Farewell, interpolating 'Incendio'
Arthur C. Clarke - British born science fiction writer, inventor, futurist and humanist, has died- he was 90.
Most well known as the creator of the work '2001: A Space Odyssey,' which was made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick in 1968 ( the book and the movie were conceived together-Clarke co-directed the on screen effort). The film has gone down in history as one of the greatest ever made...
Clarke came up with the idea for space satellite communications (1945) yet never patented the idea.
Clarke's works inspired the engineers of NASA and helped propel us into the space age...the Moon landing probably would not have happened without Clarke- and this event helped America prevent a total slide into nihilistic anarchy.
He wrote about one hundred books (I have only read seven of them- 'Childhoods End' being my favorite . This book explored Clarke's interest in the paranormal).
Clarke resided upon that jewel of the Indian Ocean, Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.
Whenever an iconic figure passes on, it brings to me a special grief, for I see that our current age is one of mediocrity...events and personages from yesteryear really did seem to possess more immediacy and presence...everything now is quick and empty, while the past possessed a certain bitter-sweet flavor that lingered... Rock stars, movie stars, statesmen, wars....from the past ...were larger than life- now they are insipid and are soon forgotten. We remember the space shuttle exploding in 1986 but not in 2003....we remember Woodstock but not the reprise during the 90's...we remember the Vietnam War but the current ones are never even discussed...
being bombarded with too much information, yet not enough knowledge...the youth of the 21st century live in the moment -like dumb animals... sheep being led to the slaughter...
Nostalgia has been mangled by rapid technology. Carved love hearts on trees have been replaced with instant text messages...the starving artist in the garret is gone- because Parisian officials tore down all the garrets a few years ago...you use to be able to pass out drunk on a beach-now you will end up in jail, charged with multiple crimes. Spontaneity is gone- because you are always being watched by big brothers cameras. "If you want to know the future-imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever" (Orwell).
Arthur C. Clarke came to this world to assassinate error and ignorance. He came to teach and uplift, inform and direct. Sacred assassins kill falsehoods; the holy assassin destroys lies and banishes the shadows of deception that we live in.
Modernity began to gel about 1890 or so... and finally took a firm hold upon our collective scruffy neck by 1930. What did we have? Darwinism, to show us our origin...Einstein, to show us our relationship and position in the cosmos...Freud, to unlock our inner mind and secrets...and Marx-to show us our plight and future. Thus, the fruit of the enlightenment informed and improved our minds. But...we slit our throat in 1914. If we had become so enlightened, why did the Great War occur? Were we really so great after all? Did Marx, Darwin, Einstein, and Freud save us? And soon, things became alot worse- the Great Depression and World War Two....then the Cold War and now global corporate rule. We seem to have fallen into a pit from which we cannot extricate ourselves.
This state of affairs caused us to re-examine 'Modernity.' Was the enlightenment project really such a good thing, if it seems to have merely led us into the abyss and hell of the concentration camp, and a dying planet?
On two fronts the humanist enlightenment project began to be criticized
1. In the realm of politics and economic thinking
2. The value of scientific rationality
Modernity was put on trial- had man backed himself into a corner, if Marxism led to the purges and the gulag ? Our science created the Atomic bomb-our policy dropped it upon the innocent. Did this mean that our concept of rationality was deeply flawed? Political events and our accelerating technology created the youth culture, mass spectacle sporting events, popular music, and instant news broadcasting- a mass media global popular culture. But what has been the real gain? A narcissistic, hedonistic,dumbed-down populace.
The rest of this essay will examine the main players in the re-evaluation of the enlightenment project- the principal thinkers that assassinated 'Modernity' and postulated the 'New Hermeneutics' of the latter half of the 20th century: Hayek, Popper, Kuhn, Habermas, Derrida, Jung, and I will add,indirectly, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, for personal reasons. The metaphysical blood that this essay will spill will never rinse off your soul...
But let me add: Godel showed us (1930) that mathematics was unreliable, it could never be totally linked to logic; and the uncertainty principle showed us that there were real limits to what we could find out about the physical universe. Wittgenstein (and Saussure) showed us that language was a slippery uncertain slope- an unreliable tool. Where did this leave us? We entered the era of uncertainty and doubt...
Textual criticism showed us that we cannot trust the received scriptures of our fathers...and scholarly studies pointed us toward a new sexual liberation and freedom ( Margaret Mead's 'Coming of age in Samoa' has NOT been discredited...plus the Kinsey Report of the 1950's....)
(A main point: Many liberal ideas that existed around 1900 have been proven to be correct-the activist state- old age pensions, national standards for meat and drug production,etc.)
The sanctity of the individual- must be balanced with nationalism.
where was I?
This post is my attempt to squeeze the universe into a ball, and where I will roll it, nobody knows....
The 20th century produced two main models for political being: The Soviet, and the American-West.
Hayek argued that central economic planning was inherently flawed, because knowledge was simply too diffuse. A committee could never plan an large economy. this was part of the 'socialist (re) calculation' of the 1920's...but Hayek failed to see that the rule of law would be subverted and turn the 'free market' into a bloated pig empire.
I conceive of the 20th century as being a living thing-I condense a particular time and space into the form of a wild beast, a wounded beast looking into the mirror of its own deeds,looking for truth, searching for honesty...ultimately seeking a destiny among the stars ...
The Public sphere has become too corrupted, authentic communication a rarity. (Habermas)
Various solutions were offered-the liberal, the radical, and the reactionary-conservative.
Popper informed us that science can only be falsified, never proven. Kuhn told us that the scientific project was not objective. In stepped that Post-Modern prophet of Western doom...
...Jacques Derrida- there is no center, no Logosphere, only false binaries...Derrida is probably the main culprit that created the corrosive relativism and moral ambiguity of the 1960's...what really exists is a comfortable void...or waylessness. (At the start of Modernity the great poet Ezra Pound commanded us to "Make it new"...I wonder if he had any regrets...). Derrida rejected any real center, or primary presence, or absolute essence, or goal, or final interpretation or meaning. But common sense informs us that he merely led us into Dante's 'Dark wood.' Deconstruction theory equals death.
It was at about this time ( 1960) that the 'Left' begot its bastard child- the "New Left".
Which brings us to the events of 1968. American students took over the administration building for Columbia University in April...suddenly, a student protest in Paris nearly triggered a worldwide revolution...Charles DeGaulle fled France...2/3 of the workers joined the General Strike. The violence melted almost as quickly as it had statred...but even if this was an aborted political coup, the social impact was permanent-French traditions-respect for authority, religion, patriotism- were gone...(and) replaced with notions of equality, sexual freedom, and solidarity for the third world downtrodden. These ideas took hold all across the globe- student strikes in Mexico that year ended in tragedy-hundreds were machine gunned down by police...student revolts erupted elsewhere- Berkeley California, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Brazil, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia...
The political defeat of the student Left in 1968 had two main causes 1. the vision became too expansive 2. the students did not have an adequate concept of violence. But the cultural significance of the '68-ers continues today.
Does correct reasoning require a 'tradition'? Have 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism' and relativism led us down a rabbit hole from which we cannot climb out of ?
Facts and values have been cleaved in half...we find it difficult to justify moral rules. This happened because modernity inherited incoherent fragments from roughly coherent traditions. Instead of character, we have obligations.
a gap between the is and the ought, the thou and the I...material consumerism gives us the choice of having versus being. With the aforementioned acceptance of thirdworldism, the traditional elites are in the process of self genocide-ing themselves. As indicated by the patent offices and winners of the Nobel prizes, the creator-preservers from a certain geographic zone are the intellectual/aesthetic elites-without advanced education, civilization would vanish,yet these people are declining-morally, and in real numbers. The idea that one should get married, reproduce, and try to leave the world a better place than it was before you arrived- this idea has been broken within the traditional industrialized countries. Who broke it? The enemy from within- the traitors.
The war in mid-century was a "confrontation between planetary technology and modern humanity" (Heidegger). The sublime battled the forces of usury and unnecessary abstraction... Spengler's Imperium almost came into being-the creation of a united West. But the dream was distorted from its inception...
The traitors are in the White House, they are in the Congress, they are in the courts. They are leading both major political parties...they are the lamestream media... the traitors own the major Wall Street firms and they are actively pulverizing Main street and diluting the Folk. You have lost your country; There is no rising standard of living. The rich get richer and more repugnant, while the poor get poorer and more numerous.You have been outsourced and downsized and kicked in the teeth.You are a fool and a sucker. Already the 'civilian detention centers' are in place. Already the executive orders for the usurpation of the Republic have been signed. Where are the Peoples Assemblies, the new guardians of the commonweal? Where?
The treason is now in your mind, the poison is in your soul... you are too weak and cowardly to rebel.
A possible way out: Blake's 'imagination' and (quantum) Eastern Loving-Kindness.
Jesus in the New Testament said "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to Earth. I have come to light a fire. I have come to put a sword between father and son, daughter and mother. This fire that I have lit will consume the world."
The children that run at you with knives were taught by you and your society.
I am really mad as hell, and I **** you all.
"Every generation needs a new revolution" - Thomas Jefferson
Most well known as the creator of the work '2001: A Space Odyssey,' which was made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick in 1968 ( the book and the movie were conceived together-Clarke co-directed the on screen effort). The film has gone down in history as one of the greatest ever made...
Clarke came up with the idea for space satellite communications (1945) yet never patented the idea.
Clarke's works inspired the engineers of NASA and helped propel us into the space age...the Moon landing probably would not have happened without Clarke- and this event helped America prevent a total slide into nihilistic anarchy.
He wrote about one hundred books (I have only read seven of them- 'Childhoods End' being my favorite . This book explored Clarke's interest in the paranormal).
Clarke resided upon that jewel of the Indian Ocean, Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.
Whenever an iconic figure passes on, it brings to me a special grief, for I see that our current age is one of mediocrity...events and personages from yesteryear really did seem to possess more immediacy and presence...everything now is quick and empty, while the past possessed a certain bitter-sweet flavor that lingered... Rock stars, movie stars, statesmen, wars....from the past ...were larger than life- now they are insipid and are soon forgotten. We remember the space shuttle exploding in 1986 but not in 2003....we remember Woodstock but not the reprise during the 90's...we remember the Vietnam War but the current ones are never even discussed...
being bombarded with too much information, yet not enough knowledge...the youth of the 21st century live in the moment -like dumb animals... sheep being led to the slaughter...
Nostalgia has been mangled by rapid technology. Carved love hearts on trees have been replaced with instant text messages...the starving artist in the garret is gone- because Parisian officials tore down all the garrets a few years ago...you use to be able to pass out drunk on a beach-now you will end up in jail, charged with multiple crimes. Spontaneity is gone- because you are always being watched by big brothers cameras. "If you want to know the future-imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever" (Orwell).
Arthur C. Clarke came to this world to assassinate error and ignorance. He came to teach and uplift, inform and direct. Sacred assassins kill falsehoods; the holy assassin destroys lies and banishes the shadows of deception that we live in.
Modernity began to gel about 1890 or so... and finally took a firm hold upon our collective scruffy neck by 1930. What did we have? Darwinism, to show us our origin...Einstein, to show us our relationship and position in the cosmos...Freud, to unlock our inner mind and secrets...and Marx-to show us our plight and future. Thus, the fruit of the enlightenment informed and improved our minds. But...we slit our throat in 1914. If we had become so enlightened, why did the Great War occur? Were we really so great after all? Did Marx, Darwin, Einstein, and Freud save us? And soon, things became alot worse- the Great Depression and World War Two....then the Cold War and now global corporate rule. We seem to have fallen into a pit from which we cannot extricate ourselves.
This state of affairs caused us to re-examine 'Modernity.' Was the enlightenment project really such a good thing, if it seems to have merely led us into the abyss and hell of the concentration camp, and a dying planet?
On two fronts the humanist enlightenment project began to be criticized
1. In the realm of politics and economic thinking
2. The value of scientific rationality
Modernity was put on trial- had man backed himself into a corner, if Marxism led to the purges and the gulag ? Our science created the Atomic bomb-our policy dropped it upon the innocent. Did this mean that our concept of rationality was deeply flawed? Political events and our accelerating technology created the youth culture, mass spectacle sporting events, popular music, and instant news broadcasting- a mass media global popular culture. But what has been the real gain? A narcissistic, hedonistic,dumbed-down populace.
The rest of this essay will examine the main players in the re-evaluation of the enlightenment project- the principal thinkers that assassinated 'Modernity' and postulated the 'New Hermeneutics' of the latter half of the 20th century: Hayek, Popper, Kuhn, Habermas, Derrida, Jung, and I will add,indirectly, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, for personal reasons. The metaphysical blood that this essay will spill will never rinse off your soul...
But let me add: Godel showed us (1930) that mathematics was unreliable, it could never be totally linked to logic; and the uncertainty principle showed us that there were real limits to what we could find out about the physical universe. Wittgenstein (and Saussure) showed us that language was a slippery uncertain slope- an unreliable tool. Where did this leave us? We entered the era of uncertainty and doubt...
Textual criticism showed us that we cannot trust the received scriptures of our fathers...and scholarly studies pointed us toward a new sexual liberation and freedom ( Margaret Mead's 'Coming of age in Samoa' has NOT been discredited...plus the Kinsey Report of the 1950's....)
(A main point: Many liberal ideas that existed around 1900 have been proven to be correct-the activist state- old age pensions, national standards for meat and drug production,etc.)
The sanctity of the individual- must be balanced with nationalism.
where was I?
This post is my attempt to squeeze the universe into a ball, and where I will roll it, nobody knows....
The 20th century produced two main models for political being: The Soviet, and the American-West.
Hayek argued that central economic planning was inherently flawed, because knowledge was simply too diffuse. A committee could never plan an large economy. this was part of the 'socialist (re) calculation' of the 1920's...but Hayek failed to see that the rule of law would be subverted and turn the 'free market' into a bloated pig empire.
I conceive of the 20th century as being a living thing-I condense a particular time and space into the form of a wild beast, a wounded beast looking into the mirror of its own deeds,looking for truth, searching for honesty...ultimately seeking a destiny among the stars ...
The Public sphere has become too corrupted, authentic communication a rarity. (Habermas)
Various solutions were offered-the liberal, the radical, and the reactionary-conservative.
Popper informed us that science can only be falsified, never proven. Kuhn told us that the scientific project was not objective. In stepped that Post-Modern prophet of Western doom...
...Jacques Derrida- there is no center, no Logosphere, only false binaries...Derrida is probably the main culprit that created the corrosive relativism and moral ambiguity of the 1960's...what really exists is a comfortable void...or waylessness. (At the start of Modernity the great poet Ezra Pound commanded us to "Make it new"...I wonder if he had any regrets...). Derrida rejected any real center, or primary presence, or absolute essence, or goal, or final interpretation or meaning. But common sense informs us that he merely led us into Dante's 'Dark wood.' Deconstruction theory equals death.
It was at about this time ( 1960) that the 'Left' begot its bastard child- the "New Left".
Which brings us to the events of 1968. American students took over the administration building for Columbia University in April...suddenly, a student protest in Paris nearly triggered a worldwide revolution...Charles DeGaulle fled France...2/3 of the workers joined the General Strike. The violence melted almost as quickly as it had statred...but even if this was an aborted political coup, the social impact was permanent-French traditions-respect for authority, religion, patriotism- were gone...(and) replaced with notions of equality, sexual freedom, and solidarity for the third world downtrodden. These ideas took hold all across the globe- student strikes in Mexico that year ended in tragedy-hundreds were machine gunned down by police...student revolts erupted elsewhere- Berkeley California, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Brazil, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia...
The political defeat of the student Left in 1968 had two main causes 1. the vision became too expansive 2. the students did not have an adequate concept of violence. But the cultural significance of the '68-ers continues today.
Does correct reasoning require a 'tradition'? Have 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism' and relativism led us down a rabbit hole from which we cannot climb out of ?
Facts and values have been cleaved in half...we find it difficult to justify moral rules. This happened because modernity inherited incoherent fragments from roughly coherent traditions. Instead of character, we have obligations.
a gap between the is and the ought, the thou and the I...material consumerism gives us the choice of having versus being. With the aforementioned acceptance of thirdworldism, the traditional elites are in the process of self genocide-ing themselves. As indicated by the patent offices and winners of the Nobel prizes, the creator-preservers from a certain geographic zone are the intellectual/aesthetic elites-without advanced education, civilization would vanish,yet these people are declining-morally, and in real numbers. The idea that one should get married, reproduce, and try to leave the world a better place than it was before you arrived- this idea has been broken within the traditional industrialized countries. Who broke it? The enemy from within- the traitors.
The war in mid-century was a "confrontation between planetary technology and modern humanity" (Heidegger). The sublime battled the forces of usury and unnecessary abstraction... Spengler's Imperium almost came into being-the creation of a united West. But the dream was distorted from its inception...
The traitors are in the White House, they are in the Congress, they are in the courts. They are leading both major political parties...they are the lamestream media... the traitors own the major Wall Street firms and they are actively pulverizing Main street and diluting the Folk. You have lost your country; There is no rising standard of living. The rich get richer and more repugnant, while the poor get poorer and more numerous.You have been outsourced and downsized and kicked in the teeth.You are a fool and a sucker. Already the 'civilian detention centers' are in place. Already the executive orders for the usurpation of the Republic have been signed. Where are the Peoples Assemblies, the new guardians of the commonweal? Where?
The treason is now in your mind, the poison is in your soul... you are too weak and cowardly to rebel.
A possible way out: Blake's 'imagination' and (quantum) Eastern Loving-Kindness.
Jesus in the New Testament said "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to Earth. I have come to light a fire. I have come to put a sword between father and son, daughter and mother. This fire that I have lit will consume the world."
The children that run at you with knives were taught by you and your society.
I am really mad as hell, and I **** you all.
"Every generation needs a new revolution" - Thomas Jefferson
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