Originally circulated on 20 November 2020
Aweh fellow Ruminants & Groupies in Lock Down Level 1
Aweh from day 237 of lock down – now level 1.
Some of you may be wondering how strategy works and how decisions are made. This is a recurring Ruminant Pink Friday ™ theme. The short answer – Its complicated. It requires a complete and fully stocked toolbox.
There are a number of tools in this toolbox. The crudest tool (the hammer) is bullshit and previous submissions have touched on this. Every toolbox needs a hammer and it can be effective. A more sophisticated tool is heresthetics, which is also the subject of a previous submission.
An additional and potentially even more powerful tool to achieve your aims is obscurantism which simply defined is the practice of deliberately presenting information in an imprecise, obscure manner designed to limit further enquiry and understanding. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261567941_The_Dark_Side_of_the_Loon_Explaining_the_Temptations_of_Obscurantism.
As you attempt to understand an obscurantist strategy, subject or philosophy you need to delve deep into attempting to interpret the obscurantist writings describing the strategy. Superficially the strategy needs to create the promise of deep and profound insights about the subject which appear vague and elusive. The skilled obscurantist practitioner sets up a game of verbal smoke and mirrors suggesting depth and profound insight where none exists. This promise of deep insight into important subject matter is sufficient to lure people into a futile and exhausting quest for understanding.
Obscurantism should not be confused with bullshitting. Bullshitters are superficial and do not care about the truth of what they claim. The obscurantist on the other hand presents their material with the utmost seriousness and intellectual bravado, although it is never quite clear what the obscurantist is getting at. Profound understanding and insight is always around the corner and requires deep study and interpretation of the obscurantist material. The obscurantist is a far more dangerous and pernicious character than the bullshitter.
One could regard the famous author James Joyce as a very skilled obscurantist. He took pride in writing in such a way that he intended to keep professors busy for centuries interpreting and trying to understand his writing.
https://www.vqronline.org/james-joyce-portrait-critics. He had this to say:
“The demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works.”
James Joyce
Dear reader I think this is an admirable demand except that instead of studying Joyce’s writings you should rather study mine.
If you listen to an obscurantist strategy although you may not have a clue what is being said but it is presented in such a dazzling and compelling way with apparent profound insights that you become mesmerised to make the considerable effort to understand. It also appears as if your colleagues and neighbours are equally convinced and you certainly don’t want to look like a fool or display a lack of devotion to the cause.
There is much to be said for an obscurantist strategy to drive cohesion, devotion and performance.
We now have three excellent tools in our toolbox but, dear readers, I ask you for further ideas on additional tools required to create a complete and fully stocked toolbox.
Thank you very much for the many helpful suggestions and input which I’m researching and please keep the submission ideas flowing.
Regards
Bruce
Ruminant Pink Friday 