Tag: Learning

The Problem of Nothingness (bonus pts if you guess the source-it should go without saying.)

An abstraction is made when something not capable of existing in isolation is thought of as in an isolated state.

Consciousness is an abstraction.

The concrete can be only the synthetic totality of which consciousness, like the phenomenon, constitutes only moments. Effecting a phenomenological reduction will not succeed in restoring the concrete (of consciousness) by the summation or organization of the elements which we abstracted from it. The relation of the regions of being is an original emergence and is a part of the very structure of the beings.

“Is there any conduct which can reveal to me the relation not man with the world?”

We have established a Parallelism between the types of conduct man adopts in the face of Being and Non-Being. We’re tempted to consider being and non-being as two complementary components of the real: like dark and light.

Two contemporary notions which would somehow be united in the production of existents and which it would be useless to consider in isolation. Pure being and pure non-being would be two abstractions which could be reunited only on the basis of concrete realities.

There is nothing in heaven or on earth which does not contain in itself Being and Nothingness.

Remember it-it Rhymes

(Claude) Levi-Strauss did not invent denim, but rather anthropological stucturalism.

P.S. my audience is myself here. feel free to disapprove

Hartz. American Exceptionalism: The Consensus Thesis. Introductory Notes

American Exceptionalism, as Louis Hartz writes about it, asserts that the U.S. varies qualitatively from other nations. As citizens of the first extended republic, white U.S. men were the first to enjoy nearly universal suffrage; and, also the first to form political parties. As compared to working classes of other countries, the American working class has been politically cautious. For example, the scope of America’s social welfare programs has been distinctly limited.

The U.S. is a paradox of change and continuity. Despite rapid political and economic development, there has been profound resistance to social movements and policies that were typically elicited elsewhere by a dynamic capitalist economy.

The most pervasive explanation for this pattern of development and resistance is that a belief in individual freedom, private enterprise, and republican institutions founded by popular consent has made it difficult for competing collectivist movements and policies to take hold. Hartz frames this as a constraining cultural consensus.

American Exceptionalism: The Consensus Thesis

Starts liberal, stays liberal.

This thesis is rooted in Tocqueville’s discussion of American social relations.

I think there is no other country in the world where there are so few ignorant and so few learned individuals.

Special material conditions, Tocqueville thought, helped produce this result.

Even though a “few great lords” migrated to the thirteen colonies, the soul of America absolutely rejected a territorial [landed] aristocracy.

But social relations and conditions were crucial factors. Even the southern planters lacked the traditional-and inherited-privledges distinguishing aristocrats from commoners, and because their workers were African slaves, the land Master lacked the usual patronage relations aristocrats had with ordinary citizens in Europe.

Tocqueville:

The inhabitants hardly know each other, and each man is ignorant of his nearest neighbor’s history…no man enjoys the influence and respect due a whole life spent publically in doing good deeds.

Americans enjoyed bourgeois liberty, “not the aristocratic freedom of their motherland, but a middle-class and democratic freedom.” (Hartz)

The U.S. had learned to combine liberty and democracy in a manner the French had not. They didn’t suffer a democratic revolution. They all belonged to the middle class. There had been no prolonged struggle to bring down aristocracy.

Americans are… born equal instead of becoming so.

And so it goes. Great Vonnegut Quote

There was still plenty of food and fuel and so on for all the the human beings on the planet, as numerous as they had become, but millions upon milions of them were starving to death now.

And this famine was as purely a product of oversized brains as Beethoven’s Symphony.

It was all in people’s heads. People had simply changed their opinions of paper wealth, but, for all practical purposes, the planet might as well have been knocked out of orbit by a meteor the size of Luxembourg.

The financial crisis was simply the latest in a series of murderous 21st century catastrophes which had originated entirely in human brains.

More and more humans were saying that their brains were irresponsible, unreliable, hideously dangerous, wholly unrealistic— were simply no damn good.

Kurt Vonnegut. Galàpagos. 1999

Time to Revive Hartz & rexamine American Exceptionalism?

Embodying an absolute moral ethos, “Americanism,” once it is driven onto the world stage by events, is inspired willy-nilly to reconstruct the very alien things it tries to avoid. Its Messianism is the polar counterpart of its isolation. Americans seem to oscillate between fleeing from the rest of the world and embracing it with too ardent a passion. An absolute national morality is inspired to withdraw from “alien” things or to transform them-It cannot live in comfort constantly by their side.

Louis Hartz. American Exceptionalism. 1955.

Thoughts are with those hurting tonight after the violent events.

Let’s try harder to do better.

A Pretty Beautiful Poem

Conviviality: C17 from Latin convivialis “a feast”

“fit for a feast”

(of an atmosphere or event) friendly, lively, enjoyable

potential. hy/Poten/use

potentiate

potent. pot. Portia (circa Antigone)

portent (n) ; portend (vb)

– portentious

port

porter

Deceit…. disgust

Conceit…. disguise. (dis/g -)

Receipt… despise

(- cei/P/t)

DISAMBIGUATION

Pretext: ostensible reason (false) used to justify an action.

Pretense: act of pretending, false ambitions / claim

Pretend: imaginative same / fantasy

Pretension: claim of aspiration to something pretentious

Pretentious: attempting to impress with falsehood

Prevaricate: act or speak in an evasive way

Prima facie: (law) at first sight [ / site / cite]; accepted as so until proven otherwise

The Old English spelling of pretty = prættig, meaning

‘cunning or crafty’ coming as it did from a West Germanic base meaning

‘trick’.

By the Middle Ages, pretty had come to mean ‘clever, skilful, or ingenuious’.

The sense development [ deceitful, cunning, clever, skilful, admirable, pleasing, attractive ] has parallels in adjectives such as nice.

PRETTY

1. attractive in a delicate way, without being truly* (common) * beautiful. *author’s change*

2. used ironically to express displeasure: fairly ; trinket ; (used condescendingly) attractive person.

Pretty is to prevericate in order to increase Prestige?

A pretty face is a prentious face?

Pretty is pretension?

Beauty is.

Is being pretty pretentious? or prestigous?

The pretension of the face being ‘pretty’ was pretentious?

Pretty is prevarication to gain? [Prevaricate and procrastinate have similar but not identical meanings.

Prevaricate means ‘act or speak in an evasive way’.

Procrastinate, on the other hand, means ‘put off doing something’.

Prestigious.

A face being pretty is a pretension.

That’s beautiful, that is, Pretty!

PRESTIGE entered English in the mid 17th century (tricksy, cuz it means the 1600’s) from French, and ultimately derives from the Latin plural noun praestigiae ‘conjuring tricks’.

It took on its modern meaning in the 19th century (the 1800’s) by way of the sense ‘dazzling influence, glamo/u/r’, which at first [only] had a derogatory implication.

Aren’t we beautiful, Pretties?!

Extra Credit: speak the 17 words below aloud. Wild right? They kinda stopped making sense after a while. Lovesome.

Pretty ; Prettify ; Prettifies ; Prettifying

Prettified ; Prettification ; Prettifier ;

Prettier ; Prettiest ; Prettyish. . . . . Prettyboy.

Prettily ; Prettiness ; Prettyish ;

Pretties.

Prettied.

Prettying.

* Knock Knock…Orange… Orange you glad the other (stars) astericks didn’t make you scroll all the effing way down here? Hyuck.

I. All words cited from OED Concise (pic below-citations take forever)

II. All 17 “Pretty” derivations were taken from 3 dictionaries.

Mix tape to the World. Soul Funk. Rev. James Brown. A Maverick.

I did not know about James Brown.

Ha! I believed it was sexy-good-time music: good beat; easy to dance to.

It is.

It is also so much more.

Powerful medicine. I compiled a list of tracks to hike to.

Thought I’d share. Will continue to update as I find more.

It’s all good for productivity.

So take a walk, guys.

or destress and jam this when you carry wood (work).

Because like a ball on the bound,

you’ve got to get down, down, down!

Talking Loud and Saying Nothing. 1972. There It Is.

Blind Man Can See It. extended cut. bonus track. Jungle Groove.

Soul Power. 1971. “12 inch long version”

The Good Foot. Pts I & II.
Mind Power. 1973

Cold Sweat. 1967

Bonus points:

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

16 June 1972 (released).

8 November 1971 to 4 February 1972 (recorded)

Side 1

2nd track

 

cheers.

Back on my Literacy Soapbox

First things first: Thank you educators (formal and informal). You guys are on the front lines doing something about literacy issues.

With our digital world still unfolding and it currently being the wild, wild west of the world, I worry there has been a tendency to view words as inferior to numbers. Reading is seen as escapism, a hobby, and other whimsy. Literacy starts meaning the ability to read a newspaper, which is written on an 8th grade level. What do we mean by literate?

The ability to grasp meaning from language requires a capacity to hold those abstract principles in your mind and then critically apply those abstractions to yourself. Sure, a 10 year old girl reading Anne of Green Gables, is absolutely doing this. Even if she’s reading for a school assignment and hates every second of it: she will have a feeling about what she reads and that feeling becomes opinion which she then must express in both a written and oral book report. Then she has learned to think for and express herself and her own thoughts.

Working in risk management for businesses and professionals, my days involve a lot of reading of policy forms. That huge stack of papers they give you when buy, say, auto insurance. Not the page that shows your coverage limits (commonly called or declarations page) but all the stuff after it, that is a legally binding contract you paid money to sign. Consider court documents and the language of laws. Reading a court filing yesterday, I hit a word I did not know. I have 4 print dictionaries I consult for such things. The word was in none of them and I could not find much online either. I was outraged.

I consider the work of promoting literacy to include the right to readability of “binding written agreements.” Things like state and federal law, how voting works, court papers and explanations of rights and lead options, credit card and bank agreements and capitalization and interest practices, student loan education.

The list goes on. My point is: there are ways language can be used to obfuscate instead of illuminate. The less we read the more likely we are to not even notice it. That is not a fair game; everyone deserves equity.

Ma’Kheru: The Word of Truth (from The I Ching)

Ma’Kheru (or Maat).

The superior man abides in his room.

If his words are well spoken, he meets with assent at a distance of more than a thousand miles. How much more then from near by!

If the superior man abides in his room and his words are not well spoken, he meets with contradiction at a distance of more than a thousand miles. How much more then from near by!

Words go forth from one’s own person and exert their influence on men… Must one not, then, be cautious? –

The I Ching 15

Uncertainty & Doubt

https://writtencasey.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/416/

“The irony and obsessions of Cioran’s philosophy” (Marius Nica)………a new name to me.

https://wp.me/p1gja9-3Na

Cheers to the author for this work.

Such an interesting and thoughtful piece on a writer and thinker.

The author discusses Romanian contemplator Emil Cioran and his relationship to atheism, skepticism, and mysticism.

Favorite quote from the author of this paper:

…..then that person has not really read Cioran. Perhaps they have leafed through some pages, read some ideas which they mirrored their own experiences into, their own projections on an existence which is impossible to transcend.

Favorite Cioran quotes included in this work:

If the difference between man and animal is the fact that the animal cannot be but animal, whereas the man can be inhuman, which is something other than himself-in this case I am unhuman.

My experiences became books, as if they had written themselves.

The writing is only valuable when it objectifies a feeling, because beyond the expression there is life, and beyond the form there is content.

Between the passion for ecstacy and the horror of the void the entire mysticism revolves.

Silent sensory

Tell me I’m wrong and to stop my shameful wantoness.

No one will. They see it not or remain silent in want or delusion.

Squeak out or leap and jump til I’m dizzy.

I’m simple but elegant in my simplicity.

My intelligence is eerie and of touch.

To exploit is to ruin that sought.

So just show lovesome, desperate want.

Turning out

It must be taught, sometimes trained.

Only delicately forced, by choice.

Desire and drive, to a specific end.

That’s the pleasure of one. And the other who relents.

The absence thereof is the sorrow of another one.

Swelling into dew kissed morning wettness.

What can you do?

Verbal alchemy…

Shallow

hallow

hollow

wallow

Swallow

Wallows

Swollaw

Wollaw

Watch “Velvet Underground-“Venus in Furs” from “Velvet Underground and Nico” LP” on YouTube

https://youtu.be/iLQzaLr1enE

No rights owned.

If ya dont get it, suppose it’s not for you yet.

If ya do feel it, cheers

So do I on this fine Friday.

Prestidigitation

Who and what lady does not love fancy fingering from a fellow?

Percussive and resonant.

Fugue played on breath and flesh

Breath, respite, breath….etc.

Unapologetic forwards.

Shuddering into turn outs, again and again

And round about.

Cloaked in opaque context doing little to hide the fact of desire.

Suppose it is what is,

Ad well as what it might and will be.

Precarious

Subject to continued risk;

that may be taken away at another’s pleasure or by accident ; uncertain.

Subject or leading to danger.

Not firmly established ; untrustworthy.

Smug?

From the Latin meaning to obtain by entreaty

Watch “The Velvet Underground – Rock & Roll” on YouTube

Dont own rights but have mad love for these ‘uns.

Good intro song for non-fans.

Take a moment to appreciate the tension in the picture. Highlarious.

See if ya recognize any of ’em.

BRIDGE

From F&W dic aka tha best of my four.

I. vb To construct a bridge or bridges over ; span ; get over ; pass.

II. n.

1. A structure erected to AFFORD PASSAGE ACROSS A WATERWAY or the like ; a raised support.

2. An observational~platform or partial deck BUILT ACROSS AND ABOVE a ship’s deck for the use of the officers, the pilot, etc.

3. (1) Auction bridge.

(2) BRIDGE~WHIST

4. Something likened to a bridge.

More in pic below

Watch “James Brown – Soul Power. 1971 (12″ Long Version)” on YouTube

Dont own rights, paying mad homage.

Soul Power reminds me of Bowie/Ziggy’s Soul Love

Give it to me, put it back

Can we go to the bridge now?

I wanna go to the bridge…..me too!

I wanna get under your skin.

Gotta feeeeyeeel it.

I need help, I cant do it alone

Come back for more, say it again, come back for more.

Say it again!

You, ball on tha bound, you gotta get down.

You heard him, do your lil thing.