A Notable Lack of Perfection
Feb. 9th, 2021 06:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
degringolade
Expressionism / Wolf Kahn/ Half Hidden
Ugo’s latest post seems to me to be pretty indicative of what is going on within the out of the way corners of the wasteland called the internet. Now, as I have always admitted, Ugo is one of my internet crushes along with Dmitri and JMG and and a few other bit players. But he is big enough on the web that he appears to have raised eyebrows amid our putative digital masters and has not been allowed to post links to his stuff on the Weaselly little douchebag’s platform (Facebook) or the Hippie wannabe’s shitstream (Twitter).
I have been thinking a lot about what we do here in the distant and faraway regions of the internet called Blogoland. I tend to think of my writing as more of a diary. I am fairly certain that Ugo thinks of the process differently after years of being an educator (I think that a lot of my respect for Ugo comes from the fact that he teaches physical chemistry, and I have never been so grateful for a grade than my C+ in physical chemistry. Physical chemistry is where they teach you that how you thought about chemistry before was just a cute fable).
Things are getting decidedly weird here in the internet. Fables are being spun and “truth” is being told and a lot of folks are going out of their way to make certain that anyone who disagrees with their flavor of truth are shut down and their “platform” removed.
Because, after all, there is really only one truth, right? There is only one correct interpretation of the incredibly complex mosaic that is the morass of information out there. Any one who thinks differently must not only be wrong, but must be evil besides.
Look, everyone out there makes claims of infallibility on an incomplete data set. All information that we (I) write about come from a filtered set of information that has been swept clean of complexity. Numbers without attribution are bandied about.
I refer to this situation as “the way that it has always been”. Simple, incorrect interpretations are preferred over complex ambiguous ones. And as always, interpretations where the simple lends power are pushed harder than others. But what everything is coming down to is a system where one side has taken it upon themselves to silence and persecute the others on their judgement. I think that this is common to everyone who holds office.
Good of you all to come around. I will still try to understand the complex and see through to the levels above and below. I won’t take sides. I won’t demonize those who think that I am wrong. I won’t persecute those I disagree with. I definitely won’t silence them. I definitely won’t participate in their genteel hatred of the other.
Luckily, I am in a little cul de sac where such things can occur. Thank you Dreamwidth for the non-platform.
The Truth about History (Myth)
Date: 2021-02-09 05:21 pm (UTC)Perhaps this idea should be extrapolated to bloggers, journalists, etc. who refer to historians (mythologists), or anybody who is predicting an outcome of some sort.
But the point is that some myths reach the masses and have significant effect, and what certain historians write, might be myths of this type.
And historians can be worse than mythologists - they can be mythologists who want to see certain things – or might be paid to see certain things.
*****
Example: We currently have two popular histories standing simultaneously, called 1619 Project and 1776 Project. The interesting point is the “standing simultaneously”.
All we have is two myths; but we can still apply logic and rationalize about the situation involving the two myths.
There may be no application for the concept of truth to the mythologies, but truth can be applied to the situation. For example, you claim that our historians are mythologists, and your point must be true as long as the term mythology is adjusted to reflect the actual limitations of the historian. This is what you might do to explain why your point is true.
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If the 1619 and 1776 myths have intention behind them, what would the intended emphasis be?
1619 Project: slaves had it worse than people think because the culture was crueler.
1776 Project: slaves had it better than people think because the culture was not cruel.
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If X did something to Y, and the history written by Y recalls that what X did was horrible, and the history written by X recalls that what they did to Y was pretty bad, but not horrible; which myth is likely to be more accurate?
MAGA. Smells suspicious; and like doom.
A plan to make a nation great again, is probably not a hopeful plan that will work out well for a category whose lot improved significantly in the meantime. For this category, the hope must be that the future will be like the less bad version of history This might be applied to the lower echelons of the labor force in general – or the poor in general.
Motivating a nation by referring to past greatness seems to be a sure indication of doom. Not necessarily unavoidable doom, but a plan that will doom. According to written history, such a plan indicates certain doom, but fortunately for us, history is mythology, so we still have hope. Step one: negate the word “again” from the name of any plan.
Valuable Insight
Date: 2021-02-09 06:27 pm (UTC)It begins:
“Have you noticed how much our informational environment resembles that of a small town dweller of the early Middle Ages?”
Answer: No, my knowledge base does not allow me to accurately imagine what a small town dweller of the early Middle Ages was like; not to mention small town dwellers of the middle and late Middle Ages.
The question is whether Mon Suel Desir knows, and whether he knows what a small town was like. Sounds like he does.
This is the basis of Mon Suel Desir’s analogy: “We know what we see, what trusted friends tell us and what travellers from far away lands tell us, of the rest it’s rumours and darkness.”
Well … maybe I knew more about what a small-town dweller of the Middle Ages was like after all.
Now I see Mon Suel Desir’s insight; the same issues have always existed with communications between humans. I suspected as much - but good to have it confirmed.
How To Watch
Date: 2021-02-09 06:34 pm (UTC)Idea: You watch it, and then turn the device off when the commentators start commenting.
Observation: People cannot turn off the device.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-09 09:02 pm (UTC)Two links of different realities:
1-Fantasy
https://jonathanturley.org/2021/02/08/thank-you-for-shoveling-my-driveway-you-nazi-la-times-runs-bizarre-column-revealing-liberal-angst-and-anger/
2-Reality (this can be very disturbing to those who have issues with violence, skip unless you have a strong psyche):
https://snugbus.com/Video/Snow_Shoveling_Shootout.mp4
Some of us foreigners are having trouble understanding what is going on in the US of A.
IZ