Sunday 11 April 2010

What goes around comes around

“Counter context” literary means "against the context". What is the context? The context is the manner in which you arrange or place things - based on the community of ideas you belong to in order to make sense of this - or that - world. Realm. The world of possibilities. Our world. Now some understand context to mean “the established view” (POV) or “the consensus opinion” or “the prevailing idealogical tide”. A less flattering appellation might be: “this season's fashion”. Nevertheless, all these descriptions have something in common: the need to create a framework - a road map if you will - a schemata; a way of looking at the world that is not just about description, but also the manner of intervention: how do I - we - interact with the world in predictable and reliable ways without being complacent? Contribution - participation - is a dynamic relationship that feeds back upon itself. Feed on yourself alone and you starve; learn how to feed each other and we have the building blocks of civilisation. Thomas Kuhn, a philosopher of science, introduced the notion of “scientific revolution” – revolution means to “go back to the origin” - to start again from scratch so that you can rebuild the foundations. Revolutions are started by failure and a natural response to getting it wrong is ... “fuck-fuckerty!” but getting things wrong also provides insight: it's a “you learn learn from your mistakes” thingy. Think back to your childhood, the classroom and one of the things about learning is learning by your mistakes, because mistakes - even those of the ubermensch - makes you stronger. Knowledge is something you earn; it isn't granted. Weakness is complacency; not fallibility, no body is infallible. Knowing what is right is also knowing what is wrong. Knowing what is better is not making “better” an article of faith, but the admission of fallibility is the acknowledgment of strength through trial. Testing. Testosterone. Testees. Talking bollocks.

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