MSC Maximal Stress Cooperation: The Driving Force of Cultures

71 Pages·2005·0.25 MB·English

by  Heiner Muhlmann

W
Heiner Mühlmann
M S C
Maximal Stress Cooperation
The Driving Force of Cultures
SpringerWienNewYork
Prof. Dr. Heiner Mühlmann
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Foreword
In 1996 my book ‘The Nature of Cultures’ appeared in Vien-
na and New York. It describes cultures as systems which are
controlled by MSC and decorum. While MSC is a neologism
meaning ‘maximal stress cooperation’ decorum is a very old
term. It is as old as Western culture itself, and is furthermore,
the translation of the even older Greek word ‘prepon’. Decorum
and prepon mean ‘to be suitable, to be fitting’. It is all about
the fitting of cultural medial contents to elementary cultural
behavioural types and behavioural phases. These behavioural
units are subject to a type of ranking system in which that
which is essential is sorted from that which less essential. De-
corum then means – the representations of the media must ‘fit’
the ranking of the cultural behaviour. It is MSC which assumes
the top position in this ranking.
In 1996 and the two previous years when I was working on my
book ‘The Nature of Cultures’ less than 5 years had passed
since the Iron Curtain had been lifted. Many believed at that
time that with ending of the Cold War, which was more or less
de facto peace anyway, that a new and better age of peace was
dawning.
At this time, I claimed with my book that all cultures without
exception; the Graeco, the Roman, the Renaissance cultures of
Europe and the USA as well as subcultures, hooligan cultures,
cultures involving accomplices and mobbing cultures are all
controlled by the MSC decorum principle where MSC stands
for maximal stress, war and possibly collective death.
I developed the MSC theory without paying too much attention
to the political events surrounding me in the first half of the 90’s.
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My most important fields of observation were the instructional
texts on the rules governing Roman rhetoric, Italian humanism
and the Italian Renaissance because I consider these epochs to
be the key epochs of Western culture. Observations stemming
from research in the fields of stress, artificial life and hooligan
and marginal cultures were also of great assistance to me.
Despite the fact, or perhaps for the very reason, that it was
estranged from current events, the MSC decorum theory con-
tained a formidable potential as far as prediction was con-
cerned, because it maintained that all cultures are aggressive,
and that one should distrust all cultures above all; one’s own.
When one puts forward a theory based on observations of the
last 2,500 years, and when the main claims of this theory are
confirmed by subsequent events it is hardly surprising that one
tends to assume – that is the way it always is!
Cultures are controlled by MSC decorum. That is the way it
always will be unless we manage to get to grips with the organi-
sational core of MSC and decorum.
The essay that my reader has before him is an update of ‘The
Nature of Cultures’. Since 1996 the focus of my research has
shifted to neurobiology concentrating on the connections be-
tween enculturation, memory and emotion. This is because
MSC releases strong emotions, and it is emotions which favour
the transgenerational memory.
Culture is nothing more than the stability of the transgenera-
tional memory
Essel, June 2004
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MSC – Maximal Stress Cooperation
The terrorist attack of 11th September 2001 was an MSC-in-
cident
MSC is the abbreviation for “maximal stress cooperation”.
On that day, everywhere in the world people watched the tops
of the twin towers burning. They seemed strangely small since
it was not possible to judge their actual size on the TV screen
as there was nothing there which to compare them with. Only
one thing was certain, and that was that there were a lot of
people inside those towers.
I followed the events on the one television in our house. It is lo-
cated in a rather uncomfortable room on the first floor. My wife
had called me. As I entered she made some comment to the
effect that she didn’t really understand what she was seeing.
We switched over to CNN at sometime. I couldn’t help think-
ing how the people above the smoking storeys might manage to
reach the lower floors where they could be saved with all the
other people.
The CNN coverage alternated between New York and the at-
tack on the Pentagon in Washington. As we were watching the
pictures from Washington a voice in the studio announced that
both towers had completely collapsed. This spoken announce-
ment filled me with alarm. I saw in front of my inner eye a fleet-
ing image of all the people in all the collapsing storeys.
This event created a stressor for all those who saw it on televi-
sion. Mankind had witnessed something for which it had no
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name. Many people went to church. It took several weeks until
their behaviour, so stunned as they were by the events, normal-
ized again. Most people had no desire for entertainment or the
like, and the television channels dropped all forms of enter-
tainment in their programmes.
After a few weeks, at least in Europe, everything was more or
less back to normal. But not so in the USA. The larger part of
the American people’s consciousness judged the events of 11th
September not as a once-in-a-lifetime shock but rather as the
triggering off of a permanent alteration of their own situation.
For the Europeans on the other hand, everything seemed like a
singular, nightmarish catastrophe.
For the functioning of cultures however, one of the circum-
stances connected with the events of 11th September is of the
greatest importance. Everybody can remember exactly where
he or she was as they heard about the attack on the towers in
New York. In my case it was while passing the door to our TV-
room and hearing my wife’s shocked voice.
On the 11th of March 2004, a few days before the Spanish gen-
eral election another attack took place, this time in Madrid.
The course of events is well-known – several bombs were set
off simultaneously in crowded local trains. Nearly 200 people
were killed. The pro-American government probably realized
immediately what the strategic objectives of the Islamic ter-
rorists were, i.e. to influence the coming election in favour of
opponents to the war in Iraq. The government attempted to
blame the Basque separatist organization ETA for the attack.
This would have benefited the government in power at that
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time since it had made every effort to combat national terror-
ism and the electorate was fully aware of this. But the people
saw through the attempted deception. The pacifist opposition
won the election and the new President’s first act was to with-
draw Spanish troops from Iraq. As a result of this the terrorists
promised Spain an armistice.
By announcing its withdrawal of troops, Spain promoted Kaida
type terrorism to the ranks of a strategy. Whereas previous ter-
rorist attacks had only had the effect of being big or very big
disasters, the terrorist attack of the 11th March succeeded in
implementing a premeditated political objective.
And this was not the only thing which was achieved; the Kaida
terrorist attacks start to form a coherent chain of events which
seem to make sense. Because a purposeful causal relationship
was produced by one incident of this chain, thus the whole
chain gains sense and the sense of the sequence is henceforth
transferred on to every single incident which would have oth-
erwise been judged as a mere disturbance in a chain of distur-
bances.
Both terrorist attacks of 11th September and 11th March are
MSC events. They release maximal (M) stress (S) and cause
strong phases of cooperation on numerous levels: the coopera-
tion of the terrorists, cooperation of the rescuers, cooperation
of the victims, their families and friends, the cooperation of the
police and military units.
Two results are however of special importance for the analysis
of stress. The USA reacted to the stressor by attacking; Spain
reacted by retreating.
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Stress physiology belongs to the organism’s cognitive systems and
the cognitive result triggered off by the perception of a stressor is
the binary reaction system ‘fight or flight’ – attack or retreat.
But what is stress exactly and how does it work? How am I jus-
tified in claiming that stress is a cognitive process?
As soon as the individual recognizes a stressor – a stressor is a
threat, a danger or a physical act of aggression, regions of the
brain i.e. the hypothalamus and the pituitary begin to release
certain hormones and neurotransmitters. The pituitary forms
the interface between the brain and the endocrine system for the
brain is also a gland. The endocrine system is the bloodstream.
It is used by the hormones as a transport channel to reach dis-
tant parts of the body where they trigger the release of further
hormones. In the case of the stress reaction the hormones nor-
adrenaline and adrenaline are produced. They belong to the
family of catecholamines and cause acceleration of the cardiac
frequency and increase in blood pressure. A further important
stress hormone is cortisol which is produced in the adrenal
gland and regulates such functions as the appetite and sleep.
Under the influence of stress, noradrenaline, adrenaline and
cortisol secretion is increased. This has the following effect;
cardiac and circulatory functions are intensified, metabolism,
immunity and sexual activity however are weakened. In this
way all the organism’s energy reserves are channelled into the
skeletal muscles in order optimise their motor abilities. They
are used for fight or flight. In addition neural areas in charge of
rapid perception and fast reaction are also strengthened. Stress
physiology is thus a cognitive process by which a perception is
transformed into a flow of energy.
Of even greater importance than the stress itself is the happy
ending of the stress phase. It is here, that a second aspect of
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