Never Point at a Rainbow: An Introduction to Radical Logic [Paperback]

 

 

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Never Point at a Rainbow: An Introduction to Radical Logic.
Julienne Ford, Superscript, 2008.

The subtitle of Julienne Ford's new book, Never Point at a Rainbow, modestly promises an "introduction to radical logic" but she achieves far more than an introduction. She explores the capacity of dialectical thought to challenge and supersede the "one-dimensional narratives" that legitimate and perpetuate the destructive regime of consumer capitalism. Ford exposes scientism, neo-Darwinism and functionalist discourses with their blind faith in the systemic tendency to balance-restoration (notably, paeans to the "self-regulating" free-market) as egregious instances of non-dialectical thinking. Her purpose is to redeem us from such reductionist and self-referential philosophies through "the epistemology of dialectical reasoning". The latter enables "the progressive sublation of more particular ways of looking at things by more inclusive or `roomier' ones". This mode of argumentation and enquiry pursues the "I-dea", that is, "an inspirational idea which raises the thinker above the level of the original problem and its theoretical framework". Ford invokes the Rastafarian "groundation" as a paradigm of how conflicts can be resolved by the patient pursuit of "I-deas". (In many respects, the groundation looks like an exemplary instance of Habermas' "ideal speech situation".)

Ford explains how metaphysical thinking, with its focus on the essential and eternal, leaves the system of corporate capitalism and its primary institutions - communicational, industrial, military, imperialist - intact. On the other hand, dialectical thinking, with its "subjunctive" orientation, can "lift our collective consciousness to the vantage point from which we [can] see what could be done". Indeed, from that vantage point, Ford discerns the potential of a "revolutionary intercommunalism" which can forge links between communities, restore community consciousness by transcending the individualist ideology fostered by consumer-celebrity culture, and whose institutions - e.g. food and skills coops, credit unions, swap shops, support groups - elude the reach of the system. As she puts it, in a resounding phrase, "Revolutionary intercommunalism is the practical consciousness of the universal project of humanity". Among the precursors and exemplars of this project are the Diggers, the Rastas and the Zapatistas, whose "reasoning is radically dialectical, for revolutionaries always understand that , while concepts, theories and paradigms can be arranged in hierarchies of abstraction and power, people do not own I-deas".

Ford evinces a passionate allegiance to the vitality of cultures that flourish in the cracks of the edifice of global capitalism (especially Rastafarianism and coops). In this respect, her book resembles those of Amy Gdala and other writers from the Superscript stable who discern value in those enclaves where a humane ethics persists against the odds.

The elegant four-part design of the book's argument reflects Ford's ideal and strategy of sublation: i.e. the dialectical method of expanding the framework of a debate or conflict so as to accommodate more layers of meaning, especially in the search for a level of knowledge that transcends the self-serving "stories" of the "global default culture". Hence, we would be missing the point if we were to speak of Ford's discussion merely as "wide-ranging". If her argument traverses mythology, ecology, economics, sociology, logic, epistemology, intellectual history and mathematics, this is because she reasons up through the nesting frameworks on which sublation depends.

The formidable task of exploring radical logic could, in the hands of a less talented writer, yield a prose that is ponderous and dry; however, Ford's prose is energised by wit, lively anecdote, a poetic sensibility, and the urgency of an activist. Her writing is animated by a beautiful and clear vision of a way of life alternative to that imposed by the corrosive power of the free market. Indeed, Thomas Paine's uplifting words, which she quotes, overarch the book: "We have it in our power to start the world over again". But another writer may also have been on her (dialectical) mind: "Without contraries is no progression", wrote William Blake in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell". Without contraries there is stagnation: "The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water & breeds reptiles of the mind". As Blake saw it, dialectical progression was the way towards the spiritually higher state of Beulah.

Acquiescence in the norms of the "global default culture" has created a pervasive mood of irony and pessimism and what Peter Sloterdijk has identified as a "universal diffuse cynicism". Never Point at a Rainbow, however, is free of these disabling postmodern traits. Ford writes out of an activist's conviction of the transformative potential of an education in radical logic. The sheer cogency of the case she makes for this mode of thought is a singular achievement. Clearly, in the book's rich layers of argument, we see the crystallization of years of focused enquiry.

Dr. Paul Maltby, West Chester University, Pennsylvania. November 14, 2009.

This book would be worth buying for the glossary alone. Here all the key abstractions of modern logic and social science are defined in simple ground-breaking terms which anyone can understand; and this glossary also serves as an index for the book which makes it exceptionally useful for reference. However there is no "Index of Names" ( though there is a wide-ranging bibliography) I think that must be because one of the key arguments of the book is that "people do not own ideas" so if you want to use it as a crib for who-said-what - or to check what the author has to say about some of your own work - you would have to read the whole thing checking also the meticulous footnotes. That would be an experience you really ought to permit yourself because, though it is easy to parrot the obvious wisdom that "everything relates to everything else", it takes some hard thinking to understand ( the author would say "overstand" ) how and why.

I think it is a pity that the Contents page only lists the chapter headings. One of those more academic Contents pages which includes all the subheadings for each chapter would provide a better picture of the tremendous scope of this book. So I am taking the liberty of producing one here:

INTRODUCTION: POINTS OF DEPARTURE

PART ONE: ONE-DIMENSIONAL STORIES
1. THREADS: The narrative or one-dimensional story; a global master narrative; no alternative is not an option!
2. USES OF ONE-DIMENSIONALITY: Ethnic tales and sacred texts; Material threads; Explanation as sequence; Propositional logic; Symbolic logic and mathematics; Repetition, chant and prayer.
3. ABUSES OF ONE-DIMENSIONALITY: Nutritionism; "Feminism"; Carbonism; Utilitarian Operationalism: the example of the QALY; Smithism.
4. TWISTED LOOPS: Infinity and the finite loop; the feedback loop; the bandwagon of popularity; the arms-race for security; credit and the sub-prime loop; a physical metaphor; a metaphorical physics; the postmodern loop; the worm has turned.

PART TWO: TWO-DIMENSIONAL THOUGHTS
5. DIAGRAMS: juxtaposition in two dimensions; Cartesian space; the Cartesian coordinate system; the Rosy Cross; Coincidenta Oppositorum.
6. CONTRAST AND CONTRADICTION: Making sense; contrast; clashing; contradiction; universality; particularity.
7. COMBINATION: awkward questions; sequential logic; combinatorial logic; reasoning; negation; necessary and sufficient conditions; binary choice; the result of a reasoning process; Ras Henry's theorems.
8. CONFLICT: knots; studying the narratives; contraries; transformations.
9.DIALOGUE: Rastafarian groundation; rules of reasoning; Nyabinghi.

PART THREE; THREE-DIMENSIONAL BODIES
10. SPACE: vibrations; empire; star wars; earmarking.
11. BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE: externalisation; internalisation; transformation; science; sociology; ecology.
12. DIALECTICS: the global default culture ( scientism, neo-Darwinism, Hobbesianism, Smithism, behaviourism ); individual identity; moving locations; commonality in diversity; unity in difference; everything is connected to everything else; opposite every great truth is another great truth; everything changes; transcendence.

PART FOUR: FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
13. TIME: time in place; fate, destiny and volition; prophecy and prediction; capitalist futures; just a moment!
14. TENSE AND MOOD: Aristotelian logic; the exclusive-or; mathematical scales; statistical prediction; what if ...?
15. SUBJUNCTIVES: market democracy; reactionary intercommunalism; autopoesis; revolutionary intercommunalism; practical consciousness ( food coops, C.A.V.E.S, skills coops, refurnishment, credit unions, L.E.T.S schemes, swap shops, webs of expertise, music and art coops, Indymedia, mediawatches, support groups ); spread the word!

This seems to really be the comprehensive philosophy for resilience and sustainability which Paul Mobbs calls for in his Energy Beyond OilEnergy Beyond Oil: Could You Cut Your Energy Use by Sixty Per Cent?

This wonderful book outlines the "global default culture" which is having such a devastating effect on our planet and has even deprived us of the ability to think. The author explains the historical development of the one-dimensional narrative threads that make up that culture and shows how they combine to form twisted loops of self-defeating practices of which the credit crunch and the blowback of the War on Terror are but two examples. She then proceeds to show how we can break out of those loops by the application of radical logic.

This is an extraordinary feat of synthesis which locates the core of Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" within its broader cultural context: a sinister global master narrative combining scientistic creation myth (the big bang and Neo-Darwininian "evolutionary psychology") with a legitimation legend, forged from Hobbes and Adam Smith, and a series of Strewelpeter-like Skinnerian fantasies leaving us apparently fated to disablement by greed fear and ignorance.

Very important but nonetheless difficult ideas (from epistemology, logic, ethics, psychology, economics, sociology, ecology and political theory) are made simple and exciting through astonishingly colourful and eclectic writing as well as an innovative glossary which also serves as an index. The emotional charge of the book is brought to an almost euphoric conclusion with a series of practical ideas through which we could save each other and our precious world - ending with the simple injunction: PASS IT ON.

Forget about the self-help fads. This really is a book to make a difference. I challenge anyone to be unchanged by it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading
This is a brave, broad and brilliant book. Brave because there is no reluctance to challenge orthodoxies of left and liberal thought in order to formulate a truly radical... Read more

Published on 8 Dec 2008 by Denise McEvoy

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