The jousting files #1.....Defining perspectives, at least it's a start.
In my ongoing fun exchanges with @tarazkp, I realized the he stopped answering my comments so much, and instead addressed some points in his own posts instead.
Clever. ...Verrry clever.
Increasing upvoting rewards for posts, while answering at the same time....Good idea!
So any of the worthwhile philosophical interchanges with @tarazkp - will now be posted on my own blog, under 'the jousting files...with a number.'
Perfect examples of the different perspectives between the postmodernist, and the more pragmatically minded individual.
Perfect examples of the information war we are in.
I would argue (have argued) that postmodernism is a tumorous corruption of good minds, and possibly only treated with doses of real exchange.
(Or it could be a genuine mental illness...for postmodernism is illogical in nearly every argument given.
e.g. 'There are no truth's' - and that's a truth! lol).
From what I see, the 'philosophy' (I use that term in the loosest possible way) of postmodernism - has to be confronted at every opportunity....It is the self destruction of western society.
While everyone is free to blow there own heads off, encouraging another 600 million people to do the same thing, needs to be challenged.
This post is in reply to @tarazkp post (link below to full piece).
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@tarazkp/seeds-of-forever
Whether history makes it a terrible image or one of beauty, will depend on the perspective of the viewer.
I truly fail to see how the history of concentration camps, can seen as 'beauty.'
(irrelevant of your thoughts on 'the holocaust' itself - they were places of misery and death).
But you are correct, it does depend on your personal perspectives of what 'terrible' or 'beauty' is...
For me it is something beautiful,
So the beauty you see now (in a flower), eclipses the horror of history in your own mind?
(i.e . you see the 'beauty', not the 'terrible').
so much horror passed beneath this soil yet, years later a flower grew and its seeds will travel on to become a potentially endless supply of new points of beauty.
Your perspective of time and context is quite an eye opener, matey!
I've traveled quite a bit around the world, and seen quite a few battle fields and human atrocity sites, along the way...
I perceived them very differently.
Interesting.
For me, the poppies fields in Flanders, didn't eclipse the horrors of the WW1 trench warfare that took place under my feet.
It was a nice summers day when I went to Dachau, but the darkness of the history, eclipsed the sunshine.
Gettysburg was steeped in blood, death and struggle, not nice scenery.
The 'bridge over river Kwai' railroad horrors, were not outshone by the tropical palm trees and lush growth.
And the killing fields in Cambodia??.....I can't understand how any beauty can be seen, if there is any awareness of the past.. (from only 40 odd years ago).
Choosing to focus on the simple beauty of a flower, within the overwhelming horror of the past, is some mental feat.
(Using my own summer's day in Dachau, by comparison).
Maybe it's a fundamental difference in the concept of time itself, or indicative of the personal value put on the past...?
(even though every single thing that we are today, is a product of the past).
I value the past.
It's the only reference point of education we have available to us , and - for me - to not use such a tool, is discounting the very validity of our ancestors existence - and what they offered to hold any value.
There were the people that built the world we have today.
Forgiveness is not possible until past pain no longer restricts our current growth and thereby our future experience.
Forgiveness is overrated - and today's emphasis put on it, (and societal pressure to 'forgive') is symptomatic of today's world, and of our growing 'softness' in postmodernist western cultures, today.
Not forgiving is the basis of moral laws.
Some element of retribution, for wrongs done against us, and is not forgiveness in it's essence.
And laws are the basis for a cohesive society.
As we forgive, we are also shown that the thin end of the wedge that evil men do, can be deemed more acceptable.
(like the suggestion of legalizing pedophilia, for example).
Not forgiving carries anger, as well as pain.
Anger and pain are not the same thing, they are very different energies. Two sides of the same coin.
Pain (emotionally speaking), left to fester, becomes self pity.
Soul sucking self pity, and victim hood.
Anger though, can be used to energize yourself, discipline yourself, and can be a growth energy that can be transformed into a something positive .
Wallowing in pain will only lure you into the 'victim status.' and will prevent you from moving on.
And if you to stay stuck with pain because you feel forgiveness is not acceptable - then get angry and do something about it!
I would argue that you can turn pain energy into anger energy , and that can be much more therapeutic than any 'forgiving' happy clappy stuff.
As the saying goes, forgive and forget, but we are designed to remember, hardwired to weigh loss at a greater rate than gain.
Negative feedback loops is (remembering the negative), is one of the primary reasons to a success of any species, humans included.
If we were weigh positive experiences over negative ones, we would be extinct.
Maybe we are destined by nature to live in conflict,.
It's not destiny, its the dynamic of life itself. Our past, our present,and our future.
Competition is conflict.
The world we have created around us, with all the innovation, comfort and entertainment possible is not fulfilling us, not providing the meaning we require to move on from the torment of what has gone, take root and grow to become flowers that bear seeds of forever, taken by winds of change to experiences unimaginable by the flower itself, by our own limited lives.
I think to be fulfilled, is to have purpose, and until recently (historically speaking), purpose itself, was staying alive and nurturing the next generation.
We had no luxury for anything else.
Material wealth and success has usurped our purpose, and now we spend our time trying to find it...
The big problem with purpose, though -Is that it can't be faked.
Purpose is reality.
The closer to life and death you live, the more focused that purpose then becomes.
You feel the most alive, when you're closest to death.
Ask any motorbike rider....
The rest is pretending to have a purpose, and the human psyche knows the difference deep down....
This also explains why we make thing difficult for ourselves in a very real way.
It gives up purpose.
Perhaps the differences between the above perspectives result from assumptions regarding man's nature. Some base their entire cognitive construct of reality upon the assumption that man is naturally good. Rousseau is the typical thinker whose a priori assumption of natural goodness of man lead him to conceptualize his "social contract." In the real world, the naive belief in this humanist trash gave birth to the Revolution and the Terror. Post-modernism seems to be extension of Rousseau's madness into metaphysical sphere, in which any organized thought, doctrine, or dogma is anathema to their belief in some natural free spirit of man, or some such nonsense.
Perhaps, those who perceive beauty in horrors of man's inhumanity choose to intentionally blind themselves to the evidence that contradict their perfect philosophy.
Didn't he dump his kids off to an orphanage to? lol
like marx talking about 'the evil capitalists ' living off the labors of the workers - while spending all his years being paid for - by the labors of his friends workers...
Usually "reformers" are the progeny of second-tier aristocrats or benighted mercantile scum that are accustomed to life of luxury given by their forebears with absolutely no sense of responsibility towards their society because of their second-rate class status. The idleness of their mind, lack of influence, and infinite free time allow for these meatbags to concoct the most evil schemes to spread human misery as far as possible.
It was not the "proletariat" who rebelled against their betters, but the bored, previleged, useless intellectual class that brought forth the Marxist revolution, grasping for power that was beyond their reach; and they proved with their insane social policies that they were indeed unworthy of such power. Even the modern day Western reformers, the so-called SJWs, are mostly bored, previleged, European descendents seeking power and influence, supposedly to "help" their darker brethren. The world would be a much better place, if these reformers and do-gooders remain locked-up in their ivory towers, living in the fantasy land of their intellectual idleness, studying pea pods, insects, and other useless pursuits.
In a more elegant time, much of these useless, but dangerous meatbags would be sent off to monasteries to work menial tasks and occupy their time and energy poring over obscure texts or studying nature. In our degenerate times, these evil men are allowed to spread their poison into the minds of susceptible and unsuspecting youths.
Eloquently said sir....
Firstly,
Before I read this, what do you see in these images of dandelions?
Secondly,
I don't get to all comments but I give it a pretty decent try and I think that I have answered literally dozens of yours in the last week or so.
I'm sure you are lot busier than me - I'm not offended - but I noticed you addressed some point in your posts - which is a more efficient way of doing things...no probs here, matey.
As for the images - context matters. I see them for what they are.
I never saw the same things at Dachau - it's about perspective and relevance, like I said...
I cover may points in post regardless of whether I read some comments or not. If a point you made was relevant to one of my posts, without me reading the comment I am likely (or at least potentially likely) to have thought of the same point. It is the way minds tend to wander.
Context does matter, they are flowers. And no matter the location, they are flowers. applying all of the location history to a flower isn't the context of the flower. Essentially, I could have used a flower picture from anywhere (like from my garden) and told the same story and that image then gets some external meaning applied to it. I could have used the same image and given a happy story as the contextual frame and the image changes in perspective again. The narrative is what people imagine and apply, not the reality of the flower just being a flower.
So, you can imagine how a news service or political party with an agenda could use images tied to a narrative to sway an audience. Well, it doesn't need to be imagined does it, it happens daily.
comment on the word 'postmodern'.
what is modern?
in 1892 did they consider themselves to be modern?
how about 1937?
when is modern? when modern is past is it post-post..then post-post-post...(etc)?
are we going to need scientific notation?
I dint assign the title of a the 'philosophy' - Take it up with Satre, or something! lol
still...the question remains.
how can something that happened long before 'modern' times be called POST modern?