Aurosoorya Blog

How many fundamentalisms does it take to get to the root of an issue? That is the big question Obama will have to wrestle with as the US gears up for a prolonged confrontation in the Afghan-Pakistan region.

It is somewhat perplexing to list out all the fundamentalisms that may have led to the present conundrum. But in doing so, and in understanding both the direction that the underlying fractals behind these fundamentalisms may be tending toward, and the assistance that fundamentalism confronting fundamentalism will provide in prodding each underlying fractal further on its natural path, will likely allow the best approach to stabilizing a potentially lethal global situation to emerge.

Before continuing with this analysis let us remind ourselves of some Fractal Systems Architecture basics and implications (For a deeper briefing on this please look at other posts on this site):
1. A fractal is a pattern that repeats itself on different scale.
2. In Aurosoorya’s perception and research there is a pattern or fractal of progress that is true of organization regardless of scale.
3. It manifests in a shift from a primarily physical orientation to a vital orientation to a mental orientation.
4. This pattern of progress is observed from the smallest of organizations (an idea or a person) to the largest of organizations (evolution on earth itself).
5. The ubiquity of this pattern sheds insight into the functioning of our containing system, which is as a result seen as being purposeful, conscious, and integrated, amongst other things.
6. The insistence or will that world-phenomenon, regardless of scale, progress as per this pattern sheds insight into the trajectory that event / circumstance / organization will inevitably display.
7. Stagnation in a fractal manifests as fundamentalism. All fundamentalisms are given a chance to proceed out of fundamentalism. Some choose not to, and become contrary-fractals that are eventually removed from the integrated world-system.
8. Stagnated fractals interacting with other stagnated fractals is a mechanism by which one or both fractals can progress along their respective paths.
9. Understanding of progressing trajectories and stagnations emanating within a conscious system that seeks ultimately to replicate a pattern of progress in all its constructs surfaces a unique system of analysis (fractal systems analysis) that sheds unusual insight into seemingly isolated events and their evolution.

The fundamentalisms, thus:

1. It has been stated that US-led neoconservatism has fostered a foreign policy of aggressively promoting democracy even in those areas of the world that may be inherently more suited to other lines of development. Such neoconservatism is a fundamentalism because it sees the world in simple black-and-white terms, and in so doing misses out on system-wisdom initiative, that from a fractal-perspective tends always toward varied and therefore more robust unity through the surfacing of more complex diversity. Such neoconservatism can be viewed as an ideological block in USA’s own fractal journey aimed at realizing a state of Justice, Liberty, and Prosperity. In its current practice it appears that it is the unrefined vital-state in the progressive physical-vital-mental journey that has surfaced, and that the rooting out of such fundamentalism is necessary for USA to truly realize the promise laid out in its own Constitution. In order to progress in this journey – the USA-fractal journey necessary for the country’s fruition – lack of self-questioning by the citizens of USA opens the doors to intersection by other fractals, the pain of collision of which causes such intersecting fractal journeys to more rapidly continue to the next stage in their own inevitable journeys.

2. Business-as-usual, aggressively promoted by US enterprise, and perhaps related to its neoconservative bias, sees the world and everything in it as existing solely for business. This too is a fundamentalism because here too purpose and action in the world are perceived in simple black-and-white terms. Here again, possibility of diversity is suppressed, and potential fractal journeys that indepedent entities around the world may be on is simply not in the realm of focus. This Business-fractal, like the USA-fractal, has also stagnated at the vital level. Shock of impact with another stagnated fractal journey will lead to deeper self-questioning and therefore action, which will cause the business-fractal to begin to transition to the mental level. The fall of the ill-fated World Trade Center can perhaps be seen as the result of the intersection of the Business-fractal with the Islam-fractal, to be discussed shortly.

3. Suppression of possibility on a country-scale, reportedly as practiced by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, is also a fundamentalism. This led to the stagnation of myriad fractal journeys that groups and sub-cultures within Iraq may have been on. The US invasion of Iraq, when viewed from the point of view of fractal-intersection, will likely lead involved entities to another and hopefully more progressive stability.

4. Pakistan’s roots and continued insistence on the two-nation theory, is also a fundamentalism, because in this approach there is room in the country for Islam only and its active promotion through the device of madrasahs. Activity in such madrasahs on Pakistan soil have led to the strengthening of the Al Qaida, and the creation of the Taliban, which in a fateful maneuver, seems intent now on the conquest of the country responsible for its own birth. Madrasahs, Al Qaida, and the Taliban represent the myopically aggressive side of Islam and and can be thought of as manifestations of stagnation in the Islam-fractal.

5. Mahatma Gandhi’s appeasement of a few opportunistic muslim leaders that led to the division of India into India and Pakistan, with its consequent massive and continued effects on regional destabilization can also be seen as a fundamentalism. Such appeasement of an opportunistic minority without weighing the good of the generally unfied majority which included substantial elements from the seperating minority represented also a stagnation in the possiblity of country-development.

6. Much of India’s insistence that Gandhi epitomized the possibility of India’s spirit of synthesis, and that deeper and historical synthesis epitomized in India’s organic approach to unity-in-diversity is largely irrelevant in modern times, is also a fundamentalism. For in such a view Muslim and Hindu become greater than India. In reality India is greater than the sum of its parts, and it is that underlying greatness that lived in the organic approach to unity-in-diversity that it can even be argued, have given Islam and Hinduism their finest hours. This too has led to stagnation in the Country Development-fractal.

7. The aggression of India’s mighty northern neighbor, China, that insists that many of its neighbors belong to it, is also a fundamentalism, that has so far devoured Tibet, threatens to devour Taiwan, and has begun devouring Arunachal Pradesh, a part of India.

If Obama were to analyse the Afghan-Pakistan region and USA’s imminent involvement in the area, he will be well-served to take into account the many fractals and their respective intersections which have led now, to the focus in this area. The question he should ask himself, is why the conscious, purposeful, integrated, fractal-based world-system we live in is causing the discussed array of fractals to converge now in one area of the world? In realizing that each of the seemingly independent movements are in fact fractals seeking release to the next part in their inevitable physical-vital-mental journeys, he will be led to the resolution of what really needs to be done in this area.

Summarizing the seven fundamentalisms or more rightly, stagnated-fractals above, we have:
1. The USA-fractal stuck at the vital-level manifest as neoconservatism.
2. The Business-fractal stuck in the vital-level manifest as a business-as-usual world-view.
3. The Iraq-fractal stuck at the physical-level manifest as decades of despotism.
4. The Pakistan-fractal stuck in the physical-level manifest as the two-nation world-view and resulting in the stagnation at the vital-level of the Islam-fractal.
5. The Indian Subcontinent-fractal stuck in the physical-level manifest as self-caused destabilization and synonymous with the a stagnated Country Development-fractal.
6. The India-fractal stuck in the physical-level manifest as denial of its own possiblities and the possiblity of truly sustainable development.
7. The China-fractal stuck in the vital-level manifest as an outdated and aggressive world-view.

One can hypothesize that the stagnated Iraq-fractal possibly needed the pressure of the USA-fractal, stagnated at the level of neoconservatism, to dislodge its own stagnation. Now that that has been accomplished USA needs to, and does seem to be pulling out of there. On the flip-side the USA-fractal needed the shock, waste, and deterioration of its standing in the world, that comes from unilateral invasion of another country, to cause its own stagnated fractal journey to progress to the next level.

One can hypothesize that the Business-fractal needed the pressure and intersection of the Islam-fractal to awaken business protaganists to the vital-level stagnation in the Business-fractal. On the flip-side the Islam-fractal needed the pressure of continued suicide-attacks in the name of Islam to awaken other, more rational Islamists to the stagnation and therefore a deeper questioning of Islam.

One can hypothesize that US involvement in the Iraq-fractal was nothing more than a stepping-stone for the US to begin to focus on the Afghan-Pakistan region, and in doing so, it is further going to confront the Pakistan-fractal, the Islam-fractal in even more intense form, the Indian Subcontinent fractal, the India-fractal, the China-fractal, the Country Development-fractal, and of course its own USA-fractal. It is be hoped that at the end of this interaction it is not stagnation in one form or another that prevails, but a release for each of these independent fractals so that respective journeying and therefore a more holistic overall development results. This is Obama’s big test.

For, at its roots, it was a misconceived emphasis of country-development as exercised first by Gandhi and then continued by opportunistic others that gave strength to the two-nation theory. The two-nation theory in turn gave strength to a general platform of destabilization that has manifested in an imminent failed state in the form of Pakistan, and also played a key role in the subsequent strengthening of Al Qaida and the Taliban. Such focus on the two-nation theory, instead of on a developmental approach of unity-in-diversity may also have weakened Iran and led to its reported exploitation by USA. For if development of its neighbors had proceeded along the path of unity-in-diversity the whole region would have been far more stable and sustainable than now. The reported exploitation, it can be hypothesized, is nothing more than a combination of the Business-fractal and USA-fractal asserting its unrefined vital perversity. This approach supposedly legitimized a certain approach to USA’s efforts at subsequent globalization and if the original target, Iran, had been stronger from within, perhaps would never have taken place. Al Qaida and Taliban, perhaps, would also never have come into being. This exploitation, therefore can also be thought of as an original error.

For true development to take place both these original errors need to be resolved. This is a system-imperative and the intelligent, purposeful, fractal-based system we live in will assure this happens regardless of cost. If we were able, as a species, to make the leaps in our own consciousness so that the physical obstinacies and the vital perversities that have manifested in painful stagnations at the larger organizational and system levels could be avoided, the cost of change would be low. The more we persist, though, at the stagnated levels in each of the mentioned fractals – from the USA-fractal to the Indian Subcontinent-fractal to the China-fractal, the more will these and other system-generated fractals intersect with each other until the pain of the collision forces us to make the required changes.

The fact that the Afghan-Pakistan region is centered around two deep-seated original errors and has brought together so many stagnated-fractals means that the system is preparing for a major struggle. It will be naive to expect that these problems will be resolved quickly, unless there is a change at the root-levels, in the consciousness of the person.

USA’s presence in Iraq may be seen as only a preliminary exercise for what could potentially lie ahead. The fact that USA has ostensibly partnered with Pakistan, the leader in the two-nation theory, instead of India, the home of the concept of unity-in-diversity, perhaps also indicates how confused it is in making sense of the dynamics behind the ongoing struggles and suggests the high price it will pay for successful resolution in the whole matter.

Needless aggression, marginalization of diversity in all its forms, blind business-as-usual are views whose time has ended. The coming of the various fractals in the Afghan-Pakistan region conflict is really about the working out of this. Whether Obama is able to see this and act accordingly as a leader of the world, will determine his success in this poignant test.

Successful outcomes of Obama’s test will result in the following:

1. The Pakistan-fractal proceeds to the next level in its fractal journey by abolishing the two-nation theory once and for all.

2. India realizes that the key to unity-in-diversity is not in this time and circumstance a passive and self-defacing Gandhian view of the world. On a more philosophical note it can perhaps be stated that Gandhian pacifism needed the shock of aggression that Pakistan has continually provided, and that China threatens to provide, until a more balanced strength can be properly assimilated into the fiber of India. India must stand up for India. This ushers in the energy whereby the truer essence of unity-in-diversity is resurrected. This causes the India-fractal to proceed to its next level.

3. The Country Development-fractal hence also proceeds to a reality of unity-in-diversity. This means that the seed of unity-in-diversity is planted in the region.

4. India acts as the true leader in the region exercising more authority in making unity-in-diversity a reality for the region. In this way the Indian Subcontinent-fractal will also proceed to its next stage in the journey.

5. Talibanism, Al Qaidism, and other related extremisms are wiped out once and for all, through the efforts of USA, India, and perhaps Pakistan, and others who join in the struggle. These extremisms are likely proved to be instances of contrary-fractals whose only purpose is to cause other fractals to progress.

6. The strengthened area will cause China to reevaluate its aggressiveness, a more visible version of the USA-fractal like approach, and contain itself. This leads to possible progression of the China-fractal.

7. USA will come to terms with the truer meaning of democracy and business and cause the USA-fractal and the Business-fractal to proceed to their next levels.

In this manner all the original fundamentalisms are released and fractal progress continues as per the larger system design.

Potentially very high costs will be paid by each of the actors in the situation if the lessons to be learned are not assimilated at the needed pace. Pakistan, as already mentioned, may face permanent extinction if it fails to move away from the two-nation paradigm. India, were it not to recognize the true and organic synthesis centered in unity-in-diversity, will potentially pay by unending struggles with its neighbors including China. China, if it were to continue on its path of senseless aggression may have to confront USA. USA may weaken itself permanently if business continues as usual and if truth of democracy is not heeded.

But all this can be avoided if Obama acts with vision of the true dynamics behind the situation. Let us hope that he is inspired to do so.