Understanding The Mountains of Madness

UK Politics: At the Mountains of Madness

In H.P. Lovecraft's story, At the Mountains of Madness, an expedition to Antarctica in 1930, discovers the remnant's of an alien civilization's history on Earth, both biological, cosmic, geological on a vast unimaginable scale. The book deals in themes of horror of the unknown, of the incomprehensible scale (for example Deep Time in science) and how all these things conspire to produce madness in people not able or equipped to cope with such "traumas to their accepted reality"; as these mountains rise, larger even than Everest in the Himalayas, symbolizes: The walls to what people can comprehend, beyond which our minds would be shattered if we dared to venture, encountering the unfathomable monsters that lurk there.

"the mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time". ~ Deep Time: John Playfair, June 1788 on the age of rock strata.

Similar themes shape on a more personal and psychological level, the writing of Philip K. Dick where the veil of reality is lifted and glimpses beyond trigger a chain-reaction of implications for the present reality or else the veil is entirely ripped to shreds irrevocably. In these stories the "veil" either took the form of "altered states of consciousness" or the "machinations of authoritarian governments" on the people.

Previously we looked at in Pattern Recognition "The Bruges Group (see side bar) provides a mountain of quotes supporting The Great Deception is genuinely another pattern..." and before that the "political orthodoxy of our EU Membership from the mouths of our Prime Ministers in their own words.

Scale & Calculation: The virtual reality "code" generated in The Matrix

A similar theme of a "mind-blowing revelation" in it's sheer scale of deception is found in the "cyberpunk sci-fi" movie-story: The Matrix. And here the challenges of "a prison for the mind" are considered, not unlike in a real comparative sense the sheer scale of orthodoxy or dogma on thousands to millions of people. Or perhaps as relevant to our "Representative Democracy" the huge scale of apathy and low-turn out and participation by people who have "better things to do":-

Large crowd of Christmas shoppers enjoying London's Oxford Street festive decorations

And so the extraordinarily interesting question arises: If people have been plied with propaganda to accept a particular political norm for decades: How do you reverse some of that process? Political parties in our "Representative Democracy" are not in the business of training and developing good arguments in their supporters, they're in the business of recruitment for millions of people, as per the General Elections results in the UK for 2015:-

  Scale of Recruitment in British Politics per Party: 2015 General Elections

YouGov Poll break-down of Pro-EU vs Anti-EU Support

 Dr. RAE North chronicles, EU politics: Barroso's swan song :-

However, at nearly 9,000 words, this is a seriously long speech, almost of the style we'd expect from a Soviet leader, rather than a soon to be ex-Commission president, a man who tells us he has been "actively involved in the process of European integration over the last 30 years". [...]

Barroso then turns to the relationship between the EU and the UK. He "passionately believes" that Europe is stronger with the UK as its member, and that the UK "is stronger as a member of the EU than on its own". But he acknowledges that for historical, geopolitical and economic reasons, "the case of the UK may be seen as a special one".

Precisely because of this, Barroso thinks it would be a mistake to transform an exception for the UK into a rule for everybody else. We can, and should, he says, "Specificity", inasmuch as this does not threaten the Union's overall coherence. But we should not confound this specificity with an overall situation of the Union.

If you remember this was (Summer 2014) and now is after The Greek "Specificity or Crisis". Our own politicians are of a like-mind. They too are wondering how to deal with the UK's "specificity" in the EU. And we come back to our question above, looking at the sheer scale of numbers of voters involved and the "inertia" of thinking that hence arises due to the Status Quo Effect.

In Politicians: No Taste, No Style, So Derivative! we modelled the Political Spectrum as per YouGov's Analysis: EU referendum – the state of public opinion as a Political Prism:-

Red + Violet = GREEN

We've come all the signs that indicate RED = Pro-EU (see Pattern Recognition) support and VIOLET = ANTI-EU (See UKIP + Leave.EU via Fatal Car Crash: Two Dead After Car Accident) support framing the debate in The Westminster Political-Media Bubble and hence reflected across the Legacy News-Media page after page of "Mountains Of Madness":-

• Do David Cameron's EU negotiations really matter at all?
•  If this is perfidy, it works for Britain For Janen Ganesh
•  Yes, the EU is flawed. That's exactly why we can’t just all walk away
•  EU In And Out Campaigns Have Blazing Row On LBC

Frog Fractions: The Boiling Frog: EU Referendum: 51%

"Assuming therefore, for the sake of argument, a turnout of between 65-70%, this would leaves us with between 29.3 million and 31.5 million potential voters. To achieve the magic 51% we would need to convince around 16 million voters."

And now the same process is shaping the upcoming Referendum, from Dominic Cummings' blog:

Roughly one third of the British public is very hostile to the EU, one third is pro-EU, a fifth wants to leave but is worried about jobs and living standards, and a fifth doesn’t know (perhaps doesn’t care). In the 1970s, the EEC was seen as a modernising project and connected to Britain’s recovery from basket case status. Echoes of this were still there during the euro battle 1999-2002. This feeling seems to have died. Focus groups strongly support the data above and suggest that the financial crisis, the Greek euro crisis, and the migrant crisis all played an important part in changing sentiment.

If one looks at this crucial ‘swing’ fifth, they now break 59:41 for ‘remain’. This suggests that if the ‘leave’ campaign persuades these people that a ‘leave’ vote will be followed by a free trade deal and friendly cooperation, then the ‘leave’ campaign will win. The ‘remain’ campaign has many advantages, such as its grip on conventional wisdom in institutions such as the BBC and CBI (which were deeply wrong on the euro). Its fundamental position, however, clearly has significant weaknesses.

Dr. RAE North notes EU Referendum: a particularly stupid idea that this GREEN = Rebranded Dogma to coral millions along the latest twist in our Argumentum Ad Infinitum aka The Great Deception. As you'd expect this approach is hugely popular with the Westminster Political-Media Bubble as Dr. RAE North once again observes: EU Referendum: when "no" means "yes"

• Matthew Parris in the Spectator
• Simon Jenkins in the Guardian
• James Kirkup in The Daily Telegraph

In the above, there is no definition of The Great Deception (The Cage: Safe but trapped or Free but in danger?); it's replaced by The Mountains Of Madness, how The Referendum (The Cage Door) will be conducted via 2 superficial opposite reflections (Red vs Violet) and no definition of The Positive Vision outside the EU (Beyond The Cage). For this we'd need people to understand that "white light", not this "green light" of deception and self-deception that will be the properties of Campaigns Of Great Concern but little real value. Herding into "The Middle" merely produces the madness in the above picture.

Politicians: No Taste, No Style, So Derivative!

 Club Icon

The above icon is of Harlequins F.C. club. It's adapted from The Harlequin character or "comic servant" a.k.a "zanny".The design of this icon is very good: There's a flamboyance in the colour pattern, the gait is light-of-foot and theatrical with expansive gesture of the arms. For a modern rugby club it's an attractive symbol or badge: The brand is distinct, it's colourful and upbeat and hence I think very marketable. Interestingly a French Rugby Union Club in Paris, Stade Français also opted for an "exuberant" style as you can see at their club site:-

Stade Francais: Style & Sport

I've been to watch matches at both clubs and such experiences tend to be shaped by the attention to all the little details; of which the style of the club's various paraphernalia produce a very impact sense of "group identity" that carries through to the actual matches themselves and build-up on a "match-day". The atmosphere can be very electrifying if the match is well-played and well-contested; becoming very loud and energetic: Tribal to be blunt! Especially at tight moments in the game: Either euphoric collective highs or "baying for blood!" boo-ing and bulging eyeballs! To pick one of many quotes on fashion from Oscar Wilde:-

“Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear."

Of note some of the politicians who tend to find favourable publicity based off their image which stands out from the "run-of-the-mill" grey-suit politician look:-

In-Fashion: (clockwise) Jeremy Corbyn, Daniel Hannan, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson

• Corbyn: The Grizzled, experienced, veteran from the high-seas of life: A humble fisherman of men?
• Hannan: The grand, sweeping, visionary orator of high ideals and noble purpose pointing how "things of this world" thwart our progress.
• Farage: The cheeky-chappie, man about town, holding forth and having a rollicking "last orders", putting the world to rights in the pub!
• Johnson: Breezy and smart-scruffy, somewhat comically and buffoonishly meandering forwards almost in a muddle but equally a witty scoundrel with a cheery, lopsided grin. Bustles about busily like a friendly golden retriever.

 There's nothing surprising about this. In politics to use a model, they're simply adapting their presentation to fit their "target market of voters" or "niche":-

Refraction THEN reflection across the political spectrum

The problems start however when the "reflection" (political arithmetic, party politics) exists without any real bearing on the "refraction" (policy implementation process). To use the model for simplicity, the various differentiated colours are considered the actual politics, and the input from the "white light" is diminished in the the relationship. This we've got a name for:-

Westminster Political-Media Bubble

If we now come onto the question of EU Membership and re-apply the above model prism, for simplification, above: Let's say:-

• RED = Pro-EU Membership = Status Quo
• VIOLET = Anti-EU Membership

We can give a colour to The Middle-Way Fallacy Argument (argumentum ad temperantiam) or "Wilsonian Fudge". And in our EU Arguments this creates a powerful dynamic for winning the argument:-

• GREEN = Middle-Way aka Min-Max "Declarative" Method of "renegotiation/reform/referendum:-

 The latest, hottest, "everybody's talking about it" political fashion: The New Middle-Way Style.

 To bring up crystal clear examples of this:-

New/Latest Fashion Advice: "Both sides of the EU referendum campaign have tough questions to answer"

This is repeated and replicated across the entire News-Media. I'm almost embarrassed to copy and paste from Do David Cameron's EU negotiations really matter at all? such "pearls of conventional wisdom", "demonstrations of so much sensible and considered moderation", and to prove it, "the best in business" of research on the subject:-

"There is ample evidence that Britain could flourish outside the EU: if you have the inclination, read the 1,000-page tome produced by the Business for Britain organisation, previously supported by Lord Rose, which details how the UK would, in fact, “gain influence and prosper” after leaving.

The document is entitled “Change, or Go”, thereby leaving open the option of staying in were Mr Cameron able to pull off a miraculous deal. In reality, though, it is a prospectus for a thriving, stand-alone Britain." 

Matthew Elliott's image: Sensible, diplomatic, reasonable, friendly, safe: All major fashion stores will be selling his latest Referendum Range in 2017.

Another of these "fashion experts" is extolling similar virtues here: If this is perfidy, it works for Britain For Janen Ganesh, the "reflection" is what counts most and hence yet another journalist like Tim Montgomerie who falls into "The Cleverness Trap".

"The Remainers should not overstate their case: a vote to stay is a vote for decades of loveless, defensive diplomacy on Europe’s sidelines. If that is the burden that comes with participation in the world’s largest single market, voters will grudgingly live with it.

There is no clean answer to the conundrum of Britain and Europe. Because the referendum pits true-believing Europeans, who think the question is something as airy as “What kind of country should Britain be?”, against fervent sceptics, who see 1973 as a historic wrong to be avenged, nobody makes the case for fudge.

But fudge works. Fudge is the British way. Fudge is how Britain ended up with the best but not the worst of the European project. And fudge is what will emerge at the end of Mr Cameron’s great democratic exercise, whenever it comes and whatever the official result. The referendum is not a fork in the road. It is a roundabout with no exits." 

Effectively all these people are championing the "fashion designer" called Matthew Elliott's and his taste and style in EU/British Clothes: Neither:-

Status Quo Frames: EU Membership vs Anti-EU Membership = Both unpopular fashion labels.

But, because of the conceptual error as above concerning the "reflection" being all about winning "Swing-Voters" and not encouraging the people to participate in understanding the "refraction" there is the above false dichotomy as we covered in Big Ben: The Four-Faced Liar ; this is actually what all these people are choosing should determine the Referendum result: Not actually understanding the full context around Leave or Remain as we alluded to in How about a nice game of chess?: Not actually solving the problem intelligently to promote progress by understanding it. The results speak for themselves if we perceive them in a recognizable form:-

The above are examples of Gynandromorphism: "A gynandromorph can have bilateral asymmetry, one side female and one side male, or they can be mosaic, a case in which the two sexes aren't defined as clearly." We come back to our "political spectrum colours reflection" model. And this conceptually really is what The Fallacy Of The Middle Way Argument looks like, intellectually, if we discover what the actual nature of the argument really is aka in our model "The White Light" of factually based evidence: The Great Deception and FLEXCIT: The Definitive EU Exit Plan For Britain. All composed with extraordinary depth and breadth of research, of quantity and quality of references to produce a version of a political formal proof.

A free-market of competing ideas does not exist within "The Bubble"; only the latest fashions and political fads

What we come back to is that Politicians are driven by fashions such as in the poles, or the nebulous "public mood". They exert control over the governance of the UK but the price of that is fear of loss of control to forces they cannot predict: "Chaotic or emergent" shocks or shifts in public opinion: They thus pander to the Arguments From Popularity (Argumentum ad populum) and in doing so are the political equivalent of Fashion Victims:-

"Fashion victims are victims because they are vulnerable to faddishness and materialism, two of the widely recognized excesses of fashion, and consequently are at the mercy of society's prejudices or of the commercial interest of the fashion industry, or of both."

We looked at how poorly our politics is cast in The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.  but this is also true in the sense the people often behave as a captive audience to the politicians, when their opinions en masse are actually what drives the politicians decisions! I've got to say I'm becoming so tired of our News-Media, particularly the ones that fall into the "Cleverness Trap" above: Cleaving to their received wisdom of plausibility as per: Argumentum Ad Infinitum.

Coming back to the beginning where we talked about the strange garb of the Harlequin, a character who came to prominence in the Commedia dell'arte before travelling to and arriving in Britain and thence to the rugby club above. The inspiration for such a character originated in travelling story-tellers such as we might still be familiar with of like-kind troubadours. Some of these people not only entertained through stories, wit and music but also passed on useful information and news from their travels to closed-communities (people would ordinarily not travel further than a few miles from their village).

"Maester Aemon", a character from George R.R. Martin's A Game Of Thrones, bears the "many-linked chains of different metals" of his office

Thus started a tradition for such individuals to take a piece of cloth from each community visited and exchanges of news, information and stories and sow it into their travelling coat as a mark of how far and wide they had travelled and hence how valuable they might be to the communities they were welcomed into.

What is suggested is that people should appreciate from their politicians just how much they really know and hence how valuable they really are beyond their appearances and how much those fashionable images that they cultivate really reflects? This idea is contained within George R.R Martin's fantasy novel series, A Game Of Thrones: The Maesters of the Citidels number of metal strips indicating the level of knowledge they actually know. It's a fashion (chains or patches) that possibly we could do with for our own politicians today.