| Latest Posts | A Faint Coffin of Scents - Inhibition
I̲n̲t̲e̲ resting :
Henri Laborit --> birth in a role
THE HIVE
How such a socially developed species could produce individuals feeling so inapt in society is a wonder. The vast collection of individualities struggling against the norm, trying to leak from a long-entertained shell of unwritten (or, in many cases indeed, written) laws amounts to a state of permanent collapse that's so well dealt with that it is barely perceptible, most of the time. The inhibition of the self can't be maintained in spite of the power detained by the community and the emphasis on common good. Sooner or later, we observe in a single subject, or sometimes, coincidentally, two or three of them, a sudden shift in behaviour caused by either long-accumulated progressive changes in the environment or a direct, traumatic stimulus or "shock", the two causes being not mutually exclusive, but often complementary. The outcomes are narrow, limited. Either we observe destructive behaviour in the uninhibited subjects, or public rebellion. In one case, the introversion is being reinforced. In the other, the extraversion is turned into either madness (or what the community will perceive as such, madness being a social construct) or a spread that touches a non-negligible part of the population, leading to mass critical shifts in behaviour. In the first case, the collapse is a slow, corrosive process, described as "quasi-static". In the second, the collapse is brutal, described as "discontinuous". No comparable behaviour has been observed in bees.
Are we to conclude that bees have a better grasp on social matters?
That is not my point, nor should it be anyone else's, or at least not without a background of deep study and subsequent analysis. By further exploring the hive, we nonetheless find ourselves in possession of new information on the environment-behaviour relationship, which, unlike the previously explained mechanism, is common to all species, including, of course, the bee. By studying the global response to external changes, we obtain new tools to explain the community's history, but also, quite remarkably, the individual's own "inner" development.
Amusing :
The bee and the flower Apis Mellifera --> Iris, pale flame
THE CELLS
The individual is always a prisoner of its environment. Whatever the structure, no matter how big the space, the back sticks to the walls like an old postcard to a honey-covered mirror, the vertebrae kissing the hard asphalt of the exterior wall through a very thin layer of skin. When the environment changes, the self adapts. Vibrations cause disturbances, shocks cause severe damage.
(Our first case.
A woman left alone in a cabin in a rainy region, an alcohol store for main destination.)
Systems are constantly changing, the changes seemingly inconsistent with each other once examined at the same scale. Once you place yourself at the center of an environmental sphere of behaviours and try to observe its working in interconnection in a finite scope, you fail to make sense out of it.
The effect is known as "Lars' knot" and is explained by the fact that, by placing yourself at the center of an environment and, by assuming the role of distant observer, removing yourself from it, you commit, as one would say jokingly, a "logical sin". A second difficulty arises if you place yourself as an active observer at the center of a finitie environmental sphere. The environmental sphere suffers from a general a-centerism. It contains no central element but the element that is arbitrarily chosen. The safest way to proceed is to consider the environment in its entirety. One soon understands how difficult that proves to be. And so, simplifications and consciously wrong assumptions have to be made before we can fill the void of un-knowledge.
First wrong assumption :
Every macro-element of an environmental sphere can be described by a simple analogy (simple in its nature, but hard to grasp and manipulate), which is as follows. To each of the said macro-elements is associated a wave, a propagating signal contained within a sphere of influence. Each signal is singular and can interfere with other signals in ways that are measurable or, at the very least, quantifiable. Disturbances can be decomposed into the singular parts in order to flow back and be examined at their source.
Second wrong assumption :
We can ignore the influence of the so-called "global" factors, that is to say, of the events acting on a scale larger than a suitable limit within which a supposed norm is contained.
Of course, one assumption that shouldn't be made is linked to the idea of causality.
One can never assume a linear, individual cause to a singular event or action. The threads are numerous and the broadcast is being made inside a large bubble that encloses a vast amount of sources. There can't be a Source, but there must be plural sources. The causal area is delimited by a non-centered, eclectic (and, sometimes, self-conflicting) network of influences guiding the actions of one short-lived punctual event at the confluence. The capacity to follow a network of threads of causality in order to reach a pre-determined point or in order to predict one could, theoretically, only be achieved through either the use of powerful cutting tools destined to erase (here meaning "disregard") the threads selected through carefully established criteria, or through currently unimaginable computational powers, or, finally, through artificial settings "in advance" of threads by a creative force, which alternative mainly applies to the controlled environments of simulations and individual or communal storytelling (through any known medium). And, following one of the many logical threads created by the last few paragraphs, we find ourselves considering the concept of randomness.
THE WORKING BEES
"These motions were such as to satisfy me, after frequently repeated observation, that they arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle itself." , Robert Brown
Relevant :
Mariane --> I am near
When I gazed I saw death's reflection
In the eye of the bull, And death's reflection was bathed in life, Though it did not drown it whole. I collected the seeds in my palm Damaged by furrows of past maydays Unfading silhouettes of the sos And in that hand, With the seeds as needles And those trenches as guide, I could play the record of our Unplugging from the world. Ariadne I saw you there, Swallowed by my mistakes. Smiling from my blunders. I gathered your hair in my hand But from your lips, The rotted taste of honey rose, Echoed my descent. I carried a lamp in that maze But it worked as well to carry my steps As to excite the bull. I heard the call, saying : "The labyrinth is a sunflower field" And I held your breath trapped in mine For the last few seconds of our embrace. Please log in to add a comment. |
, Henri Laborit [French surgeon, neurobiologist and writer]
[Rough translation :]
"We live exclusively to maintain our biological structure, we have been programmed since the egg's fecundation for that sole purpose, and every living structure has no other reason to be than to be."