Borders and Membranes
Without defining differences, we cease to exist as individual beings and as nations of people
As I read through both volumes of Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter With Things, I wanted to share some thoughts from the book as I go through it.
Coming across McGilchrist’s discussion on the cell membrane and how its border is defining and freeing fit right into some of the current conflicts around national borders we are experiencing today. As we saw in Cueta, the disillusion of a border does not lead to a borderless harmony but a chaotic and amorphous zone of transit. But it is also careful to not overreact.
Our brain’s Left Hemisphere (LH) could logically put forth a plan that creates an impenetrable wall. Its internal logic, free of the Right Hemisphere’s (RH) nuance and context, would be sound. It would reject anything that didn’t fit its own logic as opposed to integrating it into a new concept of reality. We would lose any permeability and all relationships leading to stagnation and death.
So how do we deal with this problem? Just look to the nature of life and how it has survived and thrived for billions of years.
The Paradox of the Borders
Without borders between two things, there can be no things. This goes for cells, organs, people, homes, towns, cities, states, and nations. In Iain McGilchrist’s book, The Matter With Things, he makes this point about cell membranes specifically:
“The cell membrane is a (highly active) semi-conductor: it conducts some things across, while keeping some things out. This is what makes it possible for the cell to exist, to persist, and to embody a purpose. The membrane both says ‘no’ and does not say ‘no’. It doesn’t make the cell happen, but permits it to come into being - it is its ground of possibility.”
There is no definition without distinction. No entity can exist without having some type of separation between itself and whatever else it is not. Our cells have membranes, our bodies have skin, our homes have walls and doors, and our nations have borders. Without these levels of walls, the entities cease to exist. But those walls cannot be absolute—they cannot be a dead line. They must permit passage through a selective process that allows some things and inhibits others, all for the sake of the existence and potential of the being itself.
All of reality is best understood as relational. There is no dark without light, no day without night. In order to have a relationship—where at least two things exist in relation to each other—those things must have some defining difference. Difference preempts relationships, which means that those membranes and borders make relationships possible.
Cells as Framework for Existence
An important part of the concept McGilchrist points out is that differentiation is not the thing that brings life itself into existence. Rather, what it does is create the internal environment for that being to organize itself, to persist, and to manifest its purpose. But of course total closure is not the goal, nor is complete openness.
If totally isolated, the being would stagnate, decay, and cease to exist. But loss of identity and runaway entropy result if the being is completely open.
The sweet spot of identity and relationships exists in the active collaboration between the being and its environment, allowing it to decide what gets in and what does not.
Our Brains as Borders
Our nervous system acts—in part—as a regulator of sorts as well.
“It is not a coincidence that the human nervous system is derived from the embryonic skin [the ectoderm], the human counterpart of the cell’s membrane.”
Just like our skin, which acts as a border that permits and does not permit passage into us as individual beings, our nervous system makes similar decisions and is derived from the same tissue as our skin.
Even more particularly, in reference to Dr. McGilchrist’s brain hemisphere theory, the corpus callosum, which divides our brain into left and right hemispheres, not only facilitates the sharing of information between the two hemispheres, but also importantly inhibits information from crossing that border.
Not just a bridge to pass information back and forth, a hugely important part of the corpus callosum’s job is to inhibit information from being passed from left to right and/or from right to left. Which makes total sense. If we solely needed information to be shared, why not just have one entire mass without hemispheres? Suppressing noise is what allows either hemisphere to focus more on its task without being distracted by that which is unnecessary at the time.
For the LH, this allows a very sharp focal clarity. For the RH, this suppression of noise allows for a broader contextual synthesis.
Just imagine what would happen if there were no inhibition. Think of each hemisphere as a person with a distinct personality.
The LH, as it focuses sharply on a very specific and logical idea that requires removal from too much context, can get distracted by too many variables and “What if?” type problems. The RH, as it looks to incorporate multiple truths and paradoxes, can get distracted by too much focus on the particulars of a specific case removed from the overall patterns of existence.
This filtering is the framework for how anything in reality comes to exist. Inhibition is generative, not just restrictive. Without inhibition of some sort, everything would collapse into a gooey ectoplasm of nothing with no differentiation between one thing and the other. Nothing would exist.
From Cells to Nations
From the cell membrane, to the nervous system, to the brain itself and up through the individual human, boundaries are what define reality. Nothing exists without differentiation. These boundaries are not prisons from which to escape, but the canvas upon which we paint our individuality.
Our homes are another level of the same concept. Nobody builds a home without walls and doors. Even temporary shelters, like tents, have walls and doors. These become protected spaces for us as individuals and families that keep out those things we want out and allow us to regulate what gets to enter. Unauthorized entry is universally rejected and can even lead to justified homicide. That’s how seriously we take these borders.
All of our social structures follow this framework. From individual human beings with individual rights—which are nonsensical without defining an individual—all the way up to our homes, cities, states, and nations, borders are what define us, protect us, and create the situation that allows us to exist. Without a border at any of these levels, the being, community, or nation ceases to exist and becomes nothing but an amorphous transit zone.
Embracing “No”
Constraint is necessary for identity and freedom. What constraint is saying “no” to is entropy and chaos. We need the ability to resist both entropy and chaos in order to have the means to identify ourselves, our communities, and our nations. Borders as cell walls or national boundaries allow us to say “yes” to a coherent existence, free of chaos.
These restrictions are necessary for existence itself. Our personal lives and our institutions must be bound by definable limits in order to create the conditions for existence and preserve the ability for relationships with other entities.
Borders as a concept and as a reality are what make life possible.