Bill,, keep it simple. How you look at reality matters. Socrates had to confuse culture and society because Ancient Greek had not yet made the distinction. We can, don’t because of what we teach, but we need to, for our own safety’s sake. We are in a race for civilization with no guarantee civilization will win ... and while Mother Nature may not care, we do. — Culture is like the pile of a rug, with many varied textures, fibers, colors, lengths, and patterns. Society is like the warp and weft that hold different cultures together. Society is formed wherever two individuals or cultures meet, provided they agree on minimum requirements that appear to be humility (recognizing the possibility you just might be wrong) and reciprocity (recognizing that others live their lives as acutely as you live yours). While not universal, the two minimal requirements are not universal truths or religious beliefs, but spring instead from each individual examining their unique personal experience and invariably reaching the conclusion that, since they have been wrong in the past only to get hurt, they maje decisions based on an internal mental map of reality, not reality itself, and therefore it is in their best interest to create civil society with those who see personal value in it. It’s not Left versus Right, but understanding how civil society raises us just that much above the Law of the Jungle.
We're getting sucked into the digital world whether we like it or not. Even modern day "dropouts" are all expert users of digital platforms and want as much reach as possible. I think the closest I come to "real life" now is when the power goes out and phones go down. Everyone stumbles around wondering what to do, neighbors pop their heads out and start having longer conversations than usual, you start noticing all the little things that have been neglected for months and just pile up because online life comes first.
How does this end? I don't know, but I do know that I'll have to make drastic changes to my routine, prioritize certain activities, ignore all the "noise" that sucks me in on a daily basis, and pray that I never have to wear "headgear" just to log into my accounts or to communicate with other people.
Many years ago I took a brief glance at the work of Eric Hoffer. Now substack brings him into focus twice this week. Seems we traveled much of the same path, even to extreme weight loss late in life.
Sometimes the light is shining on me
other times I can barely see
lately it occurs to me
what a long strange trip it's been
"Truckin'" Robert Hunter
Every time I take a deep breath and sigh "wow, that was incredibly awful", some other evil minion says "hold my beer and watch this". Hard to imagine looking back to Oct. 7, 2023 and feeling that it was just another battle between good and evil....but that is history. This war does not end.
Someday I'll dig out my work on lying as particular types of deceptions. Roughly speaking I identified 16 categories of deceptions (or deceptive practices) based on 4 variables, of which we only care about 4. I then show that if you arrange the 16 categories in a diamond shape of most damaging at the top and least damaging at the bottom, you can see that most deceptions/lies occur near the boundaries of the nearest 'lesser' deception/lie. That is, it is predictable where lies will occur. It is also very predictable how they will be defended if detected or challenged.
Bill,, keep it simple. How you look at reality matters. Socrates had to confuse culture and society because Ancient Greek had not yet made the distinction. We can, don’t because of what we teach, but we need to, for our own safety’s sake. We are in a race for civilization with no guarantee civilization will win ... and while Mother Nature may not care, we do. — Culture is like the pile of a rug, with many varied textures, fibers, colors, lengths, and patterns. Society is like the warp and weft that hold different cultures together. Society is formed wherever two individuals or cultures meet, provided they agree on minimum requirements that appear to be humility (recognizing the possibility you just might be wrong) and reciprocity (recognizing that others live their lives as acutely as you live yours). While not universal, the two minimal requirements are not universal truths or religious beliefs, but spring instead from each individual examining their unique personal experience and invariably reaching the conclusion that, since they have been wrong in the past only to get hurt, they maje decisions based on an internal mental map of reality, not reality itself, and therefore it is in their best interest to create civil society with those who see personal value in it. It’s not Left versus Right, but understanding how civil society raises us just that much above the Law of the Jungle.
Job 8:9 encapsulates our situation: "for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow."
Excellent post!
We're getting sucked into the digital world whether we like it or not. Even modern day "dropouts" are all expert users of digital platforms and want as much reach as possible. I think the closest I come to "real life" now is when the power goes out and phones go down. Everyone stumbles around wondering what to do, neighbors pop their heads out and start having longer conversations than usual, you start noticing all the little things that have been neglected for months and just pile up because online life comes first.
How does this end? I don't know, but I do know that I'll have to make drastic changes to my routine, prioritize certain activities, ignore all the "noise" that sucks me in on a daily basis, and pray that I never have to wear "headgear" just to log into my accounts or to communicate with other people.
Good one Bill.
Cue the dark, foreboding music.....
Many years ago I took a brief glance at the work of Eric Hoffer. Now substack brings him into focus twice this week. Seems we traveled much of the same path, even to extreme weight loss late in life.
Sometimes the light is shining on me
other times I can barely see
lately it occurs to me
what a long strange trip it's been
"Truckin'" Robert Hunter
Every time I take a deep breath and sigh "wow, that was incredibly awful", some other evil minion says "hold my beer and watch this". Hard to imagine looking back to Oct. 7, 2023 and feeling that it was just another battle between good and evil....but that is history. This war does not end.
Someday I'll dig out my work on lying as particular types of deceptions. Roughly speaking I identified 16 categories of deceptions (or deceptive practices) based on 4 variables, of which we only care about 4. I then show that if you arrange the 16 categories in a diamond shape of most damaging at the top and least damaging at the bottom, you can see that most deceptions/lies occur near the boundaries of the nearest 'lesser' deception/lie. That is, it is predictable where lies will occur. It is also very predictable how they will be defended if detected or challenged.
I got roundly roasted for my work.