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Steering energies; hormones and other given capacities
Both men and women can have more or less than the usual amount of testosterone in their
bodies. That hormone strengthens the properties generally considered masculine, such as
(hyper)activity or competitiveness, also in women. That seems to often take place at the
cost of the intuitive and empathic properties [ note ]. I do not consider this a physical
problem but more a self-control or developmental question. There are several arguments for
this standpoint.
We are born with an individual package of intrinsic properties, inclusive of these ten
toes and so much of those types of hormones, which represent our interests and values. One
of the first interests of a baby is to get to know certain facets of his environment and
to explore its limits. These are usually urgent and mostly permanent but they do not by
all means have to have the form of striking defiance. There are many different learning
methods as there are many different facets of the environment which have to be learned and
mastered within the limits of common values and needs.
A human being is, with that organic whole of properties, born in a world which shows its
liveliness and offers its surprises tailor made to every individual. That world is not
indetermined. She consists, for a start, of the first and nearest environment which
gradually extends in several respects. Human properties work like selective sensors and
steering receptors together with that world that surrounds him. What is not there he
cannot find, but it could be that he discovers the lacuna. Other elements in the
environment can not be avoided, like teachers, wars and pcb's.
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Differences in the contexts surrounding us
The actual environment exerts great influence on a human being but the personal
character is strongly determinative; he himself selects, interprets, saves and draws,
often in an elusive way, upon his experiences out of what the contexts offer and thus
decides on his own learning process. As vague as the spirit of the time seems to be, as
underhand as the ways of the 'profit society' and the demagogue, as out of a remote
background as the legislator sets protective bounds, as confining as the teacher who hides
behind the authority of handbook and canon, or as irresponsible as politics which
discriminates education and care tasks against economic spearheads, as concrete as one's
friends and the media's presence, in so many ways and incessantly exchange of energy takes
place. And so there are also parents and neighbours, sports instructors and librarians who
all want their penny's worth. Although we may be so good in controlling ourselves and
handling our environment, we do not have the circumstances in hand. Ultimately we are and
remain unbreakably connected with it and there is no other way than to accept those limits
and to learn to take the responsibility for ourselves within these limits, to become an
adult, autonomous fellow-citizen who does not run away from dependency and uncertainties.
After all, isn't it ultimately all about this in education and in someone's development?
From this viewpoint I want to examine the event around Mother Superior and assemble a few
ideas.
Link to
the preceding story: 'Mother Superior's Room for Play' - themes
line #27/8.
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Controling myself, reflection 1
First of all I need facts, as many facts as possible about and around the event. I
picture to myself the situation that I would be, as parent or educator, responsible for a
child that has met with some such thing. I would go and talk with the parents of her
school friends and with her class teacher, soeur Paula, and if possible with others who
had been present at the speech in question. Apart from the possible use of my questions
for the people involved, it would for me be important to collect as much information as
possible. After 62 years, I can no longer fill the lacuna in this case. I have to work
with the given facts. The next step, in contrast, will always still be practicable
afterwards.
I am going to look now at the thinking behind the behaviour of the people involved, at
the leadership under which this took place, at the background of the nun. My intention is
to understand what led to this behaviour, what powers were at play in the event. This is
for the greater part common knowledge, information which lays firm historically, with the
advantage that I can look at it from a distance. The facts surrounding the school for
girls, the small convent and the parish are clear. Children from the members of a parish
went to the schools of that parish. The schools were directed by nuns or brothers, who
lived in small cloister communities. The communities used vows which all members had to
take. The most important vows were: obedience, poverty and chastity. The community as a
whole had entered into the obligation to offer education, in this case to the girls of
this parish, roughly between 5 and 12 years of age. In this way she provided, presumably,
for her sustenance. The community, in that way, had two groups of obligations: as a
community of nuns and as a teaching institution.
Within convent communities the authority of the highest leadership could weigh very
heavily. It could well happen that the leadership applied the rule of obedience to the
hierarchy of the organisation and demanded absolute compliance. The question is whether
this was a proper interpretation of that rule, of the notion of obedience in this context?
I base my interpretation on Baruch de Spinoza's abstract of the first purpose of a belief
or theology: "obey the law which says 'Love your fellow-creature as yourself'" [ note ]. Then obedience
is essentially an ideal at which you work together, as a community. I suspect that the
superior of this small community had become strangulated morally between the necessity to
support the continued existence of the teaching service and her interpretation of her vow
or promise of obedience over against the interpretation of obedience which her superiors
(implicitly or explicit) used. That she acted as she did from a situation of extreme
powerlessness and after a year of misery in which she had to try to justify an injustice.
Poor Mother Superior, confused by double morals, by corruption of morality.
This was the first piece of the synthesis of this event with its facts and backgrounds.
I have noticed that I always get confused when I cannot understand the background of an
experience and when I cannot free myself from from it. It looks as though - for me - there
is more needed to be able to deal with entangling experiences than the simple
understanding of an event with her factual backgrounds. An explanation does not suffice, I
look for the solution of a problem.
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Surrender myself, reflection 2
It must be a deep need of human beings to feel useful, to know that we are helpful and
that (there is someone for whom) we have value. A small child likes to help at the work of
his father or mother, it does not just like to copy them, it does not need to play only
for playing or for winning. The benefit of parental corrections is clear for a child in
such a context of cooperation. Seeing the use of a confusing event requires that one
acquires insight in, or starts a search for one's own usefulness. Looking at the
benefit for yourself of that event is part of that search. In contributing performances
with which we want to prove our value, for which we want to be praised and want to be
fêted, we, human beings, express that need to be helpful. Continually searching for
affirmation however is either a signal of incidental incertainty and lack of
self-confidence or a signal of immature, childish dependency, of the tendency to escape
responsibilities, of narcissism.
Let us suppose that I want to sow my wild oats, that I want to accept my responsibilities,
want to unravel situations which I got entangled in, should I then have to look at my use,
at my own functioning? This is clearly something other than looking at facts and trying to
understand their backgrounds in the environment. Do I know what I would like, what I would
like to be able to do, what I am good at or my strength is, what I have difficulty with?
What obstacles have I met with? What kind of help has saved me? What have I learned? What
do great disappointments, sorrow, happy moments, annoyances, jokes, attention, care mean
to me? What would I like to prove, what capacity would I like to have acknowledged?
How could I be of use? What is in demand? Do I have to have myself promoted, like
an idol, and hire an advisor or a manager? That may altogether be en vogue, but I doubt if
it is my way to reach my goal. What is my purpose actually? In what way can I participate?
These are double questions: 1) how to act purposefully and 2) to whom and about what to
accept responsibility. Just like when gathering and reconsidering facts there is also an
opposite pole for use and work. That is the side of the use of and for the other(s), the
work of and for the other (things). That is the world out of which I have sprung forth,
which has given me my charge, which has determined my goal and which, in the inconstancy
of the context, determines my life and functioning continuously by having me offered
possibilities and limitations. That means in fact that Mother Superior in her action
exercised her function towards the world and, in this way, me and others had to offer this
experience. For me this is one of many experiences which have incited me on this search
for structure (and for my responsibility) and which has provided some of the materials I
needed.
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How to continue
With this I am back to human dependency which explains our desire for a footing and the
need to learn to play with values, which bring, in turn, experiences that challenge us to
reflect and understand. Acquiring insight into our goal and into our place in the world is
possible, although we must realize that it passes according to totally different lines
than just the collection and the reconsideration of facts. We are dependent on our various
contexts because we are part of them and incessantly in interaction with them - in various
ways. That relation is real and unbreakable; she offers inner freedom via the way
of consciously admitting our dependency or powerlesness, whereas we, if we cannot
accept that consequence of our oneness with the community of people and with the whole of
nature, cause ourselves a feeling of constraint. Confrontation with the
limits of our power is useful in that it presents us with a realistic view of the freedom
we do have.
As a parent I would certainly, preferably together with other parents who had been
shocked at the lack of respect that Mother Superior had shown towards a child entrusted to
her school and under her care, enter into a conversation with the school and with the
parish to express our concern and to point out their obligations as educator and as
pastor. And of course I would try to prepare my child, during the time dat she would still
live at home, for the occupation of her own place in a world in which things go as they
go. But in reality the fulfilment of such plans must wait till an ensuing process. This
zine is only about the synthetic steps in which is being thought and solutions are being
looked for; the implementation takes place in the hypothethic moves.
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| ^ |
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The axes of
extending knowledge and of personal participation in the whole
The system indicates how we can look at both our experiences as our selves from
different viewpoints. We can, in our own manner, distance ourselves and take different
positions in order to get a wider view of what is going on around us, which backgrounds
with their specific values and interests could play a part for us and which for others.
That is de specialty of the two axes in which, this time too, the individual can let
himself be helped and be completed by the contexts as he conceives and experiences them.
The synthetic |3|-|9| axis of difference in the environment pertains to
the relation with the knowledge about and of the world around the human being. On the one
side it is our own thinking, relating and transfering of things, our own
knowledge and observations. At the other end it is the reconnaissance and comprehension of
the whole body of ideas and relations, of interpreted and communicated knowledge
which is available in different doctrines of thinking and faith, in ideals and physical
contexts, in knowable motives for behaviour, including their extremes.
The synthetic |6|-|12| axis of inner unity pertains to the connection
between one's own function and the entire whole. On the one side there is the experiencing
of one's own work and usefulness in success and failure, the analysis of one's
own functioning with its limits, problems and possibilities. At the other end it is
the participation in, reflection on and physical community in the world, the
universal consciousness proceeding and coordinating in the course of time, the solution.
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The environment supplies us with the supplements we need, in the form of help and
resistance. The context of the |3|-|9| axis contains information about values, interests
and frames of thought and other frames in the form of books, films, TV, internet, lessons,
methods, experiences, laws, fashion, media, faiths and the like, by which man himself
still has to carry out the interpretation of the values which are dealt with in these
frames, has to rethink and, if necessary, put them in perspective. All this can direct one
into by-ways or extremes, but in all cases it will contribute to one's own final purpose.
One could have been born to become a disciple of Immanuel Kant or your coach's, to become
your mother's or your neighbour's servant.
The personal relation with the world as a whole, the intimate experience of the world, of
the private God (God, that is Nature as Spinoza said who perceived himself as
being a part of One Extensive Body, just as the parts of his own body relate to his entire
body), on the contrary, is both repairing and processing and proceeds via rest, sleep,
prayer or meditation and dreams by which, apart from our experiences, also spiritual or
intuitive knowledge can be used and become part of conscious self-knowledge. The physicist
Fritjof Capra [ note ]
defends the proposition that the human is not just an observer, but that he and his
instruments really participate in his research and in other events. He couples
this with the idea of the existence of a universal consciousness in which all
parts and particles participate. In the most recent part of the structure line I have
reached a comparable insight when describing the elementary relations: in phase 12 a
process makes use of a memory that, of necessity, must be situated outside of the actual
process. That is possible via the relation of coordination with such a universal
memory.
The results of the intellectual digestion and the interpretation of collected facts about
the values of the environment with the results of the intuitive analysis of the values of
one's own existence, of the usefulness of our 'built-in capacities' and of our function
for the whole, need to be joined by ourselves.
With the help of the dynamic apparatus we can express the self-knowledge of our own values
consciously in self-governed activity and in behaviour that accounts for our goal. On that
basis we can make a choice and follow our own way.Link to
complex network 1, with table of potentialities - structure
#26/8,
the basic elements and their relations - general survey,
complex network 2, with a survey of the elementary relations - structure
#29/9.
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Skip this part just now?
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The synthetic capacities of a system in operation
The synthetic parts of a process are:
- the 3rd phase, Gemini way of acting and MERCURY primary,
the relate- or analyse function. They join rational matters and learn to
distinguish diversity. The purpose is to recognize the specific place of functions in
events.
- the 6th phase, Virgo colouring and MERCURY secondary, the analyse function.
They join intuitive knowledge of the workings of one's own strong sides and learn to
recognize gradually one's possibilities and need for supplementation. The purpose is to
bring the own function to perfection.
- the 9th phase, Sagittarius colouring and JUPITER, the
interpret function. They join one's own experience with existing knowledge,
experience, history, believes, techniques. The purpose is the well-directed expansion of
information and the development of one's own story.
- the 12th phase, Pisces way of acting and NEPTUNE, the
integrate function. They join emotional matters, grope for the deep-felt solidarity,
for the common interest. The purpose is to keep and guard the agreement and to coordinate
the function of the detail in the entire organism.
 The synthetic parts.
Open here? // In a new
window?
The natural relations between synthetic phases, colourings and functions yield the
following image (see the figure on the right). The combination of the two axes crossing
each other in a right angle of counterparts is the result of the square angle aspects
between their poles.
The relate
or analyse function and the analyse function are indicated by one symbol, worded
differently, it is a function which represents one of both specialties or a mixture of
both. The character of this important capacity depends, like that of every other, on her
place in the system and on the kind of and the energy of her relations with the other
capacities.
The questions which I want to ask this time are: How strong is in this process the need
to reflect on experiences? In which areas does this play a role? How broad and/or how deep
does that go? Is there a relation with searching and challenging, with the balancing of
values? How important is security, that is, how fearful or rather reckless is this person?
To find that out I'll on this occasion bring both the dynamic square angle aspects
and the synthetic parts of this 'life-plan' to the foreground.
I focus first on the dynamic 90 degree connections. There are, in this case, four
synthetic/hypothetic and four hypothetic/antithetic relations. They show the given
possibilities in the functions which they connect, with their areas of work and the
methods which they apply there and, of course, in relations with other functions. Square
aspects usually connect the inner world with the matters of the environment.
 1. The synthetic relate or transfer
function MERCURY primary starts friendly, is trustful, mobile, with
the purpose to collect information for self-governing; she is located ahead of the
antithetic Sun, the function which wants a general view of things.
Mercury is located in the hypothetic 4th phase with the antithetic
character of AQUARIUS, in increasing conjunction with
the hypothetic attraction function VENUS primary. The two functions unite
all three of the dialectic steps; together they make two square angle aspects
(1+2) with the hypothetic/antithetic Ascendant - Descendant balance that is the |1|-|7|
axis.
This combination is on the whole one of astonishment and surprise.
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 2. The synthetic interpret function
JUPITER is located in the hypothetic 1st phase with
its antithetic SCORPIO-manners, not connected with the ASCENDANT, the
begin function. This function, with its enthusiastic and intens searching for
expansion of experience and understanding, is via two square angle aspects
(3+4) joined with the MC-IC orientation axis which is located in the hypothetic/antithetic
|4|-|10|
phases.
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 3. The antithetic Sun, the
self-governing function, in the synthetic 3rd phase
with the hypothetic CAPRICORN ways is connected via an approaching square
angle aspect (5) with the antithetic challenging URANUS, the renew
function, in the synthetic 6th phase with hypothetic
ARIES
colouring. Uranus makes in the other direction an approaching square angle aspect
(6) with the antithetic remove function PLUTO in the synthetic 9th
phase which applies the hypothetic CANCER procedures.
The remove function Pluto and the Sun are, as well as via Uranus (and not in a dynamic way
via the hypothetic SATURN, the consistency function), also connected with each
other in an outgoing opposition on the synthetic/hypothetic |3|-|9|
axis. Via the approaching conjunction of the hypothetic MOON, the
emotional basis function, with Pluto is the Sun indirectly connected with her also.
The connections of Uranus provide much pressure and action, new limits, surprising
experiences. The renew function makes the attention move from the |3|-|9| axis
towards the |6|-|12| axis.
The Moon forms a square angle aspect (7) with the hypothetic energetic
activating function MARS in the synthetic 12th phase
with the hypothetic LIBRA manners: when it is time to go to rest, alternative
interactions emerge which give food for reflection.
This last, the 3rd very extensive and strong group of the synthetic/hypothetic
relations is connected with the 1st group of Mercury and the Ascendent. The connection is
made by an outgoing triangle aspect between Mars and Venus.
The 3rd group is also connected with the 2nd group of Jupiter and the MC-IC axis. The
relation is brought about by the conjunction of the - in this case indeed important -
hypothetic SATURN (which when time has come finds the form that offers
a grasp) with de lower pole of the axis, by her semi-sextile aspect with the agile and
serious Sun as well as by her quincunx aspect with the restrained but confident and
persevering Moon (both these connections which are of a rather bridging nature shall be
treated after the triangles and sextiles with their more self-evident and unarguable
character in the structure line and in the themes line).
So the assimilation takes place for the greater part in the background, the results of the
energy express themselves only afterwards.
One of the synthetic functions is still lacking in this survey. The integrate function
NEPTUNE, located in the antithetic 11th phase
with the synthetic VIRGO working manner, in a tranquil fairway
with a sextile-, a semi-sextile- and a quincunx aspect with respectively the interpret- or
expansion function, the initiate function and the attraction
function. She is important but, as the connections she makes are not dynamic ones, I
will leave it for now with this reference.
Link to
Pattern of beginning #8 - Claiming inner space to make a choice - pattern
line #5.
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Changing of contexts; change of
roles when goals change
Let me start with some impressions of the most simple contexts, of the most elementary
sources of (learning)experiences, of a human being in its inconstant environment. |
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A. A baby in an environment without other people. He/she plays with what is
available: with toes and other play-things.
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B. A person in an environment together with another person. He/she plays (is in
interaction) with the environment and with one person as a part of this context. The other
person finds him/herself in a similar situation, except that now the first person is part
of his/her context. The roles are different because the contexts differ. The two
environments (or rather: contexts) have spatially a different content. They are two
processes, each with its own purpose.
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The number of people present can be more than 2, as in the situation around Mother
Superior and myself. Within a common environment everything present has its own function,
role, use, effect, need, interest or value, therefore its own purpose for that context.
Everything present is a process with its own context.
A context is a kind of webbing that changes with the arrival or the departure of people.
That results in a change of the context of each of the then present things or people, and
their purpose or role therein is no longer the same. When the purposes of the contexts
have been changed, then with that also the values, the rules of these processes have
changed. |
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C. The number of possible contexts and roles or functions therein is enormous: a
child is alone in a room with the cat and mother comes in, a child enters the room where
one of his brothers is doing his homework, a child in a classroom with the teacher and
class mates with a new pupil, a child that is assigned another place in the team when a
new-comer has been given his place.
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Wherever and whenever more people come together there are rules, mostly unwritten and
implicit ones. When groups, that is communities, meet functions are constantly
redistributed, everyone's positive or negative use, importance or value is assessed each
time by each of the people present.
Every human being is dependent on the quality of his environment. People need to get
acquainted with their environment, to know their function therein, and so forth in order
to, usually together with others, share the care for their own security and for their
family and neighbours, to improve their comfort, civilization and development, health,
recreational and cultural facilities. |
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D. Groups of people have of old created communities by commissioning and
entrusting the implementation of their concerns to specialists such as contractors,
security officers, leaders and representatives.
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| Communities of people, a city, a state, the inhabitants, clubs, churches and feasts
are contexts. Each of those present partakes in the determination of the quality of the
context and, by extension, of the spirit of the time as it is a larger process. In such a
way individuals developed into civilians. |
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E. Communities draw up general rules and laws which apply to all members of the
community, the rules reflect the conventions and values of that community. The authority
of the administration of the state is founded on a statute which represents the principles
of the community and on laws in as far as they are a concrete and widely supported
materialization of the principles.
In this way the authority of leaders of communities rests on the legislation, judicial
control and enforcement of unambiguous limits and agreements so that corruption of the
purpose can be prevented.
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| The legislator adapts rules and laws if there is an acceptable reason to do so. |
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F. Laws need to be changed when they have lost public support; when they have
become implausible the judge no longer can enforce them. The sense of justice of the
civilian is the measure of law and justice.
In the sixties - in a general context of lenience towards the provocation of rules by
young people claiming their rights - the Dutch government publicly set up a judicial
policy of tolerance in several areas. In the last few months ministers have twice
neglected the constitution. Both these lines of conduct cause confusion, break down the
morale of civilians and politicians, increase entanglement and undermine collective
responsibility. At this time politicians consider formulating a 'catalogue of values'.
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| Some signs and causes of confusion: |
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G 1. The context around the mayor (see above), the mixture of authority and
self-interest,
G 2. the contexts of governments which sell great national interests like public
companies and -properties by order of Europe that advocates liberalisation of markets,
G 3. the contexts of governments which permit the veiled and overt usurious
practices of insurance companies, banks, stock exchange and in general the practice of
exorbitant surcharges in the economy.
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'Contracted out'
'A while ago I returned home with fully loaden cycle-bags. The bags were not filled
with purchases but still filled with the empty glass pots and bottles which I had intended
to bring to the bottle bank. The containers were no longer at the place where I used to
find them and so I called the city's department of waste disposal. At my question of where
I could bring my waste glass I was told that he did not know that: 'The collection of
waste glass is contracted out'. When I had received the name of the official at my request
I told him that in my opinion, with the contracting out of tasks, the responsibility of
the municipality has not ended and I repeated my question of where I would find the bottle
bank. After some internal consultation I got the information I needed.'
Municipal services are being called 'products' these days (which makes citizens
'consumers').
Other ways of entanglement of goals within contexts: |
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H 1. The goal of teachers (see above: Mother Superior) at all levels, of leaders
of clubs and associations, of workers in health care, et cetera. can nonverbally or
concealed get mingled with commercial interests, for instance of sponsors,
H 2. the goals of associations or sports organisations can get entangled with the
interests of sponsors or gamblers,
H 3. the purpose of companies will get mixed up if they get a new owner and/ or
another CEO is appointed who has devised a sly way to maximize profits faster; if he gives
his employees bonusses to entice them to let their own interests prevail at work and they
unscrupulously help strip bare the 'consumer'.
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| What is really the first purpose of a community, of politics? |
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I. The concern for all civilians to be able to maintain their being
unique and to find their own way within the community of equivalent fellow citizens.
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| A short history of guided dependency |
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J 1. The first political goal can be pushed aside by the economic goal, in
extreme by plunder of sorts, like stealing land. This has led to very cheap labour and
even slavery. It does not lead to more consumption,
J 2. the leaders of monotheistic churches in the western world have added to the
spiritual care they offer the idea of human supremacy and the mental and intellectual
power of the male. This has led to downgrading and levelling, to masses of
indistinguishable sheep and obedient laborers, to half-slaves,
J 3. the Enlightenment has joined or put beside that the power of science as
economics, physics et cetera. Gradually the individual developed, with its addiction to
status and its being easy to seduce, slavish and greedy. The dependent and trustworthy
consumer.
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| Every civilised community takes an interest in critical, well-educated and involved
civilians and has no use for individualists who, like serfs, are only focussed at the
delusion of the day and, antisocially, claim their rights. The authorities have
neglected their responsibility, they scarcely treat me as a citizen any more,
quite often as a consumer. The legislator should reflect on his charge and the
representative of the people on the interest of critical civilians. The citizens let
themselves be overwhelmed by populistic talk, miss the instrument of facultative
referendum, the possibility for the community to express themselves, to let themselves be
heard directly if necessary [ note ].
Cohesion is furthered by unambiguous truths, not by populistic games which, by creating
confusion and increasing insecurity, splinter a community [ note ].
Living together as a community shall have to be learned again. The first aim, both of the
individual as of the governors of communities and organisations can not be the economic
development; the mutual coherence has to become our first concern again.
Link to
the relations between a process and the actual context - structure
line #29/9.
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Natural law and natural rights
Natural right is the right that exists by nature, without human intervention,
independent of time and place. This right ought to underlie all valid positive right and
is the unvarying substance of it. This starting-point has been interpreted - according to
my Larousse encyclopedia - in the course of (western) history rather differently. Since
Plato and Aristotle (with their 'human measurement') we have, via the appeal of the
churches at a (human-like) God, at reasonableness and the divine revelation, and via the
Enlightenment's appeal at the autonomy of human reason, finally arrived at Kant's
conclusion that it ought to be determined, detached from the moral basis, exclusively by
the authority of the state (led by reason). Since the barbarities committed by
totalitarian regimes during the Second World War it has become clear that the right no
longer can depend on state-authority. The fundamental (human)rights draw their meaning and
validity no longer from recognition or authority, they are in force also there where they
are not acknowledged.
Strictly speaking, natural rights are part of the natural law. The prime
principles are knowable for every normal human being as they are evident by themselves:
one has to do what is good and refrain from the bad/evil; what one does not want to happen
to him, he should not do that to others; one has to give or allow everyone his due, et
cetera.
Thus the circle is completed and we have returned to the human being, this time one who
thinks itself 'maker of the world'. Man who, despite his lack of knowledge of his nature,
has always put himself at the centre and made moral statements about himself. Natural law
'Love your neighbour as yourself' has apparently always lent itself, with its
amplifications, to loose interpretation. Maybe the notion 'neighbour' is too limited or
too ambiguous [ note ]?
I may well stand central within my uniqueness, as a human being facing others
I am always in the first place fellow-creature, a fellow-citizen. That holds true for
every context, whether I act as a governor, a soldier, a scholar, a football player, as
dealer or as librarian, I am and remain within any context with others in the first place
a fellow human and only then an official [
note ]. Before my dog I am in the first place a human animal, towards a
teacup-thing I am a human thing. I always stand as a singular process before another
singular process. From that basis it is clear to me now that everything is equivalent to
anything else, that I have the right to be respected because I know that I rightly owe
respect to my environment of different and varying things, animals and people.
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