Many good questions there Zork. Language, and the personal interpretation of words, is “spaghetti -code” like a 20 year old batch COBOL program after thousands of patches that ran on IBM mainframes in the 1980s. I think the greatest casualty of civilized societies since the Internet began is the watered-down meaning of language verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives.
This whole series is about the meaning of words, about interpreting and defining our experiences. "What is a women?" is an epistemological question. How do we know?
Postmodernism is an attack on reality by questioning the ways we acquire knowledge about it. According to YNH, there is no objective knowledge, only 'stories we tell each other'. To Foucault, everything is about power, most especially knowledge.
We did not talk about it yet, but I have to tell you that the only thing I do not like about your 'life lens' theory is how close it is coming to a postmodernist interpretation of the world.
It is absolutely true, that our personal experiences have a major influence on our understanding of reality, but they do NOT define it.
Foucault is right saying that power is an essential element in social relations and the interpretation of history, but that still do NOT define it.
Truth is not absolute, but that does NOT make it relative.
In a world and time ruled by relativism, propaganda and censorship, how we understand and define our understanding of reality IS THE KEY BATTLEFIELD.
If you consider my series on Creation, Reality & Mind through the lens of metaphysical philosophy as I do, then the ideas stand on their own merit. If you read it through the lens of postmodernism, I can see how you may disliked the ideas. I am not at well schooled in postmodernists are you are and it never occurred to me to consider those ideas through any other lens than metaphysical philosophy.
I tend to think of things as an individual, NOT as part of a collective. Even as a libertarian, I associate my thoughts with the ideas that I have learned from other individuals who espouse ideas that are broadly classified as “libertarian”. I don’t consider my ‘self’ as a members of a collective known as ‘libertarians’, or postmodernists, or any other group label.
We have all been trained to think in ‘collective’ terms. This is part of the curse of modern culture. Most individuals live in fear and seek “safety in numbers”. They join groups to find that safety.
Growing up as a marginalized bastard, I always longed for community, but any time I thought I found one, I ended up on its margin. I eventually learned to live with the fact.
His final paragraph ends the essay on an optimistic note. “With the inexorable pace of technological advance, the gravitational pull of economic advantage, the stark requirements of national security, and the molten magma of populist rage all working against the wonkish status quo, the accelerating disintegration of that status quo seems inevitable. The American university, so deeply committed to wonkocratic ideals and so closely tied to the economic, intellectual, and political agenda of the wonkish upper middle class, cannot avoid the maelstrom ahead. It will take more clarity of vision and eloquence of expression than the three college presidents showed in their congressional hearing to steer the American educational system through the coming upheaval, and the nostrums of woke ideology won’t be much help to faculties and students caught up in the gathering storm.”
I hope he’s right. However, when the maelstrom has passed and the mists of wonkishness that permeate our institutions of power and privilege have dissipated, what will replace it? Zork is correct identifying postmodernist agents of thought to have been a driving force in wokism and all other forms of the “social justice” movements. To me, they are manifestations of collective fear and hope which are existential elements of the human condition. Whatever follows wokeism will likely address these same elements.
Good article. Many if not all of our problems can be traced back to the outsized influence of foreigners in our government, media, and banking, specifically Israel and the jews. Everyone should watch the documentaries Europa: The Last Battle and The Greatest Story Never Told. Fascism and National Socialism are not dirty words like we've been led to believe.
I think a big part of all the convoluted terms has to do with how many people are talking. Because there are so many interests vying for the levers of power and grasping for the most compelling language to trick you into going along. The US has become that exit on the long stretch of freeway where everybody stops to visit the same 3 places, but never know anything about the local area or it's people. Theyre just there to be something for outsiders to use and move on. Did you know that there is concern that friction with China and Russia and Iran might limit our access to rare Earth minerals? All the foreign policy folks are worried. Because what if our global multinationals are limited in the number of advanced weapons or green tech they can export and offshore? The horror. Meanwhile a recent discovery has made it possible to build sand cell batteries that can vastly increase the storage of our energy grid with almost no loss. And we have tons of fucking sand!! Yet nobody is doing shit. Because the security of our energy grid is not even a priority to out bought and sold out government. No they need to focus on exporting our natural resources to support UN green scams and bankers Wars. It's a disgrace. And sadly I fear there is no remedy at this point but to purge it all and rebuild it from it's foundations. The corrupt monied interests are too intrenched. None of it is even ours anymore, no matter what you call it.
Money, that is wealth however that is defined, is more powerful than any government. Wealth always concentrates in the hands of fewer hands. Democracy is especially easy to control with money. Money not governments decide who wins and loses. A Republic is a government of laws which protect sovereign from concentrated wealth. However as I said money is more powerful. The FED creates unlimited money and as long as enough people agree that $$ are real it makes no difference who we call government or what they talk about, e.g. abortion, jobs, racism. None of them talk about the power of money.
It's the only thing to talk about. It's far preferable to talking about fake things like war, COViD, Climate Change, terrorism, reparations, etc, etc. Because all of these things are the same ruse: they're cover stories to justify money printing. Why SPECIFICALLY did we ever consider the Federal Reserve as necessary and viable? To print money. Why did we go off the gold standard completely? To print money. What has been the fellow traveler to every war, pandemic, public emergency, recession, etc, etc? The printing of money. And what has been the net effect? A 95+% devaluation of OUR wealth along with huge concentrations of money in the HANDS OF THE VERY PEOPLE THAT PRINTED IT. There is nothing else to see or talk about. This is all the things, no matter the story they tell you. You can decode every major event on our society simply by waiting for them to insist we need more money to 'solve it's, then look at specifically who makes the request and who they plan to allocate it to. There is no other news in the world unless you are a gullible idiot who wants to believe lies because it's easier than facing reality. There is no intellectualism, no profound ideas, no strive for social betterment. All of the shit that is foisted upon you as such, on a minute by minute basis is just the cover for printing more money. It is always the final act of every scheme without exception. Pfizer gave Trump a million dollar campaign contribution. He gave them a 20000x return on that contribution. A relatively small chunk of the $5.3 TRILLION DOLLARS he printed. ALMOST HALF OF OUR ENTIRE GDP. In new money, printed all at once, and almost all of it distributed to cronies. There was no 'scandal' involving companies gaming the PPP Act for billions. There was only THE PLAN to print the money and make it accessible to these companies to steal and get away with it. Because that's what the fuck happened! If you have not yet looked at the world and gotten yourself here I weep for you. The last generations followed the bouncing ball the entirety of their lives and gave almost everything away. Everyone needs to get their shit together and recognize the real and only thing happening before there's nothing left for them to take. Because then they won't need us at all. And you've already seen a glimpse ofwhat that looks like. So why would you still be believing them when they tell you it's someone else doing the bad stuff and they need just a little more new money to protect you from it. SHES GOING TO PULL THE FOOTBALL AWAY CHARLIE BROWN. How can anyone still not get it at this point? It's right there and you've been staring at it your whole life.
Many good questions there Zork. Language, and the personal interpretation of words, is “spaghetti -code” like a 20 year old batch COBOL program after thousands of patches that ran on IBM mainframes in the 1980s. I think the greatest casualty of civilized societies since the Internet began is the watered-down meaning of language verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives.
indeed.
While I agree that the internet played a role, I also think that the role was mostly the amplification of the post-modernist Humpy Dumpty relativism
I believe that the most important battlefield of the culture war is language and epistemology
Zork. Can you explain in what way epistemology is a key battlefield? I am not sure I understand the context of your statement.
This whole series is about the meaning of words, about interpreting and defining our experiences. "What is a women?" is an epistemological question. How do we know?
Postmodernism is an attack on reality by questioning the ways we acquire knowledge about it. According to YNH, there is no objective knowledge, only 'stories we tell each other'. To Foucault, everything is about power, most especially knowledge.
We did not talk about it yet, but I have to tell you that the only thing I do not like about your 'life lens' theory is how close it is coming to a postmodernist interpretation of the world.
It is absolutely true, that our personal experiences have a major influence on our understanding of reality, but they do NOT define it.
Foucault is right saying that power is an essential element in social relations and the interpretation of history, but that still do NOT define it.
Truth is not absolute, but that does NOT make it relative.
In a world and time ruled by relativism, propaganda and censorship, how we understand and define our understanding of reality IS THE KEY BATTLEFIELD.
That is what the culture war is about.
If you consider my series on Creation, Reality & Mind through the lens of metaphysical philosophy as I do, then the ideas stand on their own merit. If you read it through the lens of postmodernism, I can see how you may disliked the ideas. I am not at well schooled in postmodernists are you are and it never occurred to me to consider those ideas through any other lens than metaphysical philosophy.
I tend to think of things as an individual, NOT as part of a collective. Even as a libertarian, I associate my thoughts with the ideas that I have learned from other individuals who espouse ideas that are broadly classified as “libertarian”. I don’t consider my ‘self’ as a members of a collective known as ‘libertarians’, or postmodernists, or any other group label.
We have all been trained to think in ‘collective’ terms. This is part of the curse of modern culture. Most individuals live in fear and seek “safety in numbers”. They join groups to find that safety.
... and on that, we are on the same page.
Growing up as a marginalized bastard, I always longed for community, but any time I thought I found one, I ended up on its margin. I eventually learned to live with the fact.
Been there.
Hello, Gene, nicely put.
I recently read a long essay by Walter Russel Meed entitled "Twilight of the Wonks" which was in my view a bit of a rant about the failing of the expert class that our elites have been turning to for decades. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/twilight-wonks-walter-russell-mead
Zonk, I think you have a much better grasp of the problems than Mr. Meed. Our problem are the experts.
His final paragraph ends the essay on an optimistic note. “With the inexorable pace of technological advance, the gravitational pull of economic advantage, the stark requirements of national security, and the molten magma of populist rage all working against the wonkish status quo, the accelerating disintegration of that status quo seems inevitable. The American university, so deeply committed to wonkocratic ideals and so closely tied to the economic, intellectual, and political agenda of the wonkish upper middle class, cannot avoid the maelstrom ahead. It will take more clarity of vision and eloquence of expression than the three college presidents showed in their congressional hearing to steer the American educational system through the coming upheaval, and the nostrums of woke ideology won’t be much help to faculties and students caught up in the gathering storm.”
I hope he’s right. However, when the maelstrom has passed and the mists of wonkishness that permeate our institutions of power and privilege have dissipated, what will replace it? Zork is correct identifying postmodernist agents of thought to have been a driving force in wokism and all other forms of the “social justice” movements. To me, they are manifestations of collective fear and hope which are existential elements of the human condition. Whatever follows wokeism will likely address these same elements.
I think therefore I am but Kant be damned I subscribe ultimately to the correspondence theory of truth. Real is real and it is out there.
Good article. Many if not all of our problems can be traced back to the outsized influence of foreigners in our government, media, and banking, specifically Israel and the jews. Everyone should watch the documentaries Europa: The Last Battle and The Greatest Story Never Told. Fascism and National Socialism are not dirty words like we've been led to believe.
Oh, yes they are in my space. You should take your views somewhere else.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with them.
any future comment in this vein will be deleted.
I think a big part of all the convoluted terms has to do with how many people are talking. Because there are so many interests vying for the levers of power and grasping for the most compelling language to trick you into going along. The US has become that exit on the long stretch of freeway where everybody stops to visit the same 3 places, but never know anything about the local area or it's people. Theyre just there to be something for outsiders to use and move on. Did you know that there is concern that friction with China and Russia and Iran might limit our access to rare Earth minerals? All the foreign policy folks are worried. Because what if our global multinationals are limited in the number of advanced weapons or green tech they can export and offshore? The horror. Meanwhile a recent discovery has made it possible to build sand cell batteries that can vastly increase the storage of our energy grid with almost no loss. And we have tons of fucking sand!! Yet nobody is doing shit. Because the security of our energy grid is not even a priority to out bought and sold out government. No they need to focus on exporting our natural resources to support UN green scams and bankers Wars. It's a disgrace. And sadly I fear there is no remedy at this point but to purge it all and rebuild it from it's foundations. The corrupt monied interests are too intrenched. None of it is even ours anymore, no matter what you call it.
Money, that is wealth however that is defined, is more powerful than any government. Wealth always concentrates in the hands of fewer hands. Democracy is especially easy to control with money. Money not governments decide who wins and loses. A Republic is a government of laws which protect sovereign from concentrated wealth. However as I said money is more powerful. The FED creates unlimited money and as long as enough people agree that $$ are real it makes no difference who we call government or what they talk about, e.g. abortion, jobs, racism. None of them talk about the power of money.
All true, you just started me thinking. maybe we should do a little more thinking about the role of money.
It's the only thing to talk about. It's far preferable to talking about fake things like war, COViD, Climate Change, terrorism, reparations, etc, etc. Because all of these things are the same ruse: they're cover stories to justify money printing. Why SPECIFICALLY did we ever consider the Federal Reserve as necessary and viable? To print money. Why did we go off the gold standard completely? To print money. What has been the fellow traveler to every war, pandemic, public emergency, recession, etc, etc? The printing of money. And what has been the net effect? A 95+% devaluation of OUR wealth along with huge concentrations of money in the HANDS OF THE VERY PEOPLE THAT PRINTED IT. There is nothing else to see or talk about. This is all the things, no matter the story they tell you. You can decode every major event on our society simply by waiting for them to insist we need more money to 'solve it's, then look at specifically who makes the request and who they plan to allocate it to. There is no other news in the world unless you are a gullible idiot who wants to believe lies because it's easier than facing reality. There is no intellectualism, no profound ideas, no strive for social betterment. All of the shit that is foisted upon you as such, on a minute by minute basis is just the cover for printing more money. It is always the final act of every scheme without exception. Pfizer gave Trump a million dollar campaign contribution. He gave them a 20000x return on that contribution. A relatively small chunk of the $5.3 TRILLION DOLLARS he printed. ALMOST HALF OF OUR ENTIRE GDP. In new money, printed all at once, and almost all of it distributed to cronies. There was no 'scandal' involving companies gaming the PPP Act for billions. There was only THE PLAN to print the money and make it accessible to these companies to steal and get away with it. Because that's what the fuck happened! If you have not yet looked at the world and gotten yourself here I weep for you. The last generations followed the bouncing ball the entirety of their lives and gave almost everything away. Everyone needs to get their shit together and recognize the real and only thing happening before there's nothing left for them to take. Because then they won't need us at all. And you've already seen a glimpse ofwhat that looks like. So why would you still be believing them when they tell you it's someone else doing the bad stuff and they need just a little more new money to protect you from it. SHES GOING TO PULL THE FOOTBALL AWAY CHARLIE BROWN. How can anyone still not get it at this point? It's right there and you've been staring at it your whole life.
there is always room for creative thinking :)
I put on my list a task to think about the global ramification of debt default.
What would happen if the USA would default on all of its debt?
While at the same time going back to the gold standard and a cancelled or strictly controlled and transparent fractional reserve banking
I think it is a fascinating idea and I have to thank you for inspiring it.
Totalitarian Technocracy?
Comes the closest, but not precise enough. It is not exactly totalitarian and it is more bureaucratic than technocratic.
I was just thinking about this today, the need to revisit the question.