Critical theory, dot-to-dot drawings, mandalas, and Boris Johnson

Joining the dots

In order to better understand how society works, and how we are agents within it, I believe it may be helpful to conceptualize society through a critical lens as an animated 'dot-to-dot' drawing - a moving 3D picture that, in addition to form and content, has a time-constrained dimension of 'dynamism'.

We can consider the 'dynamism' (direction, speed, velocity, momentum, effects of drag, friction, and gravity) along vectors pertaining to established notions of values or paradigms, for example, conservatism and liberalism, or capitalism and socialism.

Do you remember the dot-to-dot illustration activities you did as a child? The ones where you had hold of the pencil, and were guided by two sets of forces: 1) external forces: the instructions printed to one side;  the location of the dots; the ascending numbers or alphabetical sequences; the previously learned rules for drawing activities; and the quality and type of the pencil; and 2) internal forces: concentration, motivation, skill-level, psychomotor individuality, and pencil-holding technique. The first gives form and shape to the picture, the second creating the line(s) on the paper.

Think of yourself as one of the dots, and your impact on the world around you (i.e. your every day actions and behaviours) the force for the lines being drawn to connect you.

Hello, dot. Nice to meet you.

Look around you, and see the vast array of  other dots spread out in all directions. These are other people. Unlike a normal dot-to-dot, you have not one line intersecting you, but many lines connecting you to innumerable other dots. As do all the other dots, forming complex associations and articulations. It's quite beautiful, you think to yourself. Like constellations in the night sky.

Down there on the piece of paper, in amongst all of these other specks busily synapsing, it's very hard to determine the shape of the image you are co-creating. It's like trying to see the shape of the entire Gangani Canyon whilst standing at one point on its surface. Or trying to discern the pattern of a mandala from the viewpoint of a single grain of sand within it.

Because you are a free dot, and in an animation, you have the ability to move your own position. You can shuffle in all directions, just a little bit, though you are never really sure if your movement makes any difference to the overall picture, nor if your  subtle propulsion and motility are ever entirely of your own volition. It could be your internal forces, or it could be some external force. Or more likely, both. In fact, you are never entirely sure if you are moving at all,  especially relative to your local community of dots, who may also be moving, too. 

The space inside the dots and their lines - the resulting image - is thus generated from the combined behaviours of all of the dots, that is to say, everyone in society. You wonder if it's their actions that are influenced by external forces. Or is it that the external forces are shaped by their actions? You ask the dot to your left and she says "internal forces". The dot to your right says "external". You nod to them, and say, "thank you for helping".

Imagine now that you are granted the opportunity to fly high above this mutating, moving model. Hovering over it, suspended in a helicopter and looking down with a birds-eye view, you see the dots, and the lines that connect them. You see its movement too. Where is it going? Worried, you glance up ahead at the horizon to see where it's heading...but it's not possible to discern.

Looking back down you notice one dot moving away from its nearest neighbours. Anchored to their master, its connecting lines bleed outwards too. The image's outline distorts. It's direction of travel alters. It's speed may have changed too, but you cannot be sure of it. The helicopter descends down to hover closer, close enough to see that this citizen-spot is... a politician!

Wow! Would you believe it? It's an MP vying to become PM! You look closer still, wondering what could be causing his vectored and shape-shifting behaviour - his dot-defining action, his line-leveraging impact. Your inquisivity is rewarded: It's his announcement - in response to concerns about his (not infrequent) use of racist language - that, "I will continue to speak as directly as I can, because that is what I think the British public want to hear." 

The helicopter jerks as it rapidly ascends, climbing higher than before. You look down and some other dots begin to gravitate towards this outlier. Other dots nearby experience after-effects, some like ripples in a lake, others a Brownian-like motion. On the other side of the mass, much farther away, lines strain under tension like fibres in a woolly cardigan when a stray thread is pulled, and pulled, and pulled.

You rise higher still and see that the combined pull of these gathering dots is distorting the entire shape of the image, and changing its movement too.

Now your helicopter ride is over.

You descend again and are set down, safely back on the page.

You have a renewed sense of the vibrations, the tensions, and the movements of the beautiful beast being drawn as it moves, and moving as it's drawn.

You feel your part in the picture, and the picture feels you. 

You look around at the constellation.