencing now is nowhere near as menacing as the reality of all our homes - "right now" - being covered by ice sheets, hundreds, if not, thousands of feet thick.
I do not say the following with any degree of certainty, but it is conceivable that our ongoing (and increasing) environmental catastrophes are in process of putting an end to planet earth over a "population problem" - possibly with the repetition of a meta-level historical sequence, not unlike Greece giving way to Rome giving way to The Dark Ages giving way to The Middle Ages giving way to The Renaissance giving way to the Enlightenment giving way to The American Experiment.
Again, beyond these speculative possibilities, what is certain is that the tertium quid is alive and well, operating in the background, even now, and that humankind will survive just as we survived the last Ice Age -- just 10,000 years ago -- an unimaginable, unprecedented event that covered the northeastern United States in a mantle of ice, all the way down to my central, North Carolina home.
Think about that for a moment.
Although we are currently in environmental extremis, what we are experiencing now is nowhere near as menacing as the reality of all our homes - "right now" - being covered by ice sheets, hundreds, if not, thousands of feet thick.
And then, there is the real possibility that in my lifetime, we will have a limitless supply of utterly clean energy.
The cocky presumption we have normalized, (when seen for what I believe it IS), is not a pretty thing (to say the least), not to mention that it is a kind of desperate damage (perhaps even a form of viciousness) that we perpetrate on ourselves.
It may seem that I am invoking "faith" and "unfounded hope" when, in fact, I am pointing to the rock-solid reality of the tertium quid and its inviolable pattern of laying waste to the certainties of dialectical thinking, a kind of thinking which is serviceable in normal times, but a dangerous absurdity in times of epochal change.
Make of it what you will, but I hold that presumption and self-certainly are always pitiful manifestations of the human spirit when we could, just as easily, surrender to the mystical reality of the Magnum Mysterium, simultaneously doing our damnedest to remedy the many wrongs that seem to hold us hostage.
Magnum Mysterium
A name of God
What if hope is not just airy fairy wishful thinking, but a fundamental parameter of the human condition, and that the divine milieu (to borrow Teilhard de Chardin’s phrase) moves us forward.
Rev. Pierre Teilhard De Chardin SJ: "Research Is Adoration"
I am confident that everything comes down to acts of faith, and given that the placement of faith is inevitable, why not place it in the exuberance of love, and the hope of universal justice rather than the dour (but quite likely mistaken) “certainties” of Doomsday.
"Doomscrolling," by Doctora Amparo
"Doomscrolling"
Wikipedia
Again, a strong argument can be made that when we take refuge in the supposed certainties of doom and gloom, we are, at bottom, lying to ourselves, cheek-by-jowl with those Trump-worshipping, conservative Christians, who believe that Apocalypse and Armageddon (as manifestations of earthly conflagration), are inevitable, when it could just as easily be, that our current upheaval, may be an inevitable prelude to the creation of an entirely new world.
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The Bonus Round
(for two of my favorite educators)
Sona Jobarteh: Expanding The Unique Musical Tradition Of West Africa's Kora
with Leslie Stahl
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