American anxiety

American anxiety springs from something much deeper, a sense that large and disruptive forces are coursing through the world. In almost every industry, in every aspect of life, it feels like the patterns of the past are being scrambled. "Whirl is king, having driven out Zeus," wrote Aristophanes 2,400 years ago. And—for the first time in living memory—the United States does not seem to be leading the charge. Americans see that a new world is coming into being, but fear it is one being shaped in distant lands and by foreign people.
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For the last 20 years, America's superpower status in every realm has been largely unchallenged—something that's never happened before in history, at least since the Roman Empire dominated the known world 2,000 years ago. During this Pax Americana, the global economy has accelerated dramatically. And that expansion is the driver behind the third great power shift of the modern age—the rise of the rest.

Newsweek Article "The Rise of the Rest"

This article challenges some of my pessimism about the loss of cultures and languages that inevitably comes with globalization. It says that as India has increased wealth, they've become more interested in their own billionaires than in America's billionaires and "that newfound interest in their own story is being replicated across much of the world." English has primarily been adopted as the global language but this shift to countries looking back at themselves seems like the road to keep cultural pluralism alive, at least among globalization's winners. It probably helps that the US is losing its "cool kid" status.

the dude abides

Several years ago Roshi Bernie Glassman met Jeff Bridges and thus began a long-term friendship. Bernie said to Jeff, "You know, a lot of folks consider the Dude a Zen Master." Jeff replied, "What are you talking about … Zen?" Bernie said that quite a few people had approached him wanting to chat about the Dude's Zen wisdom. Jeff said that he had never heard of that.

I guess Jeff Bridges might be hanging around this blog exploring zen? Maybe just his character. In any case... "Koans by the Coens"

"interesting"

interesting adj. In hacker parlance, this word has strong connotations of `annoying', or `difficult', or both. Hackers relish a challenge, and enjoy wringing all the irony possible out of the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". Oppose trivial, uninteresting.

from the Jargon file on dict.org [source query]

Linux hackers usually have a program called "dict" installed on their systems. They run it from the shell ("command line" or "terminal" for the laypeople). The devil's dictionary usually has my favorite output but for this term the jargon file is the most insightful.

cognitive surplus

I started telling her about the Wikipedia article on Pluto. You may remember that Pluto got kicked out of the planet club a couple of years ago, so all of a sudden there was all of this activity on Wikipedia. The talk pages light up, people are editing the article like mad, and the whole community is in an ruckus--"How should we characterize this change in Pluto's status?" And a little bit at a time they move the article--fighting offstage all the while--from, "Pluto is the ninth planet," to "Pluto is an odd-shaped rock with an odd-shaped orbit at the edge of the solar system."

So I tell her all this stuff, and I think, "Okay, we're going to have a conversation about authority or social construction or whatever." That wasn't her question. She heard this story and she shook her head and said, "Where do people find the time?" That was her question. And I just kind of snapped. And I said, "No one who works in TV gets to ask that question. You know where the time comes from. It comes from the cognitive surplus you've been masking for 50 years."

So how big is that surplus? So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project--every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in--that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought. I worked this out with Martin Wattenberg at IBM; it's a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but it's the right order of magnitude, about 100 million hours of thought.

from Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

on understanding and analysis (scribblings)

5/2/2008

"pearls before swine! pearls before swine!"

"quack! quack!"

I waddle around flustered like the ugly duckling with ruffled feathers.

---
Contrary to how many think of it, stupidity is not related to intelligence. I rarely meet a stupid moron (in the technical sense of moron). We expect a moron to behave a certain way because of diminished capacities. We love him for his deficiencies because it's a trait of birth, not a trait of character. I only recognize stupidity as it shows itself in character. If you examine the ordinary use of expletives related to intelligence you'll probably find others who express similar sentiments.

I'd like to get this phrase into more common usage, "That's the stupidest genius I have ever met."

We're all subject to our environment and genetics so someone might say that sort of statement is unfair. For the sake of humanity, the stupid geniuses deserve blame.

---
Analysis is not the same as understanding. Understanding is when you try to reach through the text to get at the meaning in the person. Analysis is when you examine the text to determine its logical structure, strengths and flaws. Understanding is much more difficult and useful than analysis and it requires a much more subtle mind. Analysis is for the man who wants to become only a better thinker in a particular way, understanding is for the man who wants to become a better person.

Understanding and analysis are thoroughly at odds with one another. Only a rare individual in an exceptional situation will willingly undergo external analysis. Everyone loves to be understood. Analysis is like behavioristic educational methods: It's a useful tool but it is best used (i.e. used morally) when practiced on oneself.

We fool ourselves when we think we've found accuracy in either of these methods. The best thing we can get from understanding is better relationships, the best thing we get from analysis is personal clarity.

Analysis can clarify what you've got but understanding embraces imagination in such a way that it can move you forward.


4/30/2008

The true myth says, "you must change your life." (Rilke)

Equally, the myth which fails to continually communicate that message ceases to be true.


4/22/2008

the value of metaphysics

I use metaphysical systems to moderate my arguments. What I mean by this is that I think an argument holds more water if it can be described within a variety of metaphysical contexts. I slap on a few that I find in some part compelling and see if, when I reframe, a version of the argument can still stick. If so, there's usually something to it, if not, I try to at least rethink a bit before I go forward. This also shows me strengths and weaknesses in various systems. That being the case, I hope that most of my arguments could be accepted by a reasonable individual with whom I have metaphysical disagreements (I do think such a person exists, maybe even two!).


4/18/2008

When forced to choose between
    "fatalistic bullshit" and "sentimentalist blather",

I'll take the foolishness over the falsity.

--
All men (I mean me) at times fall into the trap of speaking without thinking.

the farce of digital copyright

John Tehranian, a law professor at the University of Utah, recently calculated that a typical American, in the course of a single day and without any use of file-sharing programs, could easily expose himself to over twelve million dollars in statutory damages should every copyright holder who’s rights he violated decide to sue. He did this by looking to a hypothetical law professor, checking and responding to email, forwarding digital pictures of a vacation, and many other innocuous activities every one of us with a digital lifestyle engages in nearly every day. While some have disputed the specifics of his accounting, the simple fact remains that “such an outcome flies in the face of our basic sense of justice.” This digital lifestyle, which allows us to connect and share in ways unimaginable only a generation ago, should not be at odds with our system of laws. The latter ought to embrace the former, not hold it forth as prey for litigious businesses and special interests, and outmoded conceptions of property. [essay]

I'm not sure this is the best treatment of this issue, Larry Lessig has dealt with it at length but it is an issue worth understanding.

When any part of everyday living is technically illegal, the only difference between a good citizen and a criminal is who is willing and able to prosecute. The legal system becomes a very ugly tool (not that it wasn't already a bit ugly).

Our president is no longer subject to the rule of law (or any sort of check), how many more abuses can our legal system handle?

I know, I know, the superheros will save us.

superheros in SLC

The Black Monday Society started five years ago, when a Salt Lake City-area tattoo artist and lifelong comic-book fan named Dave went exploring on MySpace. “I always told my wife, even before we got married, that if I ever see a real superhero, I’m so going to be one,” he says. “Come on, just the idea of wearing a mask, going out, doing something good? Being somebody else for a little bit? Doesn’t that sound a little enthralling to you?” [article]

I'm really not sure what to think about this (besides that it's hilarious). The article says there are a number of websites devoted to real life superheros. Reallifesuperhero.com

philosophy

Philosophy is not some game or idle pastime.

It's something you do with your whole life. You do it because this is your life, your only shot at this world. It's not about getting the right structure in your head, it's about becoming the kind of person you want to be.

Immoralists. -- Because they dissect morality, moralists must now be content to be upbraided as immoralists. But he who wants to dissect has to kill; yet only for the sake of better knowledge, better judgement, better living; not so that all the world shall start dissecting. Unhappily, however, people still believe that every moralist has to be a model and ideal in all he does and that others are supposed to imitate him: they confuse him with the preacher of morals. The older moralists dissected too little and preached too much: which is why the moralists of today experience this confusion and its unpleasant consequences. (WS 19)

from America to America

TO THE STATES

To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States,
        Resist much, obey little,
Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city, of this earth, ever
        afterward resumes its liberty.

TO A PRESIDENT

All you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages,
you have not learn'd of Nature--of the politics of Nature you
        have not learned the great amplitude, recti-
        tude, impartiality,
You have not seen that only such as they are for these States,
And that what is less than they must sooner or later lift off
        from these States.

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

what is enlightenment?

Hidden beneath a lot of the junk I write is a question.

What is enlightenment? How do we characterize it and hope to achieve it, help others to achieve it?

And no, it’s not Christ, plenty have claimed Christ and led horrendous lives. (don’t mistake this argument for an argument against real Christianity, maybe they’re not claiming the real Christ, who wants to delve into that confusion?)

And no, it’s not humanism, many have died in the name of progress. (don’t mistake this argument for an argument against real humanism, maybe they’re not following the true path, who wants to delve into that confusion?)

Better than focusing on the Platonic form of a thing is to focus on the numerous contradictory forms of that thing which actually exist. That’s the koan to consume.

However, I must say many of those delving into the confusion, seeking the real paths make up a laundry list of humanitarians. So depth of thought/life demonstrates its value?

I'm a humanist mostly because I don't know what use it might be to reject that term, could I cease then to be a human? Some see Christianity in equally broad terms. The older traditions have already used man to give their memes variety of treatment. We can only see our system as potentially more 'bug free' as it shows itself as a broader, more ancient, more variedly and thoroughly tested system.

Where the older traditions show their genuine value, we embrace that value.