Mantras that look like plans

Abstract

Lotman defines two modes of communication: the old sender-receiver type and another, which is called autocommunication. In the first type, new information is given to the receiver, newspapers add information to our existing knowledge. The second mode is communication to oneself: typical of this mode are meditation formulas, novels that are read many times by the same persons, and art in general. It does not add knowledge in the quantitative sense. It enhances readers ego.

But any message, even a plan or a corporate report, can be read this way, in the autocommunicational meditational way. Plans are often mantras which organizations read to themselves, saying time and again: “This is what we should look like”. Seemingly disappointing planning has its purpose: finding an image, giving new cues, focusing of mind, giving enthusiasm.