Imminent (Double)Agents

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Much as experiences can be tied down by definitions and labels, we, as individuals, can also become anchored, when we become ‘types’. This links in with our earlier discussion of mindlessness: when an individual sets narrow city limits and lives by a number of fixed meanings, they risk becoming mindless to the alternatives that are latent within them. These alternatives tend to become unconscious (the individual becomes unaware of his own, alternate, possibilities) and are then projected onto others, who then run the risk of being condemned by the individual for deviating too far from their ‘type’ (their meanings, values, etc.).

To become too much of a particular type – to transcend the sea, the plane of imminence – is to rise too far from the ground. The heights of transcendence are cloudy, and in rising the individual risks losing visibility. From up high he can no longer see or communicate with other types, his ability to interact on a wider level curtailed.

In this way society becomes compartmentalized (and, as we’ve seen, specialized). If we decide that it is important for lines of communication to stay open, then we need those who have not risen, or have not risen to the point at which their visibility is impaired. Those that can skirt the surface, slip between types and carry messages from one to the other. These would be the oil between the gears, the liquid between the solid, slipping and sliding and keeping things turning smoothly.

These people are imminent people, and they embody the psychic hermaphrodite. We have come to refer to some of them as artists, although, as we already touched upon, another name could as easily be used. The value of the artist is his imminence, his ability to slip, slide, and swim; to carry messages from one vessel to another.



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