{"id":168696,"date":"2020-09-14T12:01:22","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T11:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=168696"},"modified":"2020-09-21T11:01:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T10:01:29","slug":"fibonacci-spiral-in-3d-framing-psychosocial-phyllotaxis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/09\/fibonacci-spiral-in-3d-framing-psychosocial-phyllotaxis\/","title":{"rendered":"Fibonacci Spiral in 3D Framing Psychosocial Phyllotaxis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Articulation of Global Governance through the Language of Flowers?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is extensive reference in plant biology to phyllotaxis<\/a>, namely the spiralling configuration of petals, pine cones and pineapples, for example. There is a seemingly unrelated preoccupation with spiral dynamics<\/a> in a psychosocial sense, namely the evolutionary development of individuals, organizations, and societies.<\/p>\n

The latter focus is only related by implication to the role of the spiral exemplified by the shell structure of the marine nautilus and the inspiration it has offered for psychosocial evolution, as first articulated by Oliver Wendell Holmes<\/a>. That particular inspiration has subsequently been recognized as a pattern for the New Zealand Education curriculum<\/a> as well as framing the focus of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability<\/a><\/p>\n

Distinct again are the extensive commentaries on the so-called spiral of silence<\/a>\u00a0through which\u00a0opinions distinct from the mainstream are progressively constrained, leading to a sense of isolation, possibly extreme. In a period of pandemic lockdown, accompanied by deprecation of challenges to mainstream discourse, the spiral of silence could be understood as related to separate concern with the “spiral of depression<\/a>” — itself a characteristic feature of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

More collectively relevant to the crisis of governance is recognition of the nature of a “death spiral<\/a>“, most obviously illustrated by the behaviour of ants in an ant mill<\/a>, effectively imprisoned by their instincts and lacking a coordinating force to guide them to safety, as argued by Ed Yong (America Is Trapped in a Pandemic Spiral<\/em><\/a>, The Atlantic<\/em>, 9 September 2020). A poetic articulation of the condition was presented a century ago by W. B. Yeats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turning and turning in the widening\u00a0gyre
\nThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;
\nThings fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
\nMere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
\nThe blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
\nThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;
\nThe best lack all conviction, while the worst
\nAre full of passionate intensity.
\n(Second Coming<\/em><\/a>, 1919)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The “death spiral” theme is currently evoked with respect to human civilization by various authors (Geoff Dembicki, This Guy Studies the ‘Global Systems Death Spiral’ That Might End Humanity<\/a><\/em>, VICE<\/em>, 15 November 2019; George Monbiot, The Earth is in a death spiral<\/em><\/a>, The Guardian<\/em>, 14 November 2018; Del Wolf Thiessen<\/a>, Psychopaths Rising: Unholy Links to Civilization and Destruction — Our Evolved Death Spira<\/a>l<\/em>, 2014; Newton Paulo Bueno, A simple system dynamic model for the collapse of complex societies<\/em><\/a>, Proceedings of the International System Dynamics Conference<\/em>, 2011)<\/p>\n

Potentially offering insight, as complementary metaphors, are other forms of “death spiral”:<\/p>\n