Unseen Distortions Beneath the Surface
Why does this Mobius looping happen?
Because underneath the visible form, the invisible dynamics of the Domination System have not been addressed. We carry into our PsuedoTransformation the same psychological and cultural distortions that plagued the Master's House. Some of these deep distortions include:
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Artificial Containment: Our ways of thinking are often stuck in artificial bounds. We try to fit living systems into static models and binaries inherited from the dominator culture. This creates a closed loop that keeps new ideas “within S³ (spherical) containment”, curving them back into the center of the old paradigm. The result is an illusion of change: the form is new, but the field of possibilities is still tightly circumscribed. Truly regenerative systems require breaking out of this containment to access a wider, more open geometry of relationship.
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Scapegoat Logic: Unresolved mimetic rivalries (unconscious competition and envy) often lead groups to fall back on scapegoating. This is the ancient pattern René Girard described, where communities bond by projecting blame for their troubles onto a sacrificial victim. The “scapegoat mechanism” channels collective aggression toward one target and thus temporarily restores order. In a network styled after mycelium, scapegoat logic might still arise if tensions are not confronted consciously – the group may quietly single out “the obstacle” or dissenter as the reason the utopian experiment isn't working. This allows the core power dynamics to go unchallenged, preserving the illusion that the system itself is fine (and only the scapegoat was the problem).
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Collective Narcissism: Human networks can suffer from a kind of group ego. Collective narcissism is the tendency of an in-group to exaggerate its own greatness and special destiny. In practice, this looks like a movement or community becoming self-congratulatory – convinced it is more enlightened than “mainstream” society – and thus blind to its own shadows. Collective narcissism fuels echo chambers and defensive denial of criticism. In a mycelial metaphor context, a collective narcissistic mindset might relish being “the regenerative vanguard” while subtly replicating elitism or exclusion. The group's story of its special role can override honest feedback from outside or within, preventing the humility needed for real transformation.
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The Measurement Cut: This refers to the slicing of reality by our frameworks of observation and quantification. In science, a measurement “collapse” reduces a cloud of possibilities into one concrete outcome. Likewise, in social design we often impose metrics, categories, and definitions that collapse the dimensional richness of human experience into narrow data points. The “agential cut” is a decision that carves up an open field of becoming into a fixed, enforceable form. If a new system remains obsessed with measurement and control (demanding that everything be legible, countable, on a dashboard), it inadvertently forces and loops living relationships into the Master's House. The very act of trying to “capture” a "higher order" in our usual conceptual net can kill its essence.
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Anti-Information: Not all signals in a system carry truth – some actively block it. In information theory terms, anti-information is like a virus of misdirection: false or superficial narratives that "not only block accurate information but actively replace it with falsehoods.". In the context of regenerative language, anti-information can take the form of buzzwords and feel-good narratives that mask what is really happening. For instance, an organization might brand itself with words like “holistic, networked, and adaptive,” crafting a story of positive change that in reality papers over internal dysfunction. This creates a self-congratulatory bubble that resists critical insights (much as a biological virus evades the immune system). If we all start repeating the marketing – “We are a fungal network of empowerment!” – while ignoring unresolved conflicts or power imbalances, the feel-good language itself becomes a barrier to seeing clearly.
Each of these distortions acts as a kind of gravitational pull, bending the trajectory of change back toward the familiar. They are the hidden variables that ensure a mycelial experiment, if not consciously tended at the relational and perceptual level, will default to old habits. In essence, the invisible curve lives in these unseen dynamics. Without addressing them, we end up imitating patterns instead of catalyzing a new paradigm.