CHAPTER 10
THE INFORMATION LOVOLUTION
Introduction
In this chapter I will conclude my dissertation by
looking at the practical implications of Neutopian thought
and the ideology of true love in the American school system.
This commences with a parody of the contemporary American
and Western education, followed by giving an alternative
vision of education which I call the online Neutopian
Transversity. Let me comment here that the term
"transversity" was coined by Chancellor Scott and Susan M.
Awbrey in their essay "Transforming Scholarship." The term
fits in well with the ideology of true love and the idea of
the World Computer Data Base as envisioned by R. Buckminster
Fuller. However, I am not using it to endorse economic
development in the way that Chancellor Scott has articulated
it to the university community.
The Oral Defense
Even though the dissertation committee passed my oral
defense of my dissertation, they required me to write a
final chapter on the way in which teachers could bring "the
information lovolution" into the classroom. They challenged
me to make my theory practical by carrying out the slogan of
the environmentalist movement, "think globally, act
locally." Even Marx and Engels left the practical
application of their social theory to someone else who
happened to be Vladimir Lenin. So why should I be expected
to be "practical?"
On second thought, since my theory is a theory of the
way true love works, I guess it isn't so bad to be a
practitioner of the greatest thing in the universe! Wasn't
the embodiment of love exactly what was missing from my
life? Wasn't love the meaning and dream of Gaia?
But how was I to work within the boundaries of the 20th
century classroom and the nationalist ideologies which
perpetuate the myth of capitalism when it is the objective
of my theory to blow the cover off the basic foundation of
patriarchal civilization? How was I going to fit Neutopia
into the procrustean bed of the 20th century classroom?
It is nearly impossible for teachers with alternative
visions to make it into "malestream" media and educational
systems, so how was I going to establish Neutopian thought
as the new non-sexist mythos of universal education?
When I first began contemplating the practical aspects
of the theory, I thought the final chapter would have to be
a satire because there was no way I would be able to make a
21st century theory fit into a 20th century classroom with
the flags of the various nation states hanging from the
rectangular walls. Neutopian thought changes the basic
archetypal structures of our thinking, so how could it
possibly be accepted into the educational system which
maintains the status quo? I thought it was hopeless to try
to bring Neutopian thought into the classroom. Neutopian
thought was simply an outsider and the doors of education
were closed, locked and bolted to letting in a new way of
thinking into the hierarchical pillars of classical
misogynist thought which had dominated life for the past
5,000 years. In Mary White Stewart's essay, "Feminism and
Sociology: An Unfortunate Case of Nonreciprocity" she
writes,
Sociology as a profession has not comfortably embraced
feminist belief systems, nor for that matter any
potentially political belief systems, since the
sixties. This is largely due to the fact that feminist
ideology challenges so much of what is inherently a
male model of social structure and reality. A feminist
consciousness demands that the old visions be changed
and leads to a sensitization to issues and ideas which
create upheavals in the established system of thought
(197).
So my final chapter was going to be a parody on
American education. I would show how the teacher is really
nothing more than a prison guard for the corporation and the
real purpose of public education was the social control of
the people. As Marilyn French writes in _Beyond Power_,
"Under the guise of avoiding contention about subjective
matters like religion, sex, politics, and morality, schools
avoided tests and methods that might trigger independent
thought which in turn might challenge the dominant values.
Except in areas like mathematics and science, in which
thinking is abstract, students were not encouraged to think
at all (384)."
Students are trained to accept the system the way it is
rather than to work to change it. They are trained to
follow the Machiavellian doctrine "to leave the end
unquestioned and the means unexamined (11)." In the
patriarchal system, teachers are limited to asking the
acceptable questions of the orthodoxy, question which do not
expose the hidden curriculum of education and do not
question why the rich remain in their powerful positions.
The neutopian question of what kind of society is humane and
ecologically wise is outside the boundaries of acceptable
thought.
In my parody I would show how the prevalent values of
our educational system assert that knowledge is power and
that the greatest achievement of a student is to achieve
power. As French points out the best education within the
mind frame of realism is that it trains students "for
entrance into an unworthy society" (397). Yes, I thought
the final chapter was going to have to be a dystopian vision
of American education. I had seen an end to education which
was to build Neutopia, but I could not see a means to get us
to that new world where love rules life.
The Internet Connection
By the end of spring semester 1993, I was feeling
extremely hopeless about my personal situation realizing
that Neutopia went against everything that the nation-state
and global corporations stood for: the market economy, the
profit motive, the Greco-Christian tradition. Here I was an
unpublished poetess and an unemployed scholar who seemed
not to have any outlets for my ideas for a better world. It
became agonizing to sit in lectures and films with the
realization that I had a significant and urgent contribution
to make but I had no forum within which to express these
ideas. I longed for students, but I had done. I dreamed of
a lover who loved Neutopia but no lover seemed to exist.
I thought my fate was going to be that of a solitary
creature, alone in thought and in life like one of the
millions of other creative single women who do not fit
anywhere in the system. Unable to become a published
writer, I had almost given up on my dream that my writing
could affect the culture. I thought there was no escape for
me: I would be forced to become part of the living dead by
conforming to corporate America. I contemplated suicide to
end the pain, but then I knew I didn't want to be
reincarnated into this mess and have to live through the
entire trauma again.
Life changed for me during a Distinguish Visitors
Lecture at the University of Massachusetts. The committee
invited Bruce Sterling, the author of _Hacker Crackdown_, to
speak to the university community. Sterling, a science
fiction writer, is part of the Cyberpunk literary movement
happening over the Internet. His lecture was about freedom
of speech over the Internet. He informed us that the new
frontier of Cyberspace is a place where everyone with an
Internet connection can be heard. However, he did warn the
audience that the CIA and the global corporations are
conspiring to control the flow of information. In a recent
article by Paul Hertzel entitled, "Cybercampus: The High-
Tech Revolution is Changing the Way You Live and Learn," he
points out that now most students receive access to the
Internet for free because the National Science Foundation
(or NSF) subsidizes Internet access to universities.
However, he states that the NSF is hoping to privatize the
Internet within four years. The private sector--more than
likely the telephone companies--will then control the
Internet. The phone companies will then control access in
order to make profits. The split between the rich and the
poor will widen even greater.
When Sterling talked about a new literary movement
coming together over the Internet, he caught my attention.
Could this be the movement I had been searching for all my
life? During the question and answer part of his lecture, I
asked Mr. Sterling what an unpublished, censored poetess
could do? His answer was to get involved with the Internet.
He said that if I didn't want to make money on my poetry
then I could give it away for free over the Internet. He
believed it was an excellent time for new writers to become
known because the Internet was truly an uncensored
environment, the only place where freedom of ideas still
exists. He went on to point out that there was no such
thing as the printing press anymore. We had moved into the
electronic age and technoliterature is the wave of the
future.
So there was a place for me to publish my ideas. It
just wasn't in the traditional place. It was in this new
world of Cyberspace. But I knew next to nothing about
computers. Would I be able to mistress the machine? Was I
smart enough to be able to figure out the way to access the
Internet? I walked away from the audience determined that I
was going to try to learn how to use the university computer
services.
After summer session began, I acquired a computer
account and signed up to take an introductory course on
Email. After several workshops on Email and the Internet, I
realized how easy the system really was to use. Then I
discovered the Usenet newsgroups. For twelve years of my
university life I had been searching for intellectual
dialogues. I had found pieces of interesting discussions
here and there, but there was no ongoing dialogue or debate
happening on campus. Everyone seemed comfortable with the
status quo. The student body even seemed not to care about
any social issues anymore. The university was more dead
than alive. The campus was certainly no heaven on earth for
people talking about changing the system in order to create
a just world.
But then I discovered Usenet, a place in Cyberspace
where thousands of newsgroups, that is, public forums on
thousands of different topics for discussions from
technological issues, to scientific issues, to religious and
philosophic topics were being discussed. After twelve years
on campus I had finally found the place where the debates
and discussions were happening. They weren't happening in
the classrooms, nor in the lecture halls or auditoriums, but
over the computer in Cyberspace. I had discovered a global
forum of ideas! Usenet was an intellectual's dream come
true, a place where minds from all over the world could came
together to discuss and debate ideas critically important to
our future. I, who thought I was an isolated, alienated
individual, was now part of a global community.
I had visions of Cyberspace developing into a new kind
of university, a university of Neutopian thought. I was
beginning to see Cyberspace as possibly the way to our
salvation: Gaia coming forth to rescue us from the dark
shadows over us like nuclear weapons and environmental
pollution. Cyberspace could become the place where we could
work together to solve our global problems as the global
intelligentsia is formed into Buckminster's vision of a
World Management Committee.
Internet had the possibility of becoming an educational
tool like no other. I could see a renaissance of the
written word happening as the word is freed from money and
publishing houses who are out to make a profit. Cyberspace
is an epic poetess' new world, the way for the one gifted
with ideas and the word to create a meritocracy. For the
first time, the real function of poetry can be enacted.
There is a politic to epic poetry. It is the Queen of
Language, the emotional life of the people. Isn't it about
time that poetesses claimed their right to become the
acknowledged legislators of the world, to be the rulers of
the university, the directresses of the social mythos? I
have found my mission. It is to lovolutionize Cyberspace.
The first time I posted an article to a newsgroup, the
computer asked me before sending it: do you want to post
this message locally or globally? When I hit the key to
send it globally, it was the first time in my life I felt
truly empowered. I no longer had to submit to editors only
to be rejected by them. I was now an autonomous individual;
for the first time I felt like a democratic citizen of a
global commonwealth.
Now, how does the information revolution have anything
to do with my academic assignment of writing a final chapter
to my dissertation on how to bring Neutopian thought into
the 21st century classroom? You've got it! Computer
terminals are being brought into the classroom by the
millions. Throughout the world, the computer has become a
primary learning tool. With interactive media, the student
has the world encyclopedia at her or his fingertips. Access
to the world's great libraries is now possible for anyone
with a modem connected to Internet. The phrase "act
locally, think globally" is now a reality. But I have begun
to realize more and more that there is no division between
the local and the global. As I sit at my computer and
become part of the Global Brain, am I not acting both
globally and locally?
The Global Network Academy
After figuring my way around the Internet, I discovered
that there was a group on Usenet, the newsgroup forum, which
was planning out the way to use Cyberspace to create an
online university, and so the final chapter of this
dissertation led me there. The following information about
the online university, what is called the Usenet University-
Global Network Academy (UU-GNA), can be found on the "World
Wide Web" in the section on UU-GNA.
The conception of UU-GNA was incorporated by Joseph
Wang of MIT. How excited I was when I first learned of its
conception because I thought the UU-GNA could be an
alternative university to the traditional learning
environment. However, after I looked more closely at their
proposed administrative structure, I realized that the
founders were not advancing a revolutionary school of
thought to go along with the revolutionary new educational
media. In fact, what they are doing is placing the old
bureaucratic structure into a new learning environment
which, of course, means that the whole concept of a new
learning environment is corrupted by the old patriarchal
school of thought.
Let me now describe the governance structure of the UU-
GNA. First of all, UU-GNA claims to be the "world's first
virtual corporation," a testing group for the way 21st
Century organizations could be run. It has been stated that
"the specific purpose of this corporation shall be to
advance education and scholarship, especially by developing
and promoting new technologies." Their long-term goal is to
make GNA into a "fully accredited online university." From
these descriptions of the university one can say that GNA is
a technocracy whose hidden purpose, like in all capitalist
endeavors, is the perpetuation of capitalism. However,
Joseph Wang wrote me in an November 2nd Email that as far as
his "academic ideology" is concerned, he believes "the
university shouldn't promote any ideology other than as a
meeting place for people interested in learning."
Like real-life universities, we must assume that
capitalism and the perpetuation of class conflict, racism,
and sexism is the hidden agenda, since from what has been
written, the long-term goal of the university is not to
advance free access and free tuition for all people of the
world, but "the final step will be the creation of degree
programs, seeking accredition, and issuing diplomas." Hence
UU-GNA is still working under the capitalist/patriarchal
mindset and they have even planned to set up financial
assistance for students who can't afford the tuition! One
of their documents reads, "UU-GNA shall try to minimize the
amount of tuition charged to students, and seek to cut its
cost as much as possible."
As in the case with most corporations, the
administrating body of the board, a president, a secretary,
and a treasurer. The directors of the board will be elected
once a year. The board of directors will fix the salaries
(if any) of all the officers. The founders write that all
financial statements including contributions made to UU-GNA
shall be disclosed through open records.
The UU-GNA corporate planners have set up a timeline
for UU-GNA. Phase 1 is to get people involved. During the
summer of 1992 a consultants network was started. This is
the faculty of the university. Students interested in their
fields of study can Email them personally for advice. Also,
in Phase 1, the university explores the possibilities of a
virtual campus where electronic meetings, classes, and
conferences will be used for "educational" purposes.
Phase 2 is to develop the basic learning tools. It was
projected that this phase would be started in the summer of
1993. One such project was the formation of a UU-GNA meta-
library. To access the library, the student will type in
key words and the computer would search across the Internet
for sources of information about that topic. Internet users
are requested to add information to the library which they
have authored like term papers and lecture notes.
Another project in Phase 2 is the UU-GNA text project.
This will serve as a place where faculty can redistribute
freely text books used in online classes. Another plan in
phase 2 calls for the creation of a UU-GNA Question Bank.
This consists of "multiple choice questions indexed by
topic." Its description reads, "When giving a topic, the
question bank will respond with a question concerning the
subject. If the user responds with the wrong answer, the
hypertext generated will direct the user to materials
explaining the correct answer." Well, so much for creative
learning at the Question Bank of the UU-GNA!
In creative learning there is no right or wrong answer
since to create something new is to go beyond the known
thought. This reminds me of a quotation by Morris Berman in
his article, "The Cybernetic Dream of the Twenty-first
Century,"
The popular belief with respect to these fields is that
we are learning more because we have more information
available. In fact, the range of thought is actually
being _narrowed_, because all the information is of the
same kind. In Orwell's _1984_, the goal of the state
was to create a system of thought that embraced all the
rest. This is what is effectively happening, albeit
not through any deliberate conspiracy. The technology
itself discourages any kind of thinking that jumps the
rails, which is central to truly creative work; and
this narrowing tendency is rapidly being incorporated
into institutional procedures (87).
Berman continues to ask if the computer makes it easier for
us to avoid topics and ideas that we fear and don't want to
confront. He asks, "Does it [the computer] enable me to
shut out the environment, ignore politics, remain unaware of
my dream life, my sexuality, and my relations with other
people, or does it shove these into my face and teach me how
to live with them and through them?" (95). A question bank
which does not ask philosophic questions is certainly
narrowing our perspectives.
By the fall of 1995, the founders of UU-GNA speculate
that the development of courses should be in place. The
question bank and the meta-library will be used to format
the extension courses. Curriculum development is now being
conducted by other members of the founding group.
Going back to my satire about American education, I
came up with a list of possible courses offered at the UU-
GNA, as follows:
1. How to dominate foreign populations using the
"educational" tools provided by UU-GNA. As
President Clinton says about why he wants to
implement the "information highway" so that
America can continue to have the competitive edge.
2. How to continue making money by exploiting the
natural environment using the ideology of Green
capitalism. How to deceive the public that your
products are environmentally safe, when really they
aren't.
3. The role of Machiavellian realism in controlling
self-interest and private greed as the ideology of
national security spreads over the Internet.
If you can't conquer your opponents to your will
by persuasion, use force.
4. How to maintain the status quo using the electronic
cottage industries. How to market information
technologies so that the middle-class property
owners can isolate their families into
technological cocoons.
5. How to keep woman down as second-class citizens by
keeping them intellectually and economically
suppressed.
The Architectural Plan of UU-GNA
The UU board gives us a clear picture of a suppressive
regime in the description of the architectural blueprint of
the Virtual Campus. They point out how in "real life"
campuses everything is spread out all over the campus, in
different departments, in different buildings. Because of
the physical fragmentation of campus, multi-dimension
research is hard to conduct. However, in the virtual space
of UU-GNA, people working in different areas are constantly
coming together, forming a "cross-fertilization of ideas" as
well as preventing compartmentalization of knowledge. [They
certainly have a point there.]
The architecture of UU-GNA was inspired from by Palace
Museum in Beiiging, Grand Central Station, the New York
Stock Exchange, and MIT's main building. I might point out
that these are all symbols of power within the patriarchal
context in which they were built.
The author of the university's blueprint, Joseph Wang,
goes on to describe the four stories of the university
building. The university is shaped in a upside down U form.
The higher up one moves from the basement floor to the top
floor, activities change from the more general to the more
specific, from places of load noises to places of silence
and contemplation, from public places to private places.
The lower levels are describe to be more free flowing areas
of mass activity to the upper levels in which the board is
structuring policy. The author writes that the first floor
is where the fun is; on the second floor is the place of
scheduled timed; and on the third floor is the place were
the "stuffed shirts" work.
They describe the basement to be the place where the
fun is happening for it is the recreation center. Mud
servers and hypertext links to chess and backgammon are
available to one in this area. On the first floor the
public areas are the "knowledge marketplaces." People have
the option here of moving around to different locations to
listen in on conversations which are interesting to them.
In the center of the first floor is an "agora" where art
exhibits may be on display. World-wide weather maps and a
hall of clocks display the current weather conditions and
times throughout the world. News reports and the newest
electronic journals will also be piped in. There is a
"Speaker's Corner" where people can express their opinions
freely. Extending from the public lobbies are departmental
lobbies which are the homes of the various disciplines.
Each department has rooms for discussion and exhibitions.
The second floor is the place of classrooms, lecture
halls, and the library.
Finally, on the third floor are the offices of the
administration and the board room. The author describes
this floor as having a balcony overlooking the "central
plaza." The author writes, "Someday there will be a protest
here, and we will have to call the Campus Police." It
certainly sounds like the UU-GNA is a prison to me!
The Suppressive Regime of UU-GNA
So, it is very clear from the architectural description
of the UU-GNA that its founder is not thinking of the
university in terms of a new architectural design, but
rather is envisioning the same old architectural order of
post-modern "civilization." I can see no reason to believe
that the mission of the online UU-GNA is _really_ going to
change the society in any kind of fundamental way. It will
simply reflect the corporate society in which we are already
trapped. The same patriarchal hierarchy which has created
class division and world wars will not be eliminated under
this educational institution; rather, it will prolong the
agony of the dying social system.
To illustrate this point, parts of the transcript of
the September 13th, 1993, board meeting at the Media Moo at
MIT reads,
power? authority? on the network?? Ghoul says,
"partially irrelevant fear as long as there are only
honorary, spare time jobs." hurache_kid say, "Yes, as
long as we aren't paying salaries, we have no power!!
Just fame. Joseph [to Ghoul]: True, but there will be
pressure to make the jobs less than honorary or spare
time once this thing gets up. Joseph [to Ghoul]: And
I'd like to set good precedents. hurache_kid says,
don't we have term limits in the charter/articles?
pate says, "the power needs to exist at least to
guide/direct the environment of the GNA...not the
network of GNA. hurache_kid says, "I think that as long
as GNA is the Network environment, we'll always have=
competitors= to keep us honest," Joseph says, Good
point." hurache_kid says, "the one year limit is good
to keep us developing. Right now the onus to get the
paperwork in shape (Hurrah Joseph!) & get the
accredition set up." Joseph nods. hurache_kid says,
"That's a two or three year process. And when we get
the accredition, then we'll have a whole new set of
problems--registrar, bursar, chancellor, deans :-)
In the following section, I will attempt to give an
alternative mission for UU-GNA and re-name it "The Neutopian
Transversity" so that the idea of an online university can
truly become a place where all souls are encouraged to
pursue their higher and more noble selves in order to solve
our pressing global problems. In Frederick Kettner's book,
Biosophy and Spiritual Democracy: A Basis for World Peace,
he beautifully expresses the paradigm shift which we are in
the midst of experiencing. Kettner says that we are
evolving from "civilization," to the Age of "Soulization."
In this age, the purpose of education will be "to lead" the
creative soul of everyone into an Order of Free Minds.
Kettner points out that there are two kinds of
revolutions: political/economic and revolutions which
change the essential character of human beings, the
revolution within the individual and thus the collective
soul. He asked us to question whether or not the
revolutions of the past have created the ideas of "liberty,
equality, and fraternity." Of course, the answer is no.
Kettner writes, "Whereas the political revolutions arm men
with the weapons of destruction, this new kind of revolution
will arm the individual with the creative power of
intelligent thinking (9).
Kettner outlines the history of civilization as moving
from rugged individualism and mutual misunderstanding to an
age of creative individualism, mutual understanding, and
friendship. In a Soulization, we move from a time when we
"studied together," in the academy of higher education to a
time when we "think together" on a higher level of reality
for the purpose of creating the soularized world of
Neutopia. Kettner writes, "The individual revolution within
is in essence a revolt against the ego that keeps man
enslaved to his lower nature. Since in every revolution
something must fall; in this revolution the ego will fall.
This kind of fall will open the way for man to begin a new
kind of thinking--heart-thinking" (13). The Neutopian
schools will teach people to use their hearts as well as
their spiritual intellects. The nature of the media of
Cyberspace is the perfect place to enact this lovolution
within the human soul.
An Alternative: Neutopian Transversity
In the essay by David Scott and Susan Ambrey, there is
an account for the history of education and the different
phases the university has taken. They describe how it has
changed from a university of classical education, to a
multiversity which allows for cultural difference to become
part of the curriculum, to now when we are entering an era
where telecommunications is creating a new phase, which they
call the era of the transversity. Scholarship is now
becoming transdimensional as scholars and students become
long distance educators and learners. The era of universal
education is indeed upon us.
How I see the Transversity evolving is derived from the
basic principles of the Internet media itself. Email gives
equal ground for all to pursue their personal energies in
whatever direction their hearts aspire. Because of the free
nature of Cyberspace--Cyberspace has a flow to it like that
of the ocean--it seems to me that this is the ideal
environment for the democracy/meritocracy form of
governance/education or what Kettner calls spiritual
democracy to finally ripple around the world. Cyberspace is
the place for us to actively engage in the world of ideas,
the visual place of the imagination, a place where we read
each other's minds, and a perfect place to cure mentally
disturbed and criminal thoughts. It is the place where the
ruling ideas of "The King of Great Selfishness" can finally
be dethroned so that the dreams of love and peace can be re-
enthroned to liberate our true humanity.
The function of the Transversity is to become the
brain of the Neutopian Soulization. Neutopian doctrine
teaches that our task at the end of the 20th century is to
stop the destruction of the biosphere by moving beyond the
global corporations image of the global shopping mall. The
only way to do this is to teach a new philosophy of love
between the sexes which challenges the sexist mythos of
"Western Civilization" by bringing art and values back into
the forefront of science.
Student-Teacher Relationship
The diversity of nature has made it so that we all have
different educational needs. Some people need time to
develop their talents, some need a place to practice their
skills, and others need the freedom and cooperation of the
people to carry out their creative visions. We are moving
into a stage of education where we realize all education is
based on self-education and the love of the cosmic Self.
Beginning with elementary level, children will be
taught the computer skills required to work with interactive
media. Their search leads them on a unique path of
following their own journey within the context of the
Neutopian ecocity. In other words, the rule of education is
that students "follow their bliss" in whatever multi-
dimensional way their inward love knowledge leads them. As
their reading and writing skills mature, students are free
to access information from the world computer data base and
world libraries.
In the modern education system, students are coerced to
attend classes in order to pass exams and to get degrees.
This is not freedom. Freedom to follow your bliss is the
opposite of how the modern educational system is organized.
In _Deschooling Society_ Ivan Illich writes, "In fact,
learning is the human activity which least needs
manipulation by others. Most learning is not the result of
instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered
participation in a meaningful setting (39)." In the modern
university, students are coerced into thinking that they
must earn a college degree in order to make a "good"
livelihood. The school system represses the students
natural desires and curiosities forcing them to conform to
the rules of the system: to take exams, make "good" grades,
write papers which are assigned to them, and get advanced
degrees. Plus, the student must pay tuition so that
"teachers" can determine their fate. Illich writes,
School has become the world religion of a modernized
proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to
the poor of the technological age. The nation-state
has adopted it, drafting all citizens into a graded
curriculum leading to sequential diplomas not unlike
the initiation rituals and hieratic promotions of
former times. The modern state has assumed the duty of
enforcing the judgement of its educators through well-
meant truant officers and job requirements, much
as did the Spanish kings who enforced the judgments of
their theologians through the conquistadors and
Inquisition (11).
Their are two kinds of knowledge base in the Neutopian
Transversity: the living knowledge and the dead knowledge
which is stored in the archives. However, since the goal of
the individual is to advance the quality of life, it is the
living teachers who are the ones which the students turn to
obtain knowledge, intellectual friendships, and guidance.
The Mission of Neutopian Transversity
The social structure of Cyberspace Transversity would
allow the individual to become part of the ruling body of
the world community of scholars by the expression of their
gifts. These scholars are the creative artists and
scientists of their time who are involved with the
cultivation of erotic life-energies. This leads to a new
Order of Free Minds, a world order of Gaia Magicians whose
role is to keep the spiritual balance of power.
The ideology of True Love is Doctress Neutopia's basic
foundation in creating a Soulization. This philosophy
teaches that the basic power of life is the erotic energies
which guide us on our intellectual journey. These forces
have been suppressed and persecuted under the Greco-
Christian epoch. With an ideology of true love, an era of
world peace can come to fruition. The mission of the
Neutopian Transversity is to move us beyond education to
creating self-educating people who have reached "actuation,"
that is, education in action. The goal of education, then,
is to humanize the technology, making it a source of
enlightenment for all souls to find their roles within the
planetary commonwealth.
The chief magicians are the philosophical loving couple
whose love story symbolizes planetary union. Second to them
in this self-actualizing hierarchy are the scholars who are
the heads of what Buckminster Fuller calls the "World
Production Teams." These teams would be composed of the
best creative artists and scientists of the world who become
the core faculty of the Neutopian Transversity. The task of
the production teams is to carry out the tasks of the
overarching Neutopian vision. These teams work on a
particular solution to a global problem simultaneously while
other teams are working on interconnected global problems.
This methodology is not reformist in that it takes one
problem and tries to solve it, but recognizes that all the
global problems are interlinked and require radical change
in all levels of human behavior in order to solve them.
This is why transdimensional scholarship is essential if we
are going to find the wisdom needed to save the earth's
species including the human race. The goal of the
production teams is to make the virtuality of Neutopia real,
to build a new kind of living network based on connections
with the soul-interests of others. One such vision of
computer network communities is found in an article by Gene
Youngblood entitled, "The New Renaissance: Art, Science, and
the Universal Machine." Youngblood writes,
A communications revolution isn't about technology;
it's about possible relations among people. It implies
an inversion of dominant social relationship through
structural inversion of the mass media: today's
vertical order would become horizontal, hierarchy would
become heterarchy [heterarchy: republic of highly
specialized autonomous networks], centralized output
would be balanced by decentralized input, mass
communication would yield to creative conversation,
commerce would be subservient to community, and nation-
as-audience would disperse into a republic of
autonomous, self-constituting "reality-communities,"--
social groups of politically significant magnitude,
realized as communities through telecommunication
networks and defined, therefore, not by geography but
by consciousness, ideology, and desire (19).
Since we need the most gifted and talented thinkers to
be involved and head the production teams, every person on
Earth _must_ have free access to the Internet and the
leisure time to pursue the calling of her or his soul. In
other words, the spiritual democratization of Cyberspace
demands that we open up the new world to everyone. Everyone
is equal in Cyberspace. In the spiritual democracy we move
from one person one vote, to one person one computer
account. People are selected/elected into positions of
influence through their words and deeds--their characters--
not for their political connections, marketing skills or
financial backers. No family prestige, degree award, or
social privilege can cover up an empty or vile soul.
Kettner says that in a Soulization we move beyond the
profit-motive to an age when the character-motive is the
basis of education. Kettner writes, "The development of
character implies choices instead of coercions; it implies
choosing certain ways of acting in preference to others, not
out of fear but out of intelligence" (107). Unlike American
democracy where mass education is of primary importance, in
a spiritual democracy the individual is of primary
importance because "only through the cultivation of
character can humanity free itself from the tyrannizing
dictates of egotism" (126). Certainly, in Cyberspace, the
character of the individual is the important thing since
Cyberspace is the place of conscious reflection of the Self.
The mission of the Neutopian Transversity is to direct
the "information revolution" into an "information
lovolution," whose end is to transform the post-modern
civilization into a world of Neutopian arcologies. The
mission, then, is to bring us out of the information anarchy
occurring with the democratization of information and
synthesize that information into an Order of Free Minds.
The task is to end racism, sexism, and classism--which are
the ancient evils of the co-dependence regimes of the
patriarchy/matriarchy fascist rule of the market economy--
and move to a social order of human rights and world ethics
governed by a world-wide spiritual democracy. Listed below
are some of the fundamental goals of the mission:
1. Transform global capitalism into transocialism.
2. Create a leisure-based economy using solar energy.
3. Visualize one's role in the Neutopian Soulization.
4. Promote self-actualization for all people
(verbal literacy and computer literacy).
5. End nationalism and abolish war
(elimination of structural and
physical ecological violence).
6. Redistribution of the world's resources and
provide everyone with ecosocial security.
The Neutopian Administration
Since this is a university without walls, national
borders or tuition of any kind, there is no bureaucratic
administration. S. Demczynski writes in _Automation and the
Future of Man_,
All through history we observe the coalescing of human
groups into progressively greater unities. There sizes
depend among other things, on means of transportation
and communication. It seems that when it is physically
possible to travel to any spot on the planet in a
matter of hours and to make instant contact with people
thousands of miles away, we are obviously entering the
stage of world civilization. Hence, the nationalism
and sovereignty of the state become out-dated, and in
the presence of atomic weapons, are very dangerous
ideas. At the stage of tribal communities, supreme
loyalty to one's tribe was the highest virtue. A man
capable of perceiving the possibility of a supra-tribal
or national loyalty would have been considered a
traitor to his tribe. But when the tribes merged into
a nation, national loyalty then became the true
loyalty, and to put the interest of one's tribe before
those of the nation could well become a crime.
Similarly today, a man who has genuinely stronger
feelings to loyalty to the whole of humanity than to
his own nation, might make, in certain situations, a
choice which would brand him a traitor to his own
community. And yet from humanity's point of view such
a choice could be correct on ethical grounds, for it
puts the interest of the whole before that of its
parts" (232).
Since the Neutopian Transversity is composed of a group
of independent scholars who are engaged in co-creative
actualization with other like-minds to form a more perfect
union, there is no need for administrative staff to collect
money or keep bureaucratic records of students and faculty.
People volunteer for jobs which need to be carried out in
order to make the planetary organization function. The
online Neutopian Transversity does not divide time into
semesters, but strives to make everyone into life-long
learners and teachers.
The Neutopian Transversity is truly a place for the
inspired mind whose calling is to evolve the species to
accepting the creative leadership of the spiritual junos and
geniuses of the particular generation. People rise to power
strictly from the quality of their inspiration.
Architectural Plan of the Neutopian Transversity
As one enters Cyberspace, the first thing to appear on
the computer screen are images of the Ideal Arcologies in
various bioregions around the world and in Outer Space.
This is so that one can begin to get the overview of the
planetary blueprint. The purpose of Cyberspace is to enable
the individual to locate her or his creative Self and put
that Self to work within one of the production teams.
Along side of the maps of the arcologies is a
Cyberspace blackboard where the archetypal formulas of
planetary harmony, the ideology of true lovers, can be
viewed. The Gaian magicians are the guardians of the
archetypal knowledge whose job is to refine and be the
living examples of knowledge. The magicians direct the flow
of the whole as it relates to the particular. From the
information they receive from the World Computer Data Base,
they synthesize the knowledge in order to know how to direct
the planetary energies to create happiness and justice for
all.
Also displayed at the gateway of the Neutopian
Transversity are maps of the world which chart out the areas
with the most pressing problems. This map addresses the
question "What must be done?" A list of artistic and
scientific projects which are working on solving the
problems can then be accessed. These lists are directed to
one of the Production Teams working to build the world of
Neutopian arcologies. A list of faculty working on the
problems and their particular focus in creating the arcology
can also be accessed.
When a student feels she or he is ready to join one of
the Production Teams, they Email the faculty with which they
would like to apprentice. If a student has an original idea
in solving problems or a new way to bring the community
together, she or he has the option of posting her or his
proposal directly to Usenet Forum in order to get public
support for the new idea.
As we move from a university to a Transversity and the
deschooled society, the basis of community will be what Ivan
Illich calls "learning webs." These webs are designed to
help people who are not in touch with their calling to draw
out how they can become contributing members to world
scholarship. Virtual communities, Email listserves, will be
the place of the learning webs. These will be supportive
environments where people can go to express themselves and
to care for others. There will be both local and global
learning webs of this kind.
So, now, for an overview of the plan of the Neutopian
Transversity. We have the theorists, the social
architectresses and architects who are the doctresses and
doctors of the Ideal. They are the magicians who are the
living examples of the archetypal wisdom. These are the
souls who guide the people to create the sustainable
ecocities. They make up a Magnum Concilium (Great Council)
which resides over the World Computer Data Base. The Magnum
Concilium is composed of the self-selected meritocracy,
those who are destined to be the creative leaders.
Everyone has access to the Global Internet and thus can
become part of the Magium Concilium by the quality of their
ideas. Students use interactive media to learn about the
herstory of the planet, as well as Email faculty with whom
they have a connection.
The Usenet Forum is the democratic or anarchical part
of the Neutopian Transversity where controversial ideas,
ethical questions, and public debates occur. The Magnium
Concilium or an individual can call for a conference either
by using telecommunication systems or by meeting in the
flesh at some conference center around the world.
The Neutopian Rituals
What is needed is for ritual artists to develop rituals
for:
1. when one discovers their life-work, their calling;
what one could term as their second birth;
2. declarations of friendships and creative partnership
based on the love of each others intellects;
3. celebration of real life achievements which benefit
the whole;
4. marriage of true minds, rituals of erotic love;
5. passages from living to dead scholarship.
There are two basic parts of life in the Neutopian
Transversity: the life of self-education and tutorship and
the life of participating in the evolving compuculture:
1. self-education, tutorship and mentorship
a. using interactive media, educational TV,
radio, books with the purpose of connecting
oneself with one's life purpose;
b. having connections with living scholars,
tutorships and apprenticeships;
c. joining a production team;
2. and compuculture, participating in
a. food and water rituals,
b. theater of dreams
(living community theater where people
can go after production time), and
c. Neutopian Transversity rituals in honor
of creative works and virtuous actions.
Summary
The idea of an online university such as the Usenet
University-Global Network Academy is definitely an idea
whose time has arrived upon the world scene. However, the
ideology of UU-GNA is obviously not efficient in creating
the truly liberating school of thought which the planet so
desperately needs. The advocates of UU-GNA are still
modeling their university in terms of capitalism and
patriarchy. These ideas must be stopped, and a new model of
sustainable development be adopted. The alternative model
which I have created, the Neutopian Transversity, is an
attempt to change the ideology of UU-GNA into an ideology of
true love where everyone has economic, social, and personal
freedom. The mission of the Neutopian Transversity is to
create the compuculture necessary to allow virtual
structures to begin to construct a world of arcologies in
real life.