The Culture Wars: Diversity in Time vs. Diversity in Space?

How cutting-edge metaphysics may help us understand the great socio-political phenomenon of our times.

I sometimes feel that here in the middle of the third decade of the 21st century we have a genius philosopher in our midst. Indeed I suspect there may be many genius philosophers at present, but one who stands out to me is Bernardo Kastrup. He is prickly, challenging, sometimes wayward, but he is also fresh, inventive, sympathetic and utterly brilliant. If you haven’t read his works or watched out his videos I urge you to do so. You may of course realise that his ideas (or personality) are not your cup of tea which is fine, but hopefully you won’t deny that he is coherently attempting to answer some of the biggest metaphysical questions in science and philosophy.

I listened to an audio transcript of one of his essays, How Time Creates Identity last night while lying in the bath. In it he discusses a key element of the analytic idealism that he subscribes to: the fact that we are all alters of a universal consciousness. Yes it’s deep stuff, but to help the sceptics to get a grip on it, Kastrup comes at it from hard science - physics, quantum mechanics and such. Anyway, his essay explored what he termed the dissociation of consciousness in space and time; that is, the dimensions of material reality (see also Einstein). I was struck by his proposal that we find it easier to understand the dissociation of consciousness across time rather than space. Clearly I will need to explain further.

As Kastrup argued, we are all happy accepting the fact that our five year-old selves and our present selves are the same person, even if nearly everything about that younger (in his terms) alter is different from our present day being. However, in respect of the idea of dissociation, we find it difficult to accept a commonality with other concurrent alters (e.g. other people). He suggests that for some reason we comprehend time dissociation (younger self), better than space dissociation (other people). Kastrup goes all relativity on us and describes how space and time are the interchangeable dimensions of reality therefore we should not differentiate between dissociation in time and dissociation in space.

The above is the point I’d really like to explore in terms of sociology, but first I’d like to elaborate on this idea. While I was listening to the essay I thought to myself that our acceptance of dissociation over time may be easier because of the memory of consciousness. For example, I can remember being five year-old me. I can remember looking out of my own eyes and also some of my private thoughts on the day that I started school. This is why it is easy for me to accept that infant Peter is the same person as me today. Nevertheless, what is also interesting is my acceptance of the statement that one year-old Peter is also me. I have no memories of being one year-old. Why then do I assume that person is me? This is what Kastrup is getting at I think.

Apropos of this, he gives the example of being under general anaesthesia and having no memory of consciousness and time. He was still Bernardo Kastrup during that episode, but he has no memory of consciousness. Why then could we not suggest that Kastrup - or you an I - are dissociations of a universal consciousness, just without memory of either the consciousness of the universal, or of the other alters? Is there any logical difference between Kastrup sharing an unremembered consciousness with another alter or Kastrup sharing an unremembered consciousness with one year-old Bernardo or Kastrup sharing an unremembered consciousness with an anaesthetised Bernardo on a hospital gurney? For sure this stuff sounds quite far out initially, mainly because in our society we have been brought up with another (materialist) metaphysics, but if you start considering it deeply, the sense it makes blooms daily.

Anyway, I’m going to dial back on the metaphysics and apply some of these ideas to the comparatively mundane areas of society and politics. I used the phrase “culture wars” in the title partly as clickbait but also because the whole concept saddens me profoundly and I am seeking explanations for it. As one who has always intuitively been sensitive to the idea that despite our many differences we are one (hence the appeal of Kastrup’s metaphysics), the vitriol of this new divisive discourse has me despairing. Simply put, I don’t understand it. I’ve always been aware of between-group rivalry (indeed my first degree was Social Psychology and a 2nd year module was Group Processes). I have also sometimes been sympathetic to the protagonists in such conflicts (but have never been accepting of it). This new state of affairs is something else however.

Lying in bed early this morning, pondering Kastrup’s ideas, I thought about the nationalism which is frequently a feature of the culture wars. This seems to me to be a willingness to accept collective consciousness over time but not space. In other words they maintain an affinity with those who inhabited the same space (physical, cultural, genetic) in earlier time periods. One of many issues with this is that there is massive diversity over time. To take English nationalists as an example, ancient - or even medieval - England will have been vastly different from the present day. It has been well documented that modern English speakers would find it difficult to understand a speaker of old English. Old English sounds - to my untrained ear - much like Dutch or the Scandinavian languages. The culture and society of old and medieval England would also be so significantly other as to be foreign to contemporary Britons. Yet English nationalists tend to side with ancient England over present day Europeans. To me, this strikes me as acceptance of diversity across time, rather than space.

Indeed, would it be possible to argue that the modern English have more in common with not only modern Europeans, but modern Africans, Asians, Arabs, and others who are frequently on the receiving end of nationalist barbs? Where would a contemporary English nationalist survive best - in the London of 1100 A.D. or the Lisbon or indeed Lagos of 2023? I suspect the diversity across space would be less than some of the diversity across time, but some considerable research would be required to flesh out this idea. Nevertheless, this postulation may support Kastrup’s suggestion that we are biased to accept dissociation across time rather than across space. Furthermore, it illustrates the usefulness of the emerging new metaphysics and science. Not only does it lead us closer to Truth (as all good science should) it perhaps has applications and inspires theories and understandings across a broad spectrum of areas.