In gaining another perspective on the power (and limitations) of the Monad, we can return once more to Edwin Abbott’s Flatland. Abbot not only explores a two-dimensional world but a world that would contain only one dimension. In such a world, there would only be points. Abbott focuses in particular on the arrogance found among those living in pointland. If there is only one perspective, then it is easy to believe that this perspective is correct – perhaps even God-given. The inhabitant of pointland to which Abbott directed his attention, was not only unwilling to entertain the possibility that there was a second dimension; this point-character was also quite angry that someone from flatland (two-dimensions) would dare to upset the tranquility of life on a point.
If we expand a bit on Abbott’s pointland, we might conceive of one-dimensional life as being led in a thin tube, with only forward and backward. One would be traveling through this tube, meeting other people (represented as points) within this confined space. The meeting would be interpreted as nothing but an intrusion on the journey through the tube. There is no getting around the other point. They serve simply (and annoyingly) as a barrier to further progress through the tube. No wonder that it would be particularly upsetting for the point-person to meet someone in the tube who is not only blocking progress but also suggesting that there is something more than the tube. As someone living in one-dimension, we would wish the disruptive point-person to somehow leave the tube or disappear. Such is the way of people living in the three-dimensional world of 21st Century life, who choose to live in one dimension.
I am reminded of the journey one can take on a Labyrinth. This is a single-dimension pathway on which one walks with the purpose of reaching an endpoint. Along the way, one moves inward toward this endpoint, but then away from the end point to the outer edges of the labyrinth. While traversing the labyrinth one gains insights into the way life events move us toward and away from envisioned life purposes.
It is worth noting that the original labyrinth, by some accounts, existed on the island of Crete. It was a tunnel that led those traversing its one-dimensional space on a long journey. Somewhere residing in the labyrinth, was a monstrous Minotaur. One could hear the roar of the Minotaur while trudging through the labyrinth. Yet, the journey continued, despite the threat of confronting this beast. This myth of a long labyrinth and fearful Minotaur seems to represent not just a life journey that is filled with ups and downs, movements towards and away from a life purpose, but also a life journey filled with the perils of attacking monsters (what Robert Sapolsky would identify as our imagined attacking lions).
I am also reminded of Bong Joon-ho’s movie called Snowpiercer, in which people are living full-time on a train that is traveling through a world that has been destroyed by climate change. Much as in the case of Abbott’s Flatland, Bong’s society on the train is highly stratified, with the “upper-class” living at the front of the train, and the “lower-class” living at the back of the train. A class-revolt is represented in this movie. It occurs where the upper-class and lower-class meet at a midpoint on the train.
