Lupine Publishers | Scholarly Journal Of Psychology And Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
In
the case of earth’s glacial-interglacial cycle, not paying attention to
knowledge originating in the distant past corresponds to hauntological behavior
that will make humankind go extinct.
Opinion
In
theory, the continuity and connectedness of the flow of knowledge between the
past, present, and future should be relevant to any aspect of human existence.
Yet, individuals and societies tend to pay little attention to knowledge from
distant past, thus the notion of past “haunting” the present. If knowledge of
past is ignored, as characterized by Jacques Derrida, the
hauntologicallyoriented present would become a “disjointed or disadjusted now”
[1]. Derrida applies his theory of ‘‘hauntology” within the context of Marxism
as an ignored past influencing today’s capitalism, but the theory becomes even
more prominent when the forgotten knowledge of the distant past originates in
thousands of years ago [2]. The psychology of hauntological behavior is
deep-rooted in that all disciplines are reluctant to trace their knowledgebase
to ancient sources. This deficiency is amplified when inflated or misdirected
homage is selectively given only to certain ancient sources [3]. Whether it is
John Stuart Mill arguing that the falsity and partiality of knowledge can be avoided
through critical discussion [4], or Charles S. Peirce pointing at the
operational reality that knowledge is whatever a community of knowledge seekers
converges on in the long run [5], or Karl Popper defining the knowledge
inadequacies through identifying observational and conceptual shortcomings and
inconsistencies [6,7], the fact remains that knowledge develops in a social
setting and has an inherent dimension of sociality [8]. As such the flow of
societal knowledge is susceptible to hauntological behavior as it would
perceive the knowledge coming from the distant past as a ghost to be avoided
than faced and clarified.
There
are many examples one can use to demonstrate hauntological behavior. The best
examples, however, are the ones that would make humankind go extinct. I will
start with the knowledge of the glacial earth. The story of the glacial earth’s
knowledge haunting today’s societies begins with the fact that it is not common
knowledge that earth comes in two versions. The first, named glacial, lasts
about 85,000 years, the second, named interglacial, lasts about 15,000 years.
Together, the glacial and interglacial create a 100,000-year cycle that repeats
regularly. Science has detailed records of the past eight cycles [9,10]. Since
the last glacial earth ended around 15,000 years ago, the current interglacial
earth will soon transition into the glacial earth, making the knowledge of the
glacial earth crucial for societal existence and survival. The current
scientific understanding of the earth’s two versions is based on the knowledge
developed during the past century and it sets the difference primarily in the
extent and intensity of earth’s ice sheets [11]. Extended ice sheets: glacial;
not extended ice sheets: interglacial. This view goes against many pieces of
the glacial earth’s knowledge transmitted from distant past. As one example,
Herodotus reports that an ancient population, the Egyptians, had observed and
recorded four reversals in the direction of sunrise and sunset in a time period
having a duration of about 14,000 years before present [12]. This period covers
shortterm and long-term glacial-interglacial transitions. The sunrise and
sunset reversal knowledge is simple and concise, and it specifies the time
period, the event type, and the number of events, thus quite precise as to what
is happening in a time period that corresponds to the last glacial-interglacial
transition.
There
is no scientific problem with explaining the sunrise and sunset reversal. The
reversal happens when a thin “shell” of ice and debris surrounds earth. The
process for creating a thin shell is known and would resemble that which
creates the meteor showers—earth passing through tiny fragments of debris left
behind by disintegrated comets. The meteor showers create a brief show of light
and color in the skies as they fall into the atmosphere and burn. In contrast,
the earth’s passage through a comet’s larger fragments [13,14] can create a
“shell” [15]. When the shell exists, earth would be glacial. When the shell collapses,
earth would be interglacial. The key here is not that we know the science. The
key: this is the science of a “ghost story.” Knowing its science does not
reduce its hauntological aspect. Even with its science revealed, it remains a
ghost of distant past haunting the present societies and as such engenders
little interest in facing and addressing it in the present. When the shell is
initially formed, the shell would be chaotic. It would envelope the whole earth
in darkness. The physics of transformation of a thin chaotic shell is known.
The transformation from chaotic to ordered takes place in a short time [16-18].
With loss of chaotic energy and formation of an ordered shell, the material in
shell’s polar areas becomes unstable and collapses, opening the polar areas to
sunlight that will reflect earthward from the interior of the shell, thus a
reversed direction compared to the interglacial earth which does not have a
shell. The science is straightforward, but the fact remains that this
scientific information not only comes from a distant past, but the carrier of
the story is a sacred text. Thus, not only this is a ghost story from distant
past, and thus has to break through hauntological barrier, but in today’s
societal mindset, it also has to face another knowledge-dam. That knowledge-dam
originates at the social conditioning that declares the knowledge embedded in
sacred texts irrelevant to scientific thought [19-22]. Many other ancient
pieces of the glacial earth’s knowledge are analysed elsewhere and reveal that
living in the glacial earth is radically different from living in today’s
earth, and humankind, unprepared to live in the glacial earth will go extinct
[15,23,24]. Yet all such observations fall into the category of scary ghost
stories. While one may argue that such response to the glacial earth’s
hauntology would not be rational given its known science, it is easy to
demonstrate that hauntology is the “normal” mode of human behavior. One does
not need to go back to thousands of years ago to scare humans with being
haunted by the glacial earth’s ghost. One can provide a similar scary ghost
through a story of humans getting vaporized in a shower of exploding nuclear
bombs. In early 1980s, a time distance of a few decades from nuclear weapons that
exploded on cities, there were massive protests to stop a nuclear war. At that
moment many understood the urgency of the need to prevent a nuclear war that
would destroy human civilization and end human life on earth [25]. At that time
many had a pragmatic understanding of the exposure to nuclear weapons, and the
issue was strengthened when studies showed that the dust and smoke thrown into
the upper atmosphere by nuclear explosions would block the sun, lower
temperatures and create a “nuclear winter” that would bring human societies
close to extinction [26]. Then the time distance increased and today any story
about the nuclear arsenals has become a ghost story ignoredthe same lack of
interest exhibited whether the ghost is the nuclear arsenals or the glacial
earth. No different than the glacial earth, the reality of the nuclear arsenals
is perceived as a ghost story that should be ignored in the present.
As
a typical individual I know a lot about my current lifesituation, know little
about my parents’ life-situation, know almost nothing about my grandparents’
life-situation, and know absolutely nothing about those coming previously. The
ghosts of the knowledge they carried are dead and no longer haunting. The same
pattern takes shape in the societal setting. In general the societal entities
only act on issues, concerns, and needs that take place within a time horizon
of less than five years [27]. Anything longer is ignored. With that pattern the
past quickly becomes a ghost, and many ghosts die as the time distance
increases. Only in rare situations, as in the sacred texts, do the ghosts haunt
longer. Tens of thousands of years ago, human populations, living under the
glacial earth’s extremely difficult conditions, struggling to survive, remained
nonetheless committed to informing today’s humans about both the glacial earth
and the hauntological behavior. They must have transmitted multiple messages
about the hazards of hauntological behavior, but at present I am aware of only
two that have reached the present time to warn humans about the perils of
ignoring the glacial-interglacial transition and the consequence-the extinction
of the unprepared humankind when the glacial earth arrives.
The two messages are:
The millennial message: All humankind
only 144,000 will survive the initial stage of arrival of the glacial earth
[28].
The Noah message: Among humankind,
those surviving the glacial earth’s arrival would number the occupants of a
ship [29].
Both
exhibit a sliver of optimism in the fate of the unprepared humankind facing the
glacial earth. Both imply that a small group will survive to become the seed
for bringing humankind back. I don’t share that optimism. In short,
hauntological behavior remains a very serious problem in human societies. The
psychology community, the business world, the political structure, and the
education system have to address its implication and find ways of altering it.
Otherwise humans would remain utterly vulnerable to the past knowledge they
ignore.
https://lupinepublishers.com/psychology-behavioral-science-journal/fulltext/fixated-hauntological-views-do-not-respond-to-scientific-knowledge.ID.000204.php
For more Lupine Publishers Open Access Journals Please visit our website: https://lupinepublishersgroup.com/
For more Psychology And Behavioral Sciences Please Click
Here: https://lupinepublishers.com/psychology-behavioral-science-journal/
To Know more Open Access Publishers Click on Lupine Publishers
Follow on Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/company/lupinepublishers
Follow on Twitter : https://twitter.com/lupine_online
No comments:
Post a Comment