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                                         IDEOLOGY 
                                  0
             The human mind seeks to create order out of Chaos

          It  is in the nature of humanity to attempt to formulate laws from ex-
          perience  as a guide to  future action. Acting  as a feedback-response
          mechanism, the  mind considers the  results of previous  behaviour and
          creates laws of action in  an attempt to repeat past good  results and
          avoid  bad results. In the individual this is known as personality, in
          the communal world it is known as science.

                                  1
                     All scientific laws are false

          Science attempts to map the  universe as a result of  previous collec-
          tive  experience.  Since this  is limited  to  what has  actually been
          experienced so  far, it is always inadequate, and since it is not what
          has been experienced it  is always human-centred. It cannot  be objec-
          tive  because the object does not experience, only the subject, human-
          ity, experiences. Two approaches  have been used to tackle  this prob-
          lem.  The philosophy  of the  western world  posits that  an external,
          objective world interacts with  us through scientific experiment, thus
          science  creates  objectively  true  laws.  Other European  philosophy
          holds, correctly  in my view,  that talk  of an  objective reality  is
          beyond experience and is thus meaningless babble. Moreover, scientific
          experiment is no more objective than a childs attempt to walk. To Know
          is  not a high ideal, it is an  instinct born of our particular way of
          survival, and is thus survival-centred. Science is our Elephant Trunk,
          our Giraffe  Neck,  and since  it is  inherently inadequate,  it is  a
          belief system, a set of interconnected ideas-about-things. In terms of
          European, Post-Hegelian philosophy, it is an ideology.

                                  2
             All idealogies are subject to chaotic dissolution

          Every idealogy,  whether science,  Christianity or whatever,  seeks to
          and succeeds in creating a coherent view of reality that satisfies its
          believers. The problem is  that there is inevitably a gulf between the
          idealogy and reality. Ideologies are fixed; reality is fluid. Thus all
          ideologies are subject to readjustment when a new discovery challenges
          the  existing  view. The  rediscovery  of the  Greek  text of  the New
          Testament and the  discovery of  the non-existence of  the Ether  each
          corroded the existing ideologies of their day.

          The Christian  world responded with Reformation  and Counter-Reformat-
          ion. (Historical note: Counter-Reformation  was the Reformation of the
          Catholic Church rather than an attack on  the Protestant Reformation.)
          Science responded with Einsteinian  relativity. These new elements are
          Chaotic. The extent to  which the ideology can  reform depends on  how
          deep the Chaotic  element bites into the  ideological structure. Every
          ideology  has central tenets  upon which the rest  depend: so the dis-
          covery that Jesus was  actually stoned to death rather  than crucified
          would cause major rumblings;  the discovery that he was  a woman would
          cause  deeper  rumblings; but  the discovery  that  he was  a spaceman
          carrying out a  standard sociological experiment would  bring down the
          ideology entire.  Several ideologies have completely  collapsed in the
          past,  such as Ptolomaic astronomy, and it can happen again. Moreover,
          the spread of a unified ideology over the whole globe, Western  Democ-
          racy, leaves the way open to a bigger collapse than ever before.


                                                                            1253

                                  3
               There is no such thing as innate value

          All present Western ideologies depend upon a concept of innate
          worth, whereby certain things are automatically "better" than
          others. The White Race, Men, Adults, all have had their "innate"
          value knocked for six. Even the Animal Kingdom is no longer seen as
          of higher worth than the Vegetable as the spread of the Gaia
          hypothesis shows. This is the Chaotic element that can bring down a
          whole pack of cards. There is no ethical reference point, no
          beginning from which to derive an end to aim for, to praise, to work
          towards. As it says in Liber Al: "let there be no difference made
          between one thing and another". The result is a confusion of belief
          as people scramble to find a new ideology. Fundamentalists choose
          deliberate blindness and perverse stupidity. Thelemites choose "pure
          will, unassuaged of purpose". Chaoists worship the confusion itself
          as the only "true thing" left. Pagans begin to construct a new
          ideology based on the absence of heirarchy and turn to cyclical and
          egalitarian beliefs. That a new ideology, or many, will arise is
          inevitable; even the truth of Chaos is only true to us, in our
          experience. But so what. All things considered, I think that things
          are going pretty well.

          Further readings:
          Knowledge and Human Interest, J.Habermas, 1967
          Differance, translated as Language and Difference, Derrida, 1959
          Anything by Sir Karl Popper for the view from the opposition

          With fractalic greetings and laughter  * Fra.: Apfelmann *


                                                                            1254


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