That's why we shouldn't tax the rich. We're lucky we have people like that helping us. We shouldn't punish that!revbob wrote: ↑09 May 2023, 6:51amAnd probably pulled themselves up by their own boot straps being the self made people that they are.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑09 May 2023, 6:48amThey have a lot of gumption and stick-to-it-iveness and are willing to put in the long hours!revbob wrote: ↑09 May 2023, 6:46amAnd people who are rich are being rewarded and deserve that wealth.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑09 May 2023, 6:26amOr/and perhaps it's more Enlightenment oriented, with the idea of people as autonomous beings who, Newtonian like, engage in cause-and-effect behaviours. Life isn't random, we make choices and earn the result.Flex wrote: ↑08 May 2023, 10:01pm
I think there's something here rooted in America's puritan origins. Our instinct is to cast all punishment through the lens of the punishments we deserve. Besides being quite ready to condemn certain people, I think there's a basic assumption that we, by virtue of being born into sin, deserve our punishments.
The Dictator observations thread.
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
I've been staying with my father in law in the bay area and he's always been fairly paranoid about getting robbed (he does have an unfortunate, fairly statistically improbable, history of getting robbed in every house he's lived in and had his car broken into all his security precautions, so it's not exactly an inexplicable fear) but with all the crime coverage of San Francisco he has become almost paralyzed with fear of crime. It's actually a little sad to see. He's just being fed total nonsense. From what I can tell from area crime stats, where he lives is "safer" than where I live in Colorado - which is an extremely safe neighborhood (I have neighbors who also complain about perceived crime in our neighborhood and I think they're deranged) and he was just yesterday extolling the virtues of how much safer it is where I live than where he lives. I wasn't about to try to persuade him otherwise, but it's really striking how much the perception of safety is based entirely on vibes and almost nothing to do with, like, crime statistics or anything.
The San Francisco Chronicle has done pretty good analysis that crime in the bay area is following a pretty steady decades long decline and is only "up" over the last couple of years because their was a precipitous drop in all crime during covid lockdowns (iirc, rape and violent crime - against women, particularly - HAS had a small increase vs the trend, which is alarming, but also as far as I can tell almost totally absent as a concern from the broader discussions of crime in the area). I'm just a visitor to the area so I'm happy to stand corrected if I'm missing something, but by pretty much every measure the bay area is actually safer than when I last visited in 2019 but people seem to be having a collective meltdown about how unsafe the area has gotten.
The San Francisco Chronicle has done pretty good analysis that crime in the bay area is following a pretty steady decades long decline and is only "up" over the last couple of years because their was a precipitous drop in all crime during covid lockdowns (iirc, rape and violent crime - against women, particularly - HAS had a small increase vs the trend, which is alarming, but also as far as I can tell almost totally absent as a concern from the broader discussions of crime in the area). I'm just a visitor to the area so I'm happy to stand corrected if I'm missing something, but by pretty much every measure the bay area is actually safer than when I last visited in 2019 but people seem to be having a collective meltdown about how unsafe the area has gotten.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
- Dr. Medulla
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
When I was still seeing a therapist—I’m fixed! (actually, we agreed that I was basically at an impasse and more sessions weren’t likely to be productive)—which was at the start of the pandemic, we talked about how our instinct for self-preservation could be messed up by our capacity for reason. We tend to privilege information that relates to keep us alive. And living in an age of information bombardment properly assessing information is next to impossible. But we’re still skilled at taking in information, sorting it, making abstract connections, and making projections from there. So if you already have a stronger sense of self-preservation, you overly privilege all the information that confirms, yup, the danger is everywhere.Flex wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 9:43amI've been staying with my father in law in the bay area and he's always been fairly paranoid about getting robbed (he does have an unfortunate, fairly statistically improbable, history of getting robbed in every house he's lived in and had his car broken into all his security precautions, so it's not exactly an inexplicable fear) but with all the crime coverage of San Francisco he has become almost paralyzed with fear of crime. It's actually a little sad to see. He's just being fed total nonsense. From what I can tell from area crime stats, where he lives is "safer" than where I live in Colorado - which is an extremely safe neighborhood (I have neighbors who also complain about perceived crime in our neighborhood and I think they're deranged) and he was just yesterday extolling the virtues of how much safer it is where I live than where he lives. I wasn't about to try to persuade him otherwise, but it's really striking how much the perception of safety is based entirely on vibes and almost nothing to do with, like, crime statistics or anything.
The San Francisco Chronicle has done pretty good analysis that crime in the bay area is following a pretty steady decades long decline and is only "up" over the last couple of years because their was a precipitous drop in all crime during covid lockdowns (iirc, rape and violent crime - against women, particularly - HAS had a small increase vs the trend, which is alarming, but also as far as I can tell almost totally absent as a concern from the broader discussions of crime in the area). I'm just a visitor to the area so I'm happy to stand corrected if I'm missing something, but by pretty much every measure the bay area is actually safer than when I last visited in 2019 but people seem to be having a collective meltdown about how unsafe the area has gotten.
My therapist was (hilariously, really) someone who thought covid was mostly nonsense (this was in the first few months, mind you) and that we were letting our sense of self-preservation run amok, that we were taking all the information that said the plague was going to wipe us out and sent that to the front of the processing queue. And, hell, I know that I do it, too. I’m extremely wary of going to the US again because of all the gun violence. Statistically, I know that I’m quite safe, but my aversion to guns and violence overly privileges information about gun violence in the US so that I irrationally don’t want to travel there anymore.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
Yeah, I remember a convo recently between to political writers where one said they were worried that people are basically tuned out and don't know what's going on in the world, and the other said that their concern was something of the opposite: that our media environment has made it so people are hyper aware of every piece of "if it bleeds, it leads" type story out there in the country and it gives them completely outsized sense of danger about the world. In my youth, I'd have been closer to the first person but now I think the second issue is a real problem (not that it's actually an either/or, we're indundated with news about certain things and remain ignorant on other topics, but as a bit of rhetoric it was compelling).Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 10:03amWhen I was still seeing a therapist—I’m fixed! (actually, we agreed that I was basically at an impasse and more sessions weren’t likely to be productive)—which was at the start of the pandemic, we talked about how our instinct for self-preservation could be messed up by our capacity for reason. We tend to privilege information that relates to keep us alive. And living in an age of information bombardment properly assessing information is next to impossible. But we’re still skilled at taking in information, sorting it, making abstract connections, and making projections from there. So if you already have a stronger sense of self-preservation, you overly privilege all the information that confirms, yup, the danger is everywhere.
It's not your familiarity with IMCT's American posters that repels you? Curious.My therapist was (hilariously, really) someone who thought covid was mostly nonsense (this was in the first few months, mind you) and that we were letting our sense of self-preservation run amok, that we were taking all the information that said the plague was going to wipe us out and sent that to the front of the processing queue. And, hell, I know that I do it, too. I’m extremely wary of going to the US again because of all the gun violence. Statistically, I know that I’m quite safe, but my aversion to guns and violence overly privileges information about gun violence in the US so that I irrationally don’t want to travel there anymore.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
Add to that the abundant anecdotal evidence of people who step back from online life and report feeling calmer, more hopeful. It's not unreasonable to think that our brains aren't evolved enough to take in as much information as they're fed and still process it all properly. The other problem with our instantaneous and connected life is that we're expected to have and offer opinions immediately. No time for consideration and reflection. Which works to evade our reasoning skills in favour of our more instinctual parts, where immediate reaction can be the difference between life and death. Why are we turning over that part of ourselves that sees the world as one of peril?Flex wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 10:38amYeah, I remember a convo recently between to political writers where one said they were worried that people are basically tuned out and don't know what's going on in the world, and the other said that their concern was something of the opposite: that our media environment has made it so people are hyper aware of every piece of "if it bleeds, it leads" type story out there in the country and it gives them completely outsized sense of danger about the world. In my youth, I'd have been closer to the first person but now I think the second issue is a real problem (not that it's actually an either/or, we're indundated with news about certain things and remain ignorant on other topics, but as a bit of rhetoric it was compelling).Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 10:03amWhen I was still seeing a therapist—I’m fixed! (actually, we agreed that I was basically at an impasse and more sessions weren’t likely to be productive)—which was at the start of the pandemic, we talked about how our instinct for self-preservation could be messed up by our capacity for reason. We tend to privilege information that relates to keep us alive. And living in an age of information bombardment properly assessing information is next to impossible. But we’re still skilled at taking in information, sorting it, making abstract connections, and making projections from there. So if you already have a stronger sense of self-preservation, you overly privilege all the information that confirms, yup, the danger is everywhere.
(I've mentioned it before, but Joseph Heath's book Enlightenment 2.0 is a really good consideration of reason in a media-saturated world that favours gut thinking over reason.)
There are can be multiple reasons for avoiding Seattle …It's not your familiarity with IMCT's American posters that repels you? Curious.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
Re: The Dictator observations thread.
I'm in that camp. Social media also creates an unrealistic view of the world, and since a lot of people get their news from places like twitter or [insert social platform of choice] it's a perfect storm of gloom and doom.Flex wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 10:38amYeah, I remember a convo recently between to political writers where one said they were worried that people are basically tuned out and don't know what's going on in the world, and the other said that their concern was something of the opposite: that our media environment has made it so people are hyper aware of every piece of "if it bleeds, it leads" type story out there in the country and it gives them completely outsized sense of danger about the world. In my youth, I'd have been closer to the first person but now I think the second issue is a real problem (not that it's actually an either/or, we're indundated with news about certain things and remain ignorant on other topics, but as a bit of rhetoric it was compelling).Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 10:03amWhen I was still seeing a therapist—I’m fixed! (actually, we agreed that I was basically at an impasse and more sessions weren’t likely to be productive)—which was at the start of the pandemic, we talked about how our instinct for self-preservation could be messed up by our capacity for reason. We tend to privilege information that relates to keep us alive. And living in an age of information bombardment properly assessing information is next to impossible. But we’re still skilled at taking in information, sorting it, making abstract connections, and making projections from there. So if you already have a stronger sense of self-preservation, you overly privilege all the information that confirms, yup, the danger is everywhere.
It's not your familiarity with IMCT's American posters that repels you? Curious.My therapist was (hilariously, really) someone who thought covid was mostly nonsense (this was in the first few months, mind you) and that we were letting our sense of self-preservation run amok, that we were taking all the information that said the plague was going to wipe us out and sent that to the front of the processing queue. And, hell, I know that I do it, too. I’m extremely wary of going to the US again because of all the gun violence. Statistically, I know that I’m quite safe, but my aversion to guns and violence overly privileges information about gun violence in the US so that I irrationally don’t want to travel there anymore.
Edit: I see that Doc said what I was trying to say.
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
Doc...
Add to that the abundant anecdotal evidence of people who step back from online life and report feeling calmer, more hopeful. It's not unreasonable to think that our brains aren't evolved enough to take in as much information as they're fed and still process it all properly. The other problem with our instantaneous and connected life is that we're expected to have and offer opinions immediately. No time for consideration and reflection. Which works to evade our reasoning skills in favour of our more instinctual parts, where immediate reaction can be the difference between life and death. Why are we turning over that part of ourselves that sees the world as one of peril?
I know this will probably sound nuts but fuck it I'm nuts anyway. Regards all the information our brains need to process in this modern era and being able to cope with. Do you consider that perhaps this is what will cause us to evolve faster over time. So the more processing the brain does we will eventually be able to use more of the brain we can't yet access.
Humour me.
Add to that the abundant anecdotal evidence of people who step back from online life and report feeling calmer, more hopeful. It's not unreasonable to think that our brains aren't evolved enough to take in as much information as they're fed and still process it all properly. The other problem with our instantaneous and connected life is that we're expected to have and offer opinions immediately. No time for consideration and reflection. Which works to evade our reasoning skills in favour of our more instinctual parts, where immediate reaction can be the difference between life and death. Why are we turning over that part of ourselves that sees the world as one of peril?
I know this will probably sound nuts but fuck it I'm nuts anyway. Regards all the information our brains need to process in this modern era and being able to cope with. Do you consider that perhaps this is what will cause us to evolve faster over time. So the more processing the brain does we will eventually be able to use more of the brain we can't yet access.
Humour me.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
"Without the common people you're nothing"
Nos Sumus Una Familia
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
Well, yes, given enough time, that's how evolution works—those people whose ability to assimilate and take advantage of more information will be more likely to survive to pass on their genes to offspring. But we'd be talking about a fairly lengthy time frame for that genetic make-up to become dominant or common (hundreds, thousands of years). In the meantime, the destructive aspect of media saturation makes for an increasingly dangerous society. Maybe that speeds up the timeline some—more people dying before reproducing—maybe not, but in the here and now it's anxious.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:12amI know this will probably sound nuts but fuck it I'm nuts anyway. Regards all the information our brains need to process in this modern era and being able to cope with. Do you consider that perhaps this is what will cause us to evolve faster over time. So the more processing the brain does we will eventually be able to use more of the brain we can't yet access.
Humour me.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
- Marky Dread
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
Yep definitely. I grow concerned at the rate of information being thrown at us. With our brains simply not being able to advance quick enough. So maybe those who turn their back on the information highway etc have the right idea.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:33amWell, yes, given enough time, that's how evolution works—those people whose ability to assimilate and take advantage of more information will be more likely to survive to pass on their genes to offspring. But we'd be talking about a fairly lengthy time frame for that genetic make-up to become dominant or common (hundreds, thousands of years). In the meantime, the destructive aspect of media saturation makes for an increasingly dangerous society. Maybe that speeds up the timeline some—more people dying before reproducing—maybe not, but in the here and now it's anxious.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:12amI know this will probably sound nuts but fuck it I'm nuts anyway. Regards all the information our brains need to process in this modern era and being able to cope with. Do you consider that perhaps this is what will cause us to evolve faster over time. So the more processing the brain does we will eventually be able to use more of the brain we can't yet access.
Humour me.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
"Without the common people you're nothing"
Nos Sumus Una Familia
- Dr. Medulla
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
There's a really provocative book that I should probably reread, Christopher Lasch's The True and Only Heaven, which explores intellectuals who opposed to idea of progress. That is, that our material condition must constantly improve, that we must develop and use new technology. The idea was multi-pronged, from it being unsustainable, that it alienated people from each other, that created greater social stratification. There were also the Luddites, who were, fundamentally, anti-industrialization radicals whose argument was that this technology was being embraced without any thought of the social consequences. It wasn't an anti-technology stance, as Luddism is popularly treated today, but of slowing down, adopting technology gradually to measure the social consequences before proceeding. It's akin to the common North American indigenous notion of making choices with the effects on those seven generations hence in mind. All those attitudes run contrary to our faith in technology and the urgency of the present—everything we do is because we must. It's an admission that we're not in control, that the idea is at the wheel and we're locked in the car.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:28pmYep definitely. I grow concerned at the rate of information being thrown at us. With our brains simply not being able to advance quick enough. So maybe those who turn their back on the information highway etc have the right idea.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:33amWell, yes, given enough time, that's how evolution works—those people whose ability to assimilate and take advantage of more information will be more likely to survive to pass on their genes to offspring. But we'd be talking about a fairly lengthy time frame for that genetic make-up to become dominant or common (hundreds, thousands of years). In the meantime, the destructive aspect of media saturation makes for an increasingly dangerous society. Maybe that speeds up the timeline some—more people dying before reproducing—maybe not, but in the here and now it's anxious.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:12amI know this will probably sound nuts but fuck it I'm nuts anyway. Regards all the information our brains need to process in this modern era and being able to cope with. Do you consider that perhaps this is what will cause us to evolve faster over time. So the more processing the brain does we will eventually be able to use more of the brain we can't yet access.
Humour me.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
- Marky Dread
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
That sounds like it would be a fascinating read. Will see if I can find a copy.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:47pmThere's a really provocative book that I should probably reread, Christopher Lasch's The True and Only Heaven, which explores intellectuals who opposed to idea of progress. That is, that our material condition must constantly improve, that we must develop and use new technology. The idea was multi-pronged, from it being unsustainable, that it alienated people from each other, that created greater social stratification. There were also the Luddites, who were, fundamentally, anti-industrialization radicals whose argument was that this technology was being embraced without any thought of the social consequences. It wasn't an anti-technology stance, as Luddism is popularly treated today, but of slowing down, adopting technology gradually to measure the social consequences before proceeding. It's akin to the common North American indigenous notion of making choices with the effects on those seven generations hence in mind. All those attitudes run contrary to our faith in technology and the urgency of the present—everything we do is because we must. It's an admission that we're not in control, that the idea is at the wheel and we're locked in the car.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:28pmYep definitely. I grow concerned at the rate of information being thrown at us. With our brains simply not being able to advance quick enough. So maybe those who turn their back on the information highway etc have the right idea.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:33amWell, yes, given enough time, that's how evolution works—those people whose ability to assimilate and take advantage of more information will be more likely to survive to pass on their genes to offspring. But we'd be talking about a fairly lengthy time frame for that genetic make-up to become dominant or common (hundreds, thousands of years). In the meantime, the destructive aspect of media saturation makes for an increasingly dangerous society. Maybe that speeds up the timeline some—more people dying before reproducing—maybe not, but in the here and now it's anxious.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:12amI know this will probably sound nuts but fuck it I'm nuts anyway. Regards all the information our brains need to process in this modern era and being able to cope with. Do you consider that perhaps this is what will cause us to evolve faster over time. So the more processing the brain does we will eventually be able to use more of the brain we can't yet access.
Humour me.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
"Without the common people you're nothing"
Nos Sumus Una Familia
- Dr. Medulla
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
Lasch is on the dense side in terms of prose—he was an academic historian, after all—but I like him more and more because he was a leftist who was curmudgeonly and turn most of his grouchiness on what the left had become since the 60s. For that reason he was often seen as a conservative, which isn't altogether fair. Which isn't to say I agree with what he argued, but, well, I tend to be some seen as curmudgeonly and much of the time my grouchiness is at the left (esp. the academic left and the online left).Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:00pmThat sounds like it would be a fascinating read. Will see if I can find a copy.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:47pmThere's a really provocative book that I should probably reread, Christopher Lasch's The True and Only Heaven, which explores intellectuals who opposed to idea of progress. That is, that our material condition must constantly improve, that we must develop and use new technology. The idea was multi-pronged, from it being unsustainable, that it alienated people from each other, that created greater social stratification. There were also the Luddites, who were, fundamentally, anti-industrialization radicals whose argument was that this technology was being embraced without any thought of the social consequences. It wasn't an anti-technology stance, as Luddism is popularly treated today, but of slowing down, adopting technology gradually to measure the social consequences before proceeding. It's akin to the common North American indigenous notion of making choices with the effects on those seven generations hence in mind. All those attitudes run contrary to our faith in technology and the urgency of the present—everything we do is because we must. It's an admission that we're not in control, that the idea is at the wheel and we're locked in the car.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:28pmYep definitely. I grow concerned at the rate of information being thrown at us. With our brains simply not being able to advance quick enough. So maybe those who turn their back on the information highway etc have the right idea.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:33amWell, yes, given enough time, that's how evolution works—those people whose ability to assimilate and take advantage of more information will be more likely to survive to pass on their genes to offspring. But we'd be talking about a fairly lengthy time frame for that genetic make-up to become dominant or common (hundreds, thousands of years). In the meantime, the destructive aspect of media saturation makes for an increasingly dangerous society. Maybe that speeds up the timeline some—more people dying before reproducing—maybe not, but in the here and now it's anxious.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:12amI know this will probably sound nuts but fuck it I'm nuts anyway. Regards all the information our brains need to process in this modern era and being able to cope with. Do you consider that perhaps this is what will cause us to evolve faster over time. So the more processing the brain does we will eventually be able to use more of the brain we can't yet access.
Humour me.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
- Marky Dread
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Re: The Dictator observations thread.
Found a site who has a PDF. So when I'm little less busy it will be on my list.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:25pmLasch is on the dense side in terms of prose—he was an academic historian, after all—but I like him more and more because he was a leftist who was curmudgeonly and turn most of his grouchiness on what the left had become since the 60s. For that reason he was often seen as a conservative, which isn't altogether fair. Which isn't to say I agree with what he argued, but, well, I tend to be some seen as curmudgeonly and much of the time my grouchiness is at the left (esp. the academic left and the online left).Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:00pmThat sounds like it would be a fascinating read. Will see if I can find a copy.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:47pmThere's a really provocative book that I should probably reread, Christopher Lasch's The True and Only Heaven, which explores intellectuals who opposed to idea of progress. That is, that our material condition must constantly improve, that we must develop and use new technology. The idea was multi-pronged, from it being unsustainable, that it alienated people from each other, that created greater social stratification. There were also the Luddites, who were, fundamentally, anti-industrialization radicals whose argument was that this technology was being embraced without any thought of the social consequences. It wasn't an anti-technology stance, as Luddism is popularly treated today, but of slowing down, adopting technology gradually to measure the social consequences before proceeding. It's akin to the common North American indigenous notion of making choices with the effects on those seven generations hence in mind. All those attitudes run contrary to our faith in technology and the urgency of the present—everything we do is because we must. It's an admission that we're not in control, that the idea is at the wheel and we're locked in the car.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:28pmYep definitely. I grow concerned at the rate of information being thrown at us. With our brains simply not being able to advance quick enough. So maybe those who turn their back on the information highway etc have the right idea.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 11:33am
Well, yes, given enough time, that's how evolution works—those people whose ability to assimilate and take advantage of more information will be more likely to survive to pass on their genes to offspring. But we'd be talking about a fairly lengthy time frame for that genetic make-up to become dominant or common (hundreds, thousands of years). In the meantime, the destructive aspect of media saturation makes for an increasingly dangerous society. Maybe that speeds up the timeline some—more people dying before reproducing—maybe not, but in the here and now it's anxious.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
"Without the common people you're nothing"
Nos Sumus Una Familia
- Dr. Medulla
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- Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
- Location: Straight Banana, Idaho
Re: The Dictator observations thread.
You and James, reading the kinds of books grad students are forced to grind thru. Absolutely nuts.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:59pmFound a site who has a PDF. So when I'm little less busy it will be on my list.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:25pmLasch is on the dense side in terms of prose—he was an academic historian, after all—but I like him more and more because he was a leftist who was curmudgeonly and turn most of his grouchiness on what the left had become since the 60s. For that reason he was often seen as a conservative, which isn't altogether fair. Which isn't to say I agree with what he argued, but, well, I tend to be some seen as curmudgeonly and much of the time my grouchiness is at the left (esp. the academic left and the online left).Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:00pmThat sounds like it would be a fascinating read. Will see if I can find a copy.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:47pmThere's a really provocative book that I should probably reread, Christopher Lasch's The True and Only Heaven, which explores intellectuals who opposed to idea of progress. That is, that our material condition must constantly improve, that we must develop and use new technology. The idea was multi-pronged, from it being unsustainable, that it alienated people from each other, that created greater social stratification. There were also the Luddites, who were, fundamentally, anti-industrialization radicals whose argument was that this technology was being embraced without any thought of the social consequences. It wasn't an anti-technology stance, as Luddism is popularly treated today, but of slowing down, adopting technology gradually to measure the social consequences before proceeding. It's akin to the common North American indigenous notion of making choices with the effects on those seven generations hence in mind. All those attitudes run contrary to our faith in technology and the urgency of the present—everything we do is because we must. It's an admission that we're not in control, that the idea is at the wheel and we're locked in the car.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:28pm
Yep definitely. I grow concerned at the rate of information being thrown at us. With our brains simply not being able to advance quick enough. So maybe those who turn their back on the information highway etc have the right idea.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
- Marky Dread
- Messiah of the Milk Bar
- Posts: 59032
- Joined: 17 Jun 2008, 11:26am
Re: The Dictator observations thread.
I'm not in the same league as James. But there was once a time when I was voracious reader.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 2:03pmYou and James, reading the kinds of books grad students are forced to grind thru. Absolutely nuts.Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:59pmFound a site who has a PDF. So when I'm little less busy it will be on my list.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:25pmLasch is on the dense side in terms of prose—he was an academic historian, after all—but I like him more and more because he was a leftist who was curmudgeonly and turn most of his grouchiness on what the left had become since the 60s. For that reason he was often seen as a conservative, which isn't altogether fair. Which isn't to say I agree with what he argued, but, well, I tend to be some seen as curmudgeonly and much of the time my grouchiness is at the left (esp. the academic left and the online left).Marky Dread wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 1:00pmThat sounds like it would be a fascinating read. Will see if I can find a copy.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑13 May 2023, 12:47pm
There's a really provocative book that I should probably reread, Christopher Lasch's The True and Only Heaven, which explores intellectuals who opposed to idea of progress. That is, that our material condition must constantly improve, that we must develop and use new technology. The idea was multi-pronged, from it being unsustainable, that it alienated people from each other, that created greater social stratification. There were also the Luddites, who were, fundamentally, anti-industrialization radicals whose argument was that this technology was being embraced without any thought of the social consequences. It wasn't an anti-technology stance, as Luddism is popularly treated today, but of slowing down, adopting technology gradually to measure the social consequences before proceeding. It's akin to the common North American indigenous notion of making choices with the effects on those seven generations hence in mind. All those attitudes run contrary to our faith in technology and the urgency of the present—everything we do is because we must. It's an admission that we're not in control, that the idea is at the wheel and we're locked in the car.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
"Without the common people you're nothing"
Nos Sumus Una Familia