Perceiving complexity (part 11)
Part of the series Perceiving complexity
⟵ Perceiving complexity (part 10)
To go further in exploring the ideas from the previous parts of this series, first I would need to present some cultural influences that had an important role in shaping up this perception. All of these cultural influences are much more extended in scope than what is below in this general part (I intend to write more in detail about each of them separately). What follows here is only about aspects relevant to the topics I am interested in at this moment.
I am going to start with the Albanian side. The relevant part here is how the women have a way to awaken in men a psychological state of mind with a specific immersion in the raw reality perspective. For example, see Mbretereshe Bukurie of the Mustafa Sisters. The song begins with the singers creating this state of mind and then, by the end, from 2:50, the instrumental part of the music enters in it. In this wedding celebration from a Kosovar town, the men shooting in the air express well this state of mind.
In time, as my immersion in these psychological topics grew, combined with real life experiences and trying to make sense of all of this in collaboration with the other cultural backgrounds, I also found valuable a specific Albanian way to have a more elaborated masculine immersion in this state of mind. I don’t know if in the past the men figured this out by themselves, but I’d rather start with a female example, like in Qaj lulie nen hije te molles from the album Vajzat nga Kosova (“Girls from Kosovo”, the names of the singers are not specified in the YouTube video). The song begins with a wind instrument expressing that supremacist tone a man tends to have in this state of mind. Then it follows the female singer with an expressivity that makes understandable for a masculine mind how it can make more sense of this raw reality complex psychological environment and not be so all over the place. She is able to do this by having herself some understanding of how the masculine mind works and create some bridges to open the mind of the man.
In Do Marr Çiften of Jarek Muço, you can hear an example of a man who got the hang of this specific Albanian reorganized masculinity with a new overall approach that takes in consideration the mental abyss and the fluidity of the raw reality perspective. (This is also about some regional differences, the southern Albanians tend to cultivate more this reorganized masculinity.)
Still, this is not the end of the story. If you got the idea, the Albanian femininity may melt even more the static masculine organization, like in this interpretation of Do Marr Çiften by Aurela Gaçe or in this Çu Mbush Mali of the same singer. This is an environment in which you can realize better how the fluid masculinity can work with the abyssal raw reality perspective (but it can also mess up your life, you need to assume responsibilities).
Now, about the Altaic perspective relevant here (the extended version is in the series The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin). A valuable aspect is the possibility to think with a plurality of thought threads, like the plurality of TV sets in Yar Ali Senden Medet of the Turkish singer Yıldız Tilbe. The catastrophic imagery reflects the probable initial development of this possibility to think in very difficult circumstances (and there are some propensities to pay attention to such difficult, catastrophic angles). But it can also be more relaxed and lighthearted as in Şinanay (translation) of the Turkish singer Sezen Aksu.
This ability to work with a plurality of perspectives makes possible Altaic polities able to provide a framework for a variety of ethnic groups and religions. The Ottoman millet system is the best known, but there were many others in history. The Ottoman rulers did not behave like typical Muslim leaders, they took an interest in every religious group and established top institutions for each of them in Istanbul. Something like this makes possible for me to have a flourishing plurality of cultural backgrounds, there is an “Ottoman Istanbul” in my mind. But in my case it is not really like shepherding all these cultural identities as it was in the Ottoman case, the sense of different cultures with different points of view is much more deepened. If I had a “faithful millet (community)” approach, I would not have been able to really be myself in all these mindsets.
Other valuable Altaic mindset feature that comes to my mind is the psychological possibility of not just working with the existing situation, but also letting unfold the raw reality perspective in your mind while still having a sense of self, not losing myself, something like in İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir (“Consistent fantasy is reality”, translation in the description of the video) of the Turkish singer Gaye Su Akyol. With such an unfoldment, you notice all kind of unexpected points of view (the cultural environment makes possible for men to use this approach too, it is something understandable for the men who wish to use it). The people taken in the bus are like the plurality of thought threads I wrote about before.
Another aspect that I found valuable in the Altaic mindset (that can be used by men too) is the possibility to study such complex psychological landscapes as revealed in the previous video until you reach a more authentic understanding of the situation. It can be like in Uyansın (“Wake up”) of the Turkish singer Neslihan Demirtaş. The singer processes the situation from two points of view, one with her as a person part of the “meaningful world” and one with her in the raw reality perspective watching herself in the “meaningful world” like in a video (like in the Earth — Moon allegory).
The mind moves as needed between these two points of view and keeps repeating the raw reality fluid unfolding of the situation, each time noticing unexpected points of view. For some time, even with the new points of view noticed you still don’t feel you got to the bottom of the situation. You understood something new when you let unfold the vivacity of the moment in your mind, but you still feel that something escapes your understanding. Then you let unfold again the vivid raw reality “video” in your mind, again new points of view building on top of the previous discoveries and changing to some extent the previous perceptions, but maybe it still does not feel like an authentic understanding. You keep unfolding the situation in your mind until “the grasshoper hops”, like at the end of the video, a sensation that you have now an understanding of the situation that is by leaps and bounds better than your previous perceptions. It is the moment when you feel you have a deep authentic understanding that can take in consideration the raw reality perspective, they now go along well.
Basically, this is about seeing the situation afresh in your mind, new points of view appear, but this creates a new “meaningful world” plateau in the mind. And you still feel there is something not corresponding to the raw reality perception of the situation you get. Then you discard the new plateau and let unfold again the situation afresh in the mind, new points of view building on top of the now enriched understanding with the help of the previous points of view.
These intermediary points of view are helpful, it is necessary to really live them. But with new unfoldments of the freshness of the situation you notice further aspects that give a deeper understanding. And so on, until you sense that the conscious understanding of the situation goes along well with what you feel when you are mentally immersed in the raw reality perspective (and you feel that “the grasshopper hops”). You should however pay attention that a “grasshopper hopping” moment is not necessarily the final verdict. Later on, new aspects may appear around the situation and then you repeat the process until the “grasshopper hops” again.
I did not find musical examples about men using well these psychological tools and these two with female characters are rather about classical feminine use (with specific Altaic feminine nuances). In the former case, the woman unleashes raw reality perspectives, but the bus “breaks down” at a certain point. Then she develops an expressivity so that other people may sense how “being out of the Matrix” has an unexpected life of its own, until she receives male appreciation.
A Turkish masculine use of this unfoldment is not interested in getting the appreciation of someone with organizational capabilities to lean mentally on. From the start it is not intended for classical feminine dribbling of the masculine organization, but for organization itself, an organization with a very different core than the classical masculine one.
For the other case, in Uyansın, this psychological option is used there because the need arose (how to deal with the psychological aspects of a conflict with a lover). The masculine use is more general, as a quest into the unknown, once they got the hang of it. Of course, the women can do this too if they do not lean too much on the man and some of them do.
Eğer Adem İsen of the Turkish singer Nilüfer Sarıtaş can be a good example of a feminine quest into the psychological unknown. Only that it just expresses the vibe, it does not show visually the actual process like in İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir and Uyansın and I had to use first these two videos to explain the process.
Also, this is Alevi religious music, the Alevi mindset is more open to feminine input and it can be a good environment for cultivating such direct feminine expressivity. This elaborate psychological quest is the result of a to and fro movement of perceptions between genders along many generations. The feminine expressivity from Eğer Adem İsen has some nuances originating from specific masculine immersion and relationing with this state of mind. There was and it continues to unfold a long-term to and fro movement of perceptions between genders around the explorations of psychological depths.
And, regarding the men, this is about men who strive to work properly with these valuable psychological tools. Lots of Turkish men are in fact very messed up because they have the awareness of these tools, the local culture is imbued with them, but they do not pay proper attention to them. For this I have lots of musical examples, see İstanbul’un Babası (“The boss of Istanbul”) of Hasan Yılmaz. A truck driver waiting at the customs house, his mind slides into the possibilities to let your mind unfold in that fluid manner that was honed by lots of generations of Turkish ancestors. The unfoldment has some complexity, it is not linear, it is not only about him being the boss, it is with him from a variety of perspectives, but he sees it with classical masculine eyes without paying proper attention to the depth of these perspectives (which can mess up your life). Compare this with the psychological immersion from the novel My Name is Red of Orhan Pamuk. Or the film Rashomon of Akira Kurosawa (which originated the term “Rashomon effect” for the immersion in a variety of points of views about the same situation).
