Dichotomies Compatibility

On perpetual desire.

Each longing is coherent in isolation. Together they are not. Each longing predisposes a mixed system toward the undesirable pole of the other dichotomy:

• Functionality Longing predisposes Imperdurability.

  • Symbolic representation: C≡L → (I≡ ^ I≢) = I≡.
  • While a mixed system is working, adversities — inner and outer — will test that working. If the arrangement cannot move, the condition is lost.

• Perdurability Longing predisposes Dysfunctionality.

  • Symbolic representation: I≢L → (C≡ ^ C≢) = C≢.
  • When a mixed system locks an arrangement so that it may last, and will not let it be revised, the locked form starts to fail. What then lasts is the failure.

This is the most contentious idea in Conciliatorics: the incompatibility axiom.

• INCOMPATIBILITY AXIOM: Functionality and Perdurability are not compatible in a mixed physiology system.

In theory that can sound modest. Humanity does not treat it as modest. We build as if a system could be functional in perpetuity, and we demand that the world conform:

• Nations and empires proclaim their eternal inevitability.
• Citizens vote for political parties that must remain in office for the good of the people.
• Family lineages pressure their members into traditional obedience.
• Religions promise eternal life in heavenly bliss.

Despite all of this, empires fall, politics corrupts, families break, and Heaven is but a promise.

Disagreement with the axiom is understandable — on philosophical grounds, or from attachment to the expectation of compatibility. Within Conciliatorics we treat it as true, because what follows is built on it. For the rest of this stretch, we continue as if it holds. The sequential conflict for each longing is then:

• Functionality’s tendency toward Imperdurability disrupts Perdurability.

  • Symbolic representation: C≡ → I≢ = (C≡ ^ I≡).
  • Start with a perdurable system (I≢) and make it functional (C≡), and you transform it into an imperdurable state (C≡ ^ I≡).

• Perdurability’s tendency toward Dysfunctionality disrupts Functionality.

  • Symbolic representation: I≢ → C≡ = (C≢ ^ I≢).
  • Start with a functional system (C≡) and make it perdurable (I≢), and you transform it into a dysfunctional state (C≢ ^ I≢).

That tension is the physiological status of every mixed interstitial system. Decay is how it falls.