Writing to resume when it can. Till next time.
Monday, February 18, 2019
Meaning as Work (And Much More)
You can basically take apart any word and find various other words organized in networks of meaning which support the initial word, and then you can take those other words apart in turn. And you can keep doing this for some time, until you get down to utterances and physical structures and energy which may require another discipline to talk about (which can also be analyzed), or which cannot be talked about at all.
This takes energy and work. You have to focus on the word itself, and then think about what the word means, locate other words that support the meaning of it, and then relate all of those things to reality via image, memory, logic, and etc.
When the meaning of a word or even a discourse has been collectively established, then it can be regularly used with much less work required. This allows for greater and more complex structures of meaning to be built up, which can have enormous explanatory and predictive power.
But there is a cost to this too. Because any sort of problems intrinsic to a lower level of meaning will migrate right up through those higher structures, and be essentially ignored by those wishing to use the lower without any additional analytic or critical work. At least until the entire structure becomes unfeasible as an analytic tool, and then the whole thing has to be taken apart again. Of course only a portion of this process is actually conscious.
To drive the point home, I think of doing physical, material work. You actually see this phenomena quite a bit in maintenance and repair work. There are structural factors that go beyond mere cost, which work to limit the scope of a given repair.
Say there is a sewer main that needs to be dug up and corrected. Perhaps it is sitting too flat and water is not running and there are blockages. The part that is going to be attempted to be repaired is the part that is most readily accessible, where the most good can be done for the lowest cost.
So the part of the sewer that is underneath dirt and concrete will be improved, while the sections running underneath housing or other complex structures will be left alone for the time being. Breaking up concrete and digging up dirt is arduous: much work must go into digging out the actual trench and changing the pipe, and then even more work must be done to returning everything to its previous state when the pipe is repaired.
But the work required for removing occupants and tearing up housing in addition to digging is much more, and the work of restoring things to a previous state is much more, not to mention disruptive and invasive, and so problems in these areas will be avoided as long as possible.
But if there is some fundamental flaw, such as untenable sewer pipe underneath a whole apartment complex, or a flaw in a foundation, or problems with the land that everything is built upon, then every little fix that circumvents that flaw will be tried until it is no longer possible, and then the whole site becomes condemned or evacuated or whatever.
A given successful living system will do constant work to maintain its current state of organization. The greater scope of the system you seek to change, and the more that system is connected to other living systems in symbiotic relationships which must be changed in turn, the more resistance is encountered. Blowing up an entire system to remake it from scrap becomes improbable or even impossible, unless the system is forcibly taken apart by some large-scale failure or disaster.
The disaster capitalists and the privatizers and the financiers have discovered this principle and work by it very faithfully, inserting themselves in sites of disaster and implementing their agendas while everyone is busy surviving.
In the chaotic aftermath of a natural or human disaster, when one is in desperate need of a simple necessity like water or an overhead shelter, it becomes easier to accept whatever is offered without question, and those doing the offering are scrutinized much later, after they have had the time to situate themselves into the political and economic environment as a permanent fixture.
In this way ends are beginnings and beginnings are ends. Things that end, especially the larger in scope they are, tend to free up enormous amounts of energy towards new things.
This takes energy and work. You have to focus on the word itself, and then think about what the word means, locate other words that support the meaning of it, and then relate all of those things to reality via image, memory, logic, and etc.
When the meaning of a word or even a discourse has been collectively established, then it can be regularly used with much less work required. This allows for greater and more complex structures of meaning to be built up, which can have enormous explanatory and predictive power.
But there is a cost to this too. Because any sort of problems intrinsic to a lower level of meaning will migrate right up through those higher structures, and be essentially ignored by those wishing to use the lower without any additional analytic or critical work. At least until the entire structure becomes unfeasible as an analytic tool, and then the whole thing has to be taken apart again. Of course only a portion of this process is actually conscious.
To drive the point home, I think of doing physical, material work. You actually see this phenomena quite a bit in maintenance and repair work. There are structural factors that go beyond mere cost, which work to limit the scope of a given repair.
Say there is a sewer main that needs to be dug up and corrected. Perhaps it is sitting too flat and water is not running and there are blockages. The part that is going to be attempted to be repaired is the part that is most readily accessible, where the most good can be done for the lowest cost.
So the part of the sewer that is underneath dirt and concrete will be improved, while the sections running underneath housing or other complex structures will be left alone for the time being. Breaking up concrete and digging up dirt is arduous: much work must go into digging out the actual trench and changing the pipe, and then even more work must be done to returning everything to its previous state when the pipe is repaired.
But the work required for removing occupants and tearing up housing in addition to digging is much more, and the work of restoring things to a previous state is much more, not to mention disruptive and invasive, and so problems in these areas will be avoided as long as possible.
But if there is some fundamental flaw, such as untenable sewer pipe underneath a whole apartment complex, or a flaw in a foundation, or problems with the land that everything is built upon, then every little fix that circumvents that flaw will be tried until it is no longer possible, and then the whole site becomes condemned or evacuated or whatever.
A given successful living system will do constant work to maintain its current state of organization. The greater scope of the system you seek to change, and the more that system is connected to other living systems in symbiotic relationships which must be changed in turn, the more resistance is encountered. Blowing up an entire system to remake it from scrap becomes improbable or even impossible, unless the system is forcibly taken apart by some large-scale failure or disaster.
The disaster capitalists and the privatizers and the financiers have discovered this principle and work by it very faithfully, inserting themselves in sites of disaster and implementing their agendas while everyone is busy surviving.
In the chaotic aftermath of a natural or human disaster, when one is in desperate need of a simple necessity like water or an overhead shelter, it becomes easier to accept whatever is offered without question, and those doing the offering are scrutinized much later, after they have had the time to situate themselves into the political and economic environment as a permanent fixture.
In this way ends are beginnings and beginnings are ends. Things that end, especially the larger in scope they are, tend to free up enormous amounts of energy towards new things.
Happiness
That last piece was a bit grim. But it really doesn't have to be. Coming to terms with catastrophe and disaster is a relational process that is dependent on some sort of subjectivity. The process is disastrous for a subjectivity that has a stake in the outcome of the process.
What I mean is that disappointment presupposes some sort of expectation. Granted, it is a healthy expectation that one should continue living. That is a good floor for life experience; after all it is required for life experience in the first place. There are those who can even part themselves from that basic expectation, but that is another matter.
There are plenty of healthy expectations that are just and good and realistic, and there are plenty of expectations that are unrealistic and possibly destructive.
If one expects one's species to spread out to every last corner of the earth, and dominate every last living thing and molecule, and expand indefinitely into space, then yes, one is setting oneself up to be mightily disappointed, a disappointment that is proportionate to the loftiness of the expectation. And yes, this chain of expectations and disappointments are connected to a whole array of real world processes and effects. Expectations that require enormous amounts of concentrated energy necessarily entail taking that energy from everything else on that planet, triggering all manner of disappointments and suffering in regions that have nothing to do with the original expectation.
Disappointment, heartbreak, horror, death, these are all things that come for all of us. But we would also look upon someone who is constantly building up a tottering tower of chairs and desks, climbing atop them, and then repeatedly tumbling down as some kind of fool. And for that matter holding the earth in a deathly embrace may mean you never part from the earth, but it could also mean being covered in dirt, or water, or being trampled upon.
To keep balance with a world in flux, sometimes one moves, sometimes one keeps still, and sometimes one contrives, and so on. Life isn't easy, but one can still find happiness in such a process by coming to terms with what necessarily has to happen, even if it is a disaster or catastrophe coming to fruition after the action of previous generations that one hasn't had any effect on.
What I mean is that disappointment presupposes some sort of expectation. Granted, it is a healthy expectation that one should continue living. That is a good floor for life experience; after all it is required for life experience in the first place. There are those who can even part themselves from that basic expectation, but that is another matter.
There are plenty of healthy expectations that are just and good and realistic, and there are plenty of expectations that are unrealistic and possibly destructive.
If one expects one's species to spread out to every last corner of the earth, and dominate every last living thing and molecule, and expand indefinitely into space, then yes, one is setting oneself up to be mightily disappointed, a disappointment that is proportionate to the loftiness of the expectation. And yes, this chain of expectations and disappointments are connected to a whole array of real world processes and effects. Expectations that require enormous amounts of concentrated energy necessarily entail taking that energy from everything else on that planet, triggering all manner of disappointments and suffering in regions that have nothing to do with the original expectation.
Disappointment, heartbreak, horror, death, these are all things that come for all of us. But we would also look upon someone who is constantly building up a tottering tower of chairs and desks, climbing atop them, and then repeatedly tumbling down as some kind of fool. And for that matter holding the earth in a deathly embrace may mean you never part from the earth, but it could also mean being covered in dirt, or water, or being trampled upon.
To keep balance with a world in flux, sometimes one moves, sometimes one keeps still, and sometimes one contrives, and so on. Life isn't easy, but one can still find happiness in such a process by coming to terms with what necessarily has to happen, even if it is a disaster or catastrophe coming to fruition after the action of previous generations that one hasn't had any effect on.
Monday, February 11, 2019
Contemporary Myth
Myth seems to come together after a series of repetitions and accumulations of experiences within a given era, where it is arrived at and transmitted through storytelling, media, and other aspects of culture. Within the present, it is difficult to predict exactly what will happen, but as one periodically turns away from immediacy and contemplates myth, it informs one's expectations and the formation of one's own personal ends, which can be worked towards and strived for in the present. Before myth then is simple doing, after whatever myth that was formed before dies of course.
Part of the difficulty of this era is the mismatch between myth and reality, and that slow and painful realignment that occurs to account for such a mismatch. Yes the best pieces of contemporary media are quite pessimistic and dark, but you really only see those as exercises of the imagination, and as pieces of reassurance that one isn't alone, or what one is experiencing is a larger phenomenon. But on the national and international stage, and with anything that has anything to do with actually doing something or affecting change, it all refers back to an idea of rising to some sort of challenge and overcoming it.
Pessimism and perpetual crisis are tough sells. It is difficult to market with them, or conduct politics with them, even for the right. However bleak Trump's world vision was during the campaign, there was still an overriding message that whatever humiliations and degradations were being suffered would eventually be overcome.
There isn't a myth formed yet that speaks of catastrophe and tragedy, and informs one's navigation of the interim and the aftermath, at least a myth that is contemporary and relatable, and thus actionable. Something like Christianity has the elements in place, but its temporal and historical distance has altered it beyond recognition to the contemporary experience, and besides, it has been wildly distorted through historical corruptions of power and the like, which is altogether apart from its mere semantic drift.
Without an appropriate collective myth, the default instinct is to sift through whatever artifacts of previous myth still cohere, say by finding them frozen in stone, ink, or electronic current. The dissolution of these elements occur slower than the organic formations that instantiated them, and so they lead to a deception not unlike the final rays of light emitted by a dead star.
The alternative is to simply do and experience and witness and learn. And another more harmonious myth gradually takes shape once again.
Part of the difficulty of this era is the mismatch between myth and reality, and that slow and painful realignment that occurs to account for such a mismatch. Yes the best pieces of contemporary media are quite pessimistic and dark, but you really only see those as exercises of the imagination, and as pieces of reassurance that one isn't alone, or what one is experiencing is a larger phenomenon. But on the national and international stage, and with anything that has anything to do with actually doing something or affecting change, it all refers back to an idea of rising to some sort of challenge and overcoming it.
Pessimism and perpetual crisis are tough sells. It is difficult to market with them, or conduct politics with them, even for the right. However bleak Trump's world vision was during the campaign, there was still an overriding message that whatever humiliations and degradations were being suffered would eventually be overcome.
There isn't a myth formed yet that speaks of catastrophe and tragedy, and informs one's navigation of the interim and the aftermath, at least a myth that is contemporary and relatable, and thus actionable. Something like Christianity has the elements in place, but its temporal and historical distance has altered it beyond recognition to the contemporary experience, and besides, it has been wildly distorted through historical corruptions of power and the like, which is altogether apart from its mere semantic drift.
Without an appropriate collective myth, the default instinct is to sift through whatever artifacts of previous myth still cohere, say by finding them frozen in stone, ink, or electronic current. The dissolution of these elements occur slower than the organic formations that instantiated them, and so they lead to a deception not unlike the final rays of light emitted by a dead star.
The alternative is to simply do and experience and witness and learn. And another more harmonious myth gradually takes shape once again.
Ticking Timebomb
People who are in proximity to each other and who are constantly hurting each other - say through emotional abuse - are basically generating a constant stream of unresolved resentments, which tend to chain together and are evoked all at once upon each fresh insult, and this chain seems to even link back to previous traumas and indignations. The reactions get deeper and nastier as time goes on. I imagine this accounts somewhat for the intense acridity of failed relationships.
Monday, February 04, 2019
Settling Thoughts
First the thought comes out hot and peaked, and then it settles, cooling and seeking lower ground through qualification. Unless of course the progenitor of the thought is continuously antagonized and attacked, in which case the thought remains hot and peaked as long as the attack is sustained.
Compartments
In a single confined space, it is technological extension like headphone, personal screen, etc. that allows the sustained habitation of multiple individuals whose chaotic cultural development diverges from each other, so that each is individually compartmentalized with their own preferred modes of social environment and means of entertainment.
This is similar to the function of walls and fences, which increasingly delineate angular and rectangular regions diverging from their open and circular origins.
This is similar to the function of walls and fences, which increasingly delineate angular and rectangular regions diverging from their open and circular origins.
The Gulfs of Specialization
For many specializations, the skill to become proficient in them would take a lifetime to cultivate, as there is simply so much to account for, making them unobtainable for many, producing deep gulfs that drop away and dramatically separate the life experiences for individuals, or at least those deeper, more intimate experiences that are capable of being collectively shared, those experiences of providing for and supporting the reproduction of the greater community.
Working
At least in fields like farming and construction, there is an inner pressure to do skilled work, or to do something essential which is respected. The skilled work is then supported by low skill manual labor, which due to its indispensability and commonality, is an area where workers are constantly pushed towards, especially in larger organizations where there are greater sums that hinge upon the successful completion of high skill tasks.
The high skill tasks, by their nature tend to be high stakes and exclusive. It takes time, energy, and the propensity for risk and the successful navigation of risk to rise in an essential skill. Much like a developing industrial country must be protected by tariffs, individuals learning valuable technical skills must be subsidized in some way, such as being protected by mentors and sympathetic management in a private organization, or by learning and practicing in a trade school or another type of protected environment, which is today increasingly correlated with at least a minimum of a starting cushion of wealth, or those valuable opportunities derided as handouts.
Those weakened in some way - at least in relation to the material interests at hand - whether by attention spans, past traumas, physical limitations, age, gender, or whatever else, tend to be vulnerable to being pigeonholed into some low-respect and low-stakes support role.
There is a constant struggle towards skill and respect, and a constant downward pressure into low skill and physically taxing activities that are largely taken for granted and disrespected. The alternative is to be pushed into idleness as one waits for others to complete their tasks, engendering guilt and stress upon not working, which is largely unavoidable as various labor processes reach bottlenecks.
The ideal is a process in which everyone is in constant circulation, engaging in tasks of relative skill and respect, rising where they can and deferring where they cannot.
The high skill tasks, by their nature tend to be high stakes and exclusive. It takes time, energy, and the propensity for risk and the successful navigation of risk to rise in an essential skill. Much like a developing industrial country must be protected by tariffs, individuals learning valuable technical skills must be subsidized in some way, such as being protected by mentors and sympathetic management in a private organization, or by learning and practicing in a trade school or another type of protected environment, which is today increasingly correlated with at least a minimum of a starting cushion of wealth, or those valuable opportunities derided as handouts.
Those weakened in some way - at least in relation to the material interests at hand - whether by attention spans, past traumas, physical limitations, age, gender, or whatever else, tend to be vulnerable to being pigeonholed into some low-respect and low-stakes support role.
There is a constant struggle towards skill and respect, and a constant downward pressure into low skill and physically taxing activities that are largely taken for granted and disrespected. The alternative is to be pushed into idleness as one waits for others to complete their tasks, engendering guilt and stress upon not working, which is largely unavoidable as various labor processes reach bottlenecks.
The ideal is a process in which everyone is in constant circulation, engaging in tasks of relative skill and respect, rising where they can and deferring where they cannot.
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