IV. Paradoxicality

The more we seek to make the world controllable, the less controllable it becomes. The pursuit of ultimate controllability is not only futile but also contradictory, in the sense that, in practice, it turns into its opposite—that is, it triggers experiences of uncontrollability. We may seek to make the world controllable by virtue of significant civilizational achievements (such as science, technology, the economy, the judiciary, culture, morality, politics, and so forth). Yet, despite our best efforts, it presents itself to us as constitutively uncontrollable. To the degree that we, both individually and collectively, prioritize the pursuit of instrumental appropriation over the engagement with adaptive transformation, we get caught in a relation of relationlessness, thereby losing our ability—and failing to attend to our need—to be called, to be reached, and to experience resonance.