The Tardation Matrix: Dimensions

Ok, bringing it back up to speed. We left off asking what kind of things play deep enough in a human life to leverage the diminished state of Tardation?  

Tardation: a manufactured and artificially installed psychological malady emulating an addicted state of life where irrational political beliefs are deliberately sublimated into a life as the working counterbalance for the equally deliberate creation of a dysfunctional individual psychology within the victim.

The first categories established were those things common to all things both alive, and mortal: (1)sustenance; (2)security; and (3)procreation. To provide a place for these, and a couple of more should something truly primal present itself in the investigation, in the matrix mentioned in the title?

ReDim Human = Array(5)

Today’s effort is to set the remaining dimensions on that matrix, attempt to discern which elements of the individual  become the targets of the mechanisms of tardation.

To do what’s being done these things will have to be deep things, first order things of the inner self. What parameters of personality might play at such a level? What sets the key and critical difference between people that leave some but not others vulnerable to the condition of tardation?

For a first thought I’m going to start with another three concepts I’ve found to be as critical to the individual as the first trio are to the species: the traits of self confidence, self discipline, and self acceptance (thank you Ms. Alex… you showed me the true power of these).  From long and personal experience I know if any of these three are compromised the life is compromised in equal measure. A life compromised is a life vulnerable to being manipulated, and tardation is most definitely a manipulation. Of course these are categories, container thoughts, working  dynamics of a personality rather than some talisman or totem that once possessed goes on a shelf for display.  

Since these are dynamic qualities it then follows there must be some range of functionality, some range of values one relative to the other ranging from perfect to acceptable to quite counterproductive for the life to function smoothly.  To install Tardation as a functioning component of a life will almost certainly involve tampering with one or more of these.

In light of this I’m going to set the second dimension of the array to reflect these three, and as before I’m going to tag on a couple of more slots to hold what might be found that should play at the same level within any individual life. In the computerese this becomes ReDim Human  = Array(5,5).  Set the elements as (2) self acceptance, (3) self confidence, and (4) self discipline, with (1) and (5) as before left open/null until and unless later defined.  The nature of the language in play sets this as the top plane of the Tardation matrix, the one that is fixed and cannot be modified later: a five by five grid where the center three by three are  defined.

I say tampering, and swallow hard. To deliberately tamper with such low level concepts Is dicey enough if you’re only talking about one individual, but to attempt to tamper with them in any significant percentage of your population as a whole runs from audacious right on over to total idiocy.  The scope of tardation is so large it’s a viable question to ask if it is even possible  for it to be the result of a  deliberate effort on someone’s part. 

The answer is, of course, it really doesn’t matter. Regardless if the degree of tardation afflicting the modern world is the result of some dastardly plot by mercenary necromancers operating out of the deepest bowels of academia’s psychosocial poli-sci studies or totally a consequence of social evolution being overdriven by technology the net results are the same.  Regardless of the source the situation remains unchanged, and there equally remains the need for mitigating action in the cause of allowing the survival of modern society.

For the purposes of this study I’m going to proceed from the assumption the current situation is the result of a socio-evolutionary potential opened by the exponential advances in technology quickly recognized and exploited by the existing necromancers of their respective vintages.  There is a history here to be discerned and recorded at some point, but such history is not the focus of now, it will be included in the ongoing “History ala Mode” series of essays under the title “What the Dishwasher Saw.”

At this point what is defined for the matrix is two dimensional, flat, a chessboard reduced by three rows and three ranks.  It is taking shape, but hardly big enough to handle what is coming at it.  Fortunately there is a third dimension available, and yes indeed, it is going to be used. The third dimension is where the questions live, each as relates to the square above it. What happens when there is to much of a given thing? What happens when there isn’t enough? How does it effect a persons’ perspective on things under those circumstances? What changes when those imbalances are compensated by the politically motivated mechanisms of tardation? Earlier I compared such questions as the engine of this study. I’m a bit of a country boy gearhead in my essence, such analogies are comfortable for me so I’m going to hold with that analogy.

From that perspective the nature and exact wording (as exact as possible, to compare to the precision of the wording used in juris prudence) of these questions, each of which must be applied to every facet of any thought put into the engine, become the cam and carb, the exhaust system and ignition advance curves in service when the beast is put in the field to go to work for real. The wording becomes the tune parameters that make all the difference in how the beast is going to run under load.

The nature of the array defined is such that only the final dimension can be changed on the fly. The last defined dimension is open to being expanded, or contracted. So from where we are now the three dimensional Array Human is five by five by some number N deep where N represents all the possible combinations and permutations of questions that have, or might seem to have, some bearing on the subject of Tardation. 

Just for a grab and go example before I sign off this chapter? Consider the matrix element Human(3,3,n). In other words, where security crosses with self confidence. The number N becomes how many possible ways  might some convergence of forces generated from the primal need of all living things for an acceptable degree of security, as it is seen manifested in some manner related to self confidence, how many different points that meet those two criterion  might be playing in these considerations? If tardation is a accidental thing how did the accident happen? If tardation is a deliberate act of malicious manipulation how was the manipulation implemented? Give this half a moments thought and it is readily apparent there may well be fifteen, fifty, maybe a hundred possibilities within the parameters established.

In point of fact the number of possibilities grows so quickly that each of the nine defined possibilities deserves an exploratory essay in its’ own right just to begin defining, testing and examining, retaining or discarding the possibilities. So that’s where this series will continue: The Tardation Matrix: Human (x,y,n) where the position gives the subject under consideration. A wide open field of  considerations indeed. Methinks a good compass and sextant and clock might be a good thing to have handy, a kid could get lost in the possibilities without them.

Later gang.