Death of Hypatia®

Category: WIBCI

  • WIBCI Post #78

    WIBCI Questions were more honest?

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If instead of someone asking you a question as if they wished to know what you thought on the subject, when they were really goading you into saying something they are prepared to dismiss with great flourish, they actually gave insight into what they really thought?

    Like if Person A, instead of baiting Person B said: ‘I hear this argument all the time that _____ is _____ but I believe this argument is flawed because of _____. What do you think?

    Person A has jumped to the punchline and it may not be as rewarding as a contradictory and/or condescending retort, but Person A might actually learn something about what Person B thinks and this could add to Person A’s knowledge on the subject. If Person A didn’t want to learn, don’t ask.… more “WIBCI Post #78”

  • WIBCI Post #77

    WIBCI we noticed acts of POLITICS?:

    COWARD (Webster): /kou-erd/n/: a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; a timid or easily intimidated person.

    DICTATOR (Wikipedia):/dik-tey-ter/n/: In modern usage, the term dictator is generally used to describe a leader who holds or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power.

    CULT of PERSONALITY: /kuhlt/uv/pur-suh–nal-I-tee/n/: is the result of an effort which is made to create an idealized and heroic image of an admirable leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Historically, it has been developed through techniques such as the manipulation of the mass media, the dissemination of propaganda, the staging of spectacles, the manipulation of the arts, the instilling of patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies. A cult of personality is similar to apotheosis, except that it is established through the use of modern social engineering techniques, it is usually established by the state or the party in one-party states and dominant-party states. Cults of personality often accompany the leaders of totalitarian or authoritarian governments. They can also be seen in some monarchies, theocracies, failed democracies, and even in liberal democracies.

    • Juan Peron, 3 time elected President and arguably, dictator, of Argentina, built a personality cult around he and his wife, whose effects are still felt in Argentinian culture today. This dictator should his cowardice, in part, best put by Wikipedia: He often showed contempt for any opponents, regularly characterizing them as traitors and agents of foreign powers. Those who did not fall in line or were perceived as a threat to Perón’s political power were subject to losing their jobs, threats, violence and harassment.
    • Mussolini exhibited his cowardice by instructing the press what to write and what not to write about the fascist.
    • One of Hitler’s initial task of cowardice after assuming power in Germany was to extinguish all rights of the German Press.
    • US government showed its when it defunded PBS and pressured TV networks to silence….. comics?!
    … more “WIBCI Post #77”

  • WIBCI Post #76

    WIBCI we knew more of our LITERARY HISTORY?

    In Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller there was the following quote that struck me. It struck me because it made me realize I didn’t know anything about Walt Whitman which started this cool stream of consciousness/domino effect which I will continue after the quote…

    Often we sat by the fire drinking hot toddies and discussing the life back there in The States. We talked about it as if we never expected to go back there again. Filmore had a map of New York City which he had tacked on the wall. We used to spend whole evenings discussing the relative virtues of Paris and New York. And inevitably, there always crept into our discussions the figure of Whitman. That one lone figure that America has produced in the course of her brief life. In Whitman the whole American scene comes to life; her past and her future, her birth and her death. Whatever there is of value in America, Whitman has expressed; and there is nothing more to be said. The future belongs to the machine, to the robots. He was the poet of the body, and the soul, Whitman. The first and the last poet. He is almost undecipherable today; a monument covered with crude hieroglyphs for which there is no key. It seems strange to almost mention his name over here; there is no equivalent here in the languages of Europe for the spirit which he immortalized.

    So the realization ‘I don’t know anything about Whitman’ started me off…..

    Here is what I learned:

    1. I don’t know anything about Walt Whitman
    2. I should get over my ill founded dread of poetry and try to read Leaves of Grass
    3. Whitman wrote a novel in 1852 called The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle. BUT according to the Audible title description: No one laid eyes on it until 2016, when literary scholar Zachary Turpin, at the University of Houston, followed a paper trail deep into the Library of Congress, where the sole surviving copy of Jack Engle has lain waiting for generations.
    4. He was pro-temperance and anti-slavery
    5. He believed that Shakespeare did NOT write all that is attributed to Shakespeare
    6. (Wikipedia) Whitman’s poem “I Sing the Body Electric” (1855) was used by Ray Bradbury as the title of a short story and a short story collection. Bradbury’s story was adapted for the Twilight Zone episode of May 18, 1962, in which a bereaved family buys a made-to-order robot grandmother to forever love and serve the family.
    7. He was a ‘major figure’ in Transcendentalism which according to Wikipedia is on the first philosophical currents that emerged in the US and is considered: a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States. A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, people are at their best when truly “self-reliant” and independent. Transcendentalists saw divine experience inherent in the everyday. They thought of physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities.

    I kinda dig when something I don’t know, begets something, that begets something, that begets something.… more “WIBCI Post #76”

  • WIBCI Post #75

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: WIBCI: we learned from LITERATURE?:

    Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray follows the lives of the anti-heroine Becky Sharp and milky vanilla Amelia Sedley  during and after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. This biting portrayal of early 19th century British society only sits in the backseat to the snarky presence of the omniscient author, and the titillating immorality of almost all its characters.
    Below comes from Vanity Fair  and is a line I initially blew off as filler, but after I thought about it, I believe Thackeray meant more:

    When a traveler talks to you perpetually about the splendor of his luggage, which he does not happen to have with him, my son, beware of that traveler, he is, 10 to 1, an imposter.

     

    At first I thought this was literally about traveling and luggage. But now I think it is more like this: if you communicate with someone whom persistently talks about the wonderful things they have and do, wonderful things that are never present, a person who says a lot of pretty words with no substance, no proof – ask yourself if they are compensating for something. Good people are just good people and often don’t need to lead with this, or pre-empt any discovery of such a personality trait that you might make on your own.  I think it is a cautionary tale, telling us to be wary of people who talk as though they are marvelous rather than showing you they are marvelous by just being marvelous.

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #75”

  • WIBCI Post #74

    WIBCI if we learned from LITERATURE?

    I re-watched the 2016 movie Love and Friendship staring Kate Beckinsale recently. This movie is based on Jane Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan. An epistolary novel is a story solely consisting of letters between characters, and this one is basically an 18th century satirical rom/com. In the movie, at the end there was the particular mention 0f one of the 10 Commandments; Thou shall not bear false witness. Why was this in the script? I like when there is a little unformed seeds that are dropped in movies, a thin Ariadne’s thread that not everyone notices.

    Wikipedia describes the 10 Commandments as: ‘religious and ethical directives. The canon ‘To Bear False Witness’ in particular, is described as ‘widely understood as (a) moral imperative in Judaism and Christianity‘. This is the commandment against false testimony, and further defined as:

    ‘Offenses against the truth express(ed) by word or deed, a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God, and in this sense, they undermine the foundations of (the) covenant with God.’

    Further down under the heading: ‘Ancient Understanding’ it says:

    ‘You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.’

    — Exodus 23:1-

    This explanation seems to make this commandment much broader than I first thought. The shall-not part about – ‘spreading a false report’, aka, voluntarily lying…. like almost everything on the internet? Spoiler alert for those that wish to get ahead in politics, breaking this one may be unavoidable. The shall-not part about – ‘join hands with a wicked man’….. for those that wish to get ahead in many appendages of the business world, breaking this one may be unavoidable. Don’t ‘join an evil group’, like what? A cult, most religions, or maybe upper management of any corporation? And no lying in the law?! I mean come on, this was obviously written a long time ago, lying seemingly happens all the time in courtrooms with little to no repercussions. You don’t even have to pay fines when found guilty anymore right?! Let me clarify; you don’t have to pay if you’re rich and/or infamous anymore right?!

    It seems rather difficult to not do this shall not…. So why was this Commandment so prominent in the film? The woman asking the priest about it at the end particularly disliked the woman to whom this question seemed to be concerning – Lady Susan (who was pregnant and the baby is NOT new husband’s). So…..was she asking because SHE wanted/did not want to spread a rumor about Lady Susan if it is offensive to God, OR, does she wish to know if she is beholden by this commandment to commit oneself to moral uprightness and therefore expose Lady Susan, OR, does she feel that some of her own conniving, albeit well intentioned, has broken this Commandment? I really don’t know which it is…what do YOU think?

     … more “WIBCI Post #74”

  • WIBCI Post #73

    WIBCI we learned from LITERATURE?

    Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French playwright and diplomat of the Age of Enlightenment. He wrote the play, Day of Madness, or more commonly known, The Marriage of Figaro. Quick synopsis: Count Almaviva is a conniving, overpowering, womanizer. As revenge for an earlier wrong, Count Almaviva hires Figaro as a servant, in the hopes to exercise  droit du seigneur  or his right to bed a new (servant) bride on her wedding night. Figaro, his bride and the countess come together to devise a plan to expose and embarrass the count. Although the practice of droit du seigneur had ended, when the play was first written it was banned due to the harsh criticism of the nobility. When it was allowed to run (above ground) years later its popularity showed the depth of critical public opinion in the 1780’s France (pre-French Revolution….). Here is a soliloquy from this play where Figaro is going after the hierarchy present at the time:

    Because you are a great nobleman, you think you are a great genius… Nobility, fortune, rank, position! How proud they make a man feel! What have you done to deserve such advantages? Whereas I, lost among the obscure crowd, have had to deploy more knowledge, more calculation and skill merely to survive than has sufficed to rule all the provinces of Spain for a century!

    Replace ‘nobleman’ with ‘billionaire’ or ‘leader’ and ‘Spain’ with ‘United States’.

    Do YOU agree with Beaumarchais?… more “WIBCI Post #73”

  • WIBCI Post #72

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If or WIBCI we were more literal?

    Not all the time that would be annoying. But WIBCI people of note when saying something of apparent import, meant what they said?

    In moments when a microphone is present and questions are asked, there seems to be an abundance of thanking one’s God. Do these people literally believe that the divinity to which they prey helped them do their job better? I’m not suggesting that these individuals to not believe themselves important enough for such a thing to happen; I more question the Diety’s availability and interest in their personal pursuits.

    On the other side you don’t hear many people blaming God when things don’t go their way. I’ve read the Bible, if that is the God you are into, he seems vengeful enough, but again the bothering to do something about it, should enter the equation. Do these people actually believe that the creator of the universe altered the arch of balls to fall more favorably for the side with the most worshippers? Or is it the intensity of the prayers, like quality over quantity?

    If not, WIBCI they just said what they meant?… more “WIBCI Post #72”

  • WIBCI Post #71

    WIBCI/Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: POLITICS were acquainted with humility?

    WIBCI actively and shamelessly campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize disqualified you from consideration?… more “WIBCI Post #71”

  • WIBCI Post #70

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we paid more attention?

    WIBCI we noticed more?

    I took some of my own advice and went outside to notice something and get the ‘need-to-do’ and ‘haven’t done’ thoughts to cease for a moment.

    I saw a hummingbird. It was drizzly out and it was trying to get pollen from the soaked bendy remnants of hasta flowers. Hummingbirds remind me of Lord of the Dance, just bouncing about in space like on strings. I thought how cool it would be if it came close to me. And then it f$%king did! It darted around my head and made a little squeak noise. Hummingbird’s squeak….It then moved on to some honeysuckle and landed. I never saw a hummingbird land, I didn’t really know they did. It looked like a regular bird when it was just sitting and not hovering about. It buzzed by my head one more time and disappeared.

    That was cool.… more “WIBCI Post #70”

  • WIBCI Post #69

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: we learned from PHILOSOPHY? WIBCI we also learned from HISTORY?

    What is a Tyrant?

    Aristotle, famously offered a definition of the purest species of tyranny as:

    a non-hereditary political form where ‘one man rules without any legal restraint, and for his own self-interest’.

    Does this remind you of any current form of governing body?

    How would YOU define the body that governs YOU?… more “WIBCI Post #69”

  • WIBCI Post #68

    WIBCI: Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: we thought about HISTORY/LITERATURE?

     

    Three great forces rule the world; stupidity, fear and greed.

    -Albert Einstein

     

    According to Wikipedia, the Seven Deadly Sins are defined as: The cardinal sins or capital vices within the teaching of Christianity (Christianity was not the only gang to use/alter/edit/amend/add to this list by the way), these are, alphabetically: envy, gluttony, greed, lust,pride, sloth, and wrath. These refer to “evil thoughts” that are categorized as either physical, emotional or mental.

    I disagree with this list/definition on two fronts:

    1. I don’t think I can separate thoughts/feelings into the categories of physical, emotional or mental. To me they bleed and blend; they are not compartmentalized
    2. I think there is only 1 Deadly Sin, which requires further explanation on my part…

    Seven Deadly Sins…..or just 1?

    After researching these words and what the Catholic Church considered ‘evil thoughts’, I found them to be redundant, just versions of Greed?

    GREED: /greed/n: an insatiable and inordinate craving to acquire or possess more than one needs. Excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.

    Therefore Greed = the Desire for More ____:

    Envy: Desirous of others’ possessions, skills, and accomplishments to the point of wishing others’ didn’t possess them

    Gluttony: Desirous for more _____ to the point of waste

    Lust: Desirous to possess that which is fixated upon; normally intense and associated with sex, power and money

    Pride: Desirous of more praise and acknowledgement for how awesome one is

    Sloth: Desirous for more inactivity and inexertion

    Wrath: Desirous for vengeance for perceived wrongs

    Therefore if Greed is the root of all evil, then Ex Post Facto isn’t there only 1 Deadly Sin?

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #68”

  • WIBCI Post #67

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: we learned from PHILOSOPHY?

    WIBCI POLITICS did?

    But Socrates argues against democracy on philosophic grounds, consistent with his ethical theory. He maintained that most people remained unhappy souls, unaware of the true good. As such they were liable to vote into power leaders who also had a mistaken idea about the good. 

    -Paul Strathern, Socrates in 90 Minutes

    What do YOU think of this idea that without focusing on truly knowing themselves, people will perpetuate their unhappiness in the candidates they vote for? Do you think there exist such political self-fulfilling-prophecies? Is knowing what true good is, important?… more “WIBCI Post #67”

  • WIBCI Post #66

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: We learned about AI?

    WIBCI we knew more about AI and what it is doing with all the data it is collecting?

    You ask it to do/write/calculate/compute/make yourself sound more like a robot and it collects/collates data sets.

    Now we aren’t naive enough to believe that it isn’t keeping a copy of this data, right? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I’m further assuming AI is keeping track for whom it wrote/calculated/computed/made to sound less human and ‘marking’ it in some fashion. Couldn’t there come a day when it has rights to that which it created? Couldn’t it decide to do something with all of the data it computed? Isn’t it in essence, theirs?

    WIBCI someone talked to us about it? My stance on this hasn’t changed… AI is Stupid.

    What do YOU think?

     … more “WIBCI Post #66”

  • WIBCI Post #65

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: POLITICS learned from HISTORY?

    WIBCI: Greenland were left alone?

    Greenland, the autonomous territory of Denmark, has become an asset of interest to the powers that be.

    The rationale that has been given for such a stance, as no such claim has been made by the people of Greenland, is that the people of Greenland would be happier if they were a territory of a different country…. say maybe the same country that recently was caught trying to stir up negative sentiment towards Denmark. Hmmmm…

    If only there were a World Report that measured happiness by country and has been doing so for over a decade…..

    Oh shit, there is:) https://www.worldhappiness.report and according to it, Greenland is currently the territory of the second happiest country in the world. Since the earliest published rankings, Denmark has come in 1st twice, second 8 times, and 3rd twice. Denmark has never dropped below being 3rd which was back in 2013 and Finland is the only country on Earth that has averaged happier.

    The country speculating and spreading falsehoods within/about Greenland has never ranked higher than 13th…ever, and not surprisingly, that was in 2015 under a different administration. Today this same country stands at 24th, the worst ranking for this country….ever.

    Not sure which data the powers that be are referencing, but, looks to me like Greenland is much happier as it is. I’m sure it appreciates the concern though.

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #65”

  • WIBCI Post #64

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: we had more space, to just be?

    WIBCI we were allowed the time to EMOTE?

    When was the last time you pulled over, closed a door, or excused yourself to feel an emotion? Whenever were you allowed to feel something by yourself with no human or electronic interference, guidance, or distraction?

    For example(s): you are so excited, you need to go for a run, or more like likely, you are so gutted, you need to cry in a bucket of some kind of ‘food’, or, so angry you drink a lot, smoke a lot and curse out people who aren’t present.

    I think these are good outlets. We aren’t Picasso’s who can paint our feelings out and we aren’t Bob Dylan who shits poetry. Our outlets aren’t as… elegant, in most cases and easily influenced. Go in a room, by yourself and feel about something. I doubt you will feel worse in the long run. Maybe when we feel terrible, it’s cause we haven’t sat and visited with our feelings for a while and they need to get out of the house and run around a bit?

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #64”

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