Page 155 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

130 Guy Poitevin

1. In heaven:
– Debarred from heaven; access absolutely prohibited.
+ Can stay and move only on earth, their sole domain.
2. On earth:
+ Keep celestials in check; bring down gods to their feet.
– Eventually deluded by gods, who circumvent them.

Finally, whatever may be the changes occurring in the initial balance
of power, the processes that take place result in the original state of
unequal relation of power being not only preserved but reinforced.

Patterns of Power
Three patterns may be pointed out. First, the fact of an unequal
balance of power prevailing between the spheres of earth and heaven
is taken for granted as a hierarchical constitutive set-up that needs
neither explanation nor justification, and stands beyond challenge.
The celestials reign unchallenged in heaven, and successfully control
any challenge coming from the terrestrials. This unsaid fact stands
by itself as an evident truth. The overall semantics of the narrative
makes sense within that symbolic pattern only. Conflicts may alter
that balance only temporarily. Any imbalance affecting the pattern will
find a mode of resolution leading to the re-establishment of the state
of original unequal balance.
Second, this mode of resolution appears as an in-built dialectic in-
herently constitutive of the very attempts to reverse the pattern. Such
reversals prove self-deceptive. Self-assertion inverts itself into self-
-
delusion. Vayu’s retaliatory self-assertion mellows into the compensa-
tory mental gratification granted by the gods’ unconditional apology.
Third, the narrative in fact stages three agencies. The play is ter-
nary. Besides the two main protagonists, the third decisive agency is
the donkey. This personage belongs to earth, but as an agent to no
party. Co-opted by the first party to side with him, he has no particular
interest to do so. He operates as a sort of mercenary who is rewarded
for his services. No wonder he shifts his loyalty as soon as he secures
a better reward and a greater mental satisfaction through obliging
another master. He then forgets his first master with no uncertain-
ties. The weakest character in the drama and least significant, without
his knowing he happens to play a decisive part but as a wild card.