The mystery of the unasked question

Abuse of Faith in Governance: Mystery of the Unasked Question (Part #11)

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The curious characteristic of each form of abuse of faith in governance is that it would seem to be associated with, or centered on, an "unasked question". Abuse of faith can then be sustained provided that question is not asked. If faith may be fruitfully considered as a form of strange attractor, as argued elsewhere (Generic Reframing of the 12 Tribes of "Israel", 2009), the unasked question might be thought of as somewhat analogous to a black hole at its centre -- engendering a characteristic dynamic. It is the black hole that sustains the event horizon constraining receipt of information from beyond the domain of that faith.

The unasked question, as with the un-nameable of any sanctum sanctorum, functions as a kind of central pillar sustaining both what is valuable about the faith dynamic and what is problematic about it. It is perhaps the fundamental justification for "unsaying" as discussed separately (Being What You Want: problematic kataphatic identity vs. potential of apophatic identity? 2008). In that sense, for any form of governance, the "unsaid" might be seen as fundamental to both "sustainable development" and to the "sustainable illusion of development" -- corresponding to the ambiguous relationship between leadership and misleadership.

This framing highlights the possibility that the unasked question is associated with an "inconvenient truth" -- the notion promoted in relation to climate change by Al Gore (An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, 2007). The challenge associated with this framing is that the successful identification of a singular "inconvenient truth" (as with climate change) engenders a form of faith that it is the singular and most important strategic focus for governance.

Climate change, for example, is then promoted as the most important problem facing humanity and its survival -- as was terrorism before it, and others to come (Promoting a Singular Global Threat -- Terrorism Strategy of choice for world governance, 2002; Terror as Distractant from More Deadly Global Threats: bewitching world of definitional game-playing, 2009). However, at the core of the faith in this framing is an unasked question.

More generally, therefore, the unasked question is intimately related to engagement with inconvenience (An Inconvenient Truth -- about any inconvenient truth, 2008)

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