Nexus State Theory

The need for the Sacred

Most scriptless theories posit some sacred being that is scriptless.  I call this the Sacred.  This is the Tao, for Taoists; this is Thou, for Martin Buber; this is God, for the mystics; this is Death and Meaning, for the Terror Management Theorists; this is Being, for Heidegger; this is the Real, for Lacan.  The Sacred can be viewed as plural (there are multiple Thous in the world) or as singular (there is one Tao).

The Sacred is often defined in mystical or playful terms – it can’t be expressed in words or narratives, otherwise it would just be another script.  My own Sacred idea is “zell.”  zell are particles of communication.  The insight is that we don’t always encounter another person directly, as implied by I and Thou – we can only tell stories about their internal experience – but we do encounter their communication directly.  We can respond authentically to their words, as we have heard them.  The words are made up of photons (light) or phonons (sound) – although “zell” aren’t meant to be literal photons or phonons.  (After all, we cannot see individual photons).

Zell can be mind zell (thoughts), heart zell (emotions), body zell (physicality), action zell (actions), or soul zell (narratives).  It can also be world zell (from the world beyond humans – perhaps inanimate objects).

Meta-scriptlessness

It is important that we are free to have habits, traditions, and other scripts.  Being scriptless does not mean that we cannot have scripts.  After all, “we cannot have scripts” sounds like yet another script-like prohibition.

It is important that only we can decide what kinds of scripts we do and don’t want to have.  Ultimately, we are free to refuse but also to accept any scripts we want to have.  There is no generalized “contract never to participate in contracts.”

Part of meta-scriptlessness involves respecting differences where one person thinks scripts apply and the other doesn’t.  For instance, if Alice thinks that Bob’s situation is fluid and changeable – and can be changed to match what Alice wants Bob to do – while Bob thinks that that part of him is fixed and unchangeable – a script that he needs for survival – then that disagreement itself can be allowed to stand.

The origin of scripts

1. Where do scripts come from?

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Terror Management Theorist: When we talk about “scripts” in human life—the patterns people follow in behavior, thought, even identity—I think they come primarily from the fear of death. That fear drives people to cling to cultural norms, to seek status, to prove their life has meaning. Conformity and status are the building blocks.

Attachment Therapist: I see it differently. To me, scripts are born out of our earliest bonds. The child learns: “If I reach out, will someone come? If I pull away, will they still care?” Those early answers shape everything—our drive to approach others or to withdraw.

TM Theorist: But what is abandonment, if not a shadow of death? The infant cries because absence feels like annihilation. Later, we layer culture on top: status, recognition, belonging. They’re all defenses against the terror that life ends. And yet, when people can face that fact without panic, they often find more peace—because uncertainty no longer rules them.

Attachment Therapist: Or perhaps death only becomes terrifying because we first learn what it is to be left alone. When a baby’s cry meets silence, the world feels empty. That emptiness is the first loss. But when a baby’s cry meets comfort, an unscripted encounter begins—one of trust, openness, and the confidence to explore. Those secure interactions echo just as loudly as the fearful ones.

[Silence for a moment, both reflecting.]

TM Theorist: Maybe the scripts have two sources—one in mortality, one in separation. But perhaps both also point toward an unscripted freedom: either in accepting death, or in learning to love securely.

Attachment Therapist: And perhaps the challenge is noticing when we’re following a script —and remembering that we can sometimes choose whether to follow it.

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Where do scripts come from?  Here are a few possible answers.

• Lacan: Scripts related to the Symbolic order, the system of language, law, and discourse that structures desire. That order is always linked to power — the “Big Other” that defines roles and meanings.
• Sociology/Anthropology: Scripts emerge from hierarchical society: rules, rituals, social roles, etiquette, legal codes — all to stabilize large groups and maintain stratification.
• Confucianism: codifies li (ritual, propriety) → a social technology for maintaining hierarchy and obedience.
• Christianity (the “world” / kosmos): often read as the Roman imperial order — the script of domination, wealth, honor, law.  But the church has its own scripts, as well.
• TMT (Terror Management Theory): Scripts are also buffers against death — cultural systems of meaning that tell us what to do, how to live, and what comes after.
• Attachment Theory: Scripts are buffers against relational fear; the child fears being abandoned or neglected by their parents.

So: scripts come from power and fear — they’re how hierarchies control bodies, and how humans manage mortality and abandonment.  The script says “We’ll never let that happen again.”

2. Where does scriptlessness come from?

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Bob: Alice, I really think sticking to the district’s scripted lessons will save you time. Everything’s laid out—examples, pacing, even the questions. It keeps us consistent across classrooms.

Alice: I get that, Bob, but I’m going to push back.  My students don’t all move at the same speed. When I follow a script too closely, I lose the chance to pause, notice confusion, or chase their curiosity.

Bob: Sure, but without structure, some kids fall through the cracks. The script makes sure they at least get the essentials.

Alice: And yet, sometimes the essentials click best when I improvise—using their own ideas or struggles in the moment. I’d rather give them understanding than just coverage.

Bob: Maybe there’s a middle ground: lean on the script for structure, but leave yourself room to improvise.

Alice: Now that sounds like a script I could follow.

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• Scriptlessness often arises as a pushback:
  • Taoism against Confucian hierarchy.
  • Greek philosophy (aporia, Socratic dialogue) against sophistry, political rhetoric, and rigid polis roles.
  • Hebrew prophets / wisdom literature (Ecclesiastes, Job, Jesus later on) against rote law and imperial order.
  • Buddhism against Vedic ritualism and caste.
• “Thinking class” or “spiritual class” figures – like Lao Tzu, Socrates, the Buddha, or even Descartes – sought freedom to pursue truth, contemplation, or authenticity — which required resisting rigid scripts.  The pushback does not necessarily mean a violent revolution: it’s partly saying “leave me alone so I can do my job.”  If the thinking class isn’t given some liberty, it can’t even serve the military class, let alone pursue its own interests.

3. Axial Age framing

• Karl Jaspers famously coined the “Axial Age” (800–200 BCE): when reflective, transcendent, “scriptless” traditions arose across Greece, Israel, India, and China.
• Coinage, literacy, and larger empires created both bureaucratic scripts (laws, hierarchies) and philosophical pushback (the space for thought beyond those scripts).
• Where military or imperial power was too centralized (e.g. Persia or Sparta), the scriptless voices were weaker or more tightly controlled, because the military is more script-like than the meritocratic intellectual class.  This is why philosophy emerged in smaller scale societies – in Athens, in Confucius’ state of Lu, and in Israel – rather than in Sparta, Persia, Qin, Magadha, or Babylon – the large empires of the time.

4. Summary

• Scripts: arise from hierarchical, military, imperial orders that need predictable behavior, social stability, and symbolic authority.  These orders justify themselves via laws and myths.  Scripts also arise from other fears, such as death and abandonment.
• Scriptlessness: emerges as the counter-current of philosophers, mystics, and sages, often urban and literate, who could reflect critically and needed conceptual freedom in order to do their jobs.
• In a sense: scriptlessness is the thinking class’s survival strategy under domination — and it becomes a path to truth, authenticity, and freedom.  This freedom is no different from what hunter gatherers had all along; but it had to be won back from the hierarchical system.  That is, hunter gatherers were generally free from coercive control; hierarchy was established in order to provide social cohesion.  There is, perhaps, a tradeoff between hierarchical social cohesion and scriptlessness.

In short: scripts come from power and fear; scriptlessness arises from reflection and resistance. The Axial Age gave the conditions (coins, literacy, cities, empires) for this tension to explode into philosophy, mysticism, and critical thought.