There was a moment in which I realized I could never know less than I know now; I realized I was Sisyphus, forever damned to push a boulder up the hill. It was the most liberating thought. I have been damned to learn more than I knew yesterday.
“I wanted for the moments in my life to follow each other and order themselves like those of a life remembered. It would be just as well to try to catch time by the tail.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
existentialontologies
Somewhere there exists a blending point, where all of ‘reality’ weaves around itself. It seems to me, historically speaking (whatever that even means), the task at hand has always been to get closer to ‘it’; always attempting to grasp ‘it’ or point to ‘it’ on a map. Oddly enough, it seems we are ‘it’, have always been ‘it’ and have never experienced anything but ‘it’.
My group of friends is probably mixed up as 1/3 Soc/Anth Majors, 1/3 Bio Majors and 1/3 Lovable Fools of some sort or another. If you believe your friends are a reflection of you (which honestly, you probably should or else you’ve gotta’ start looking for new friends) then you can probably understand I have a strong appreciation for ‘science’ and all things related. But of course, my Soc/Anth and Lovable Fools are blended in there as well, and I’m left to connect all of this together. I spend way too much (or just enough) of my time in some debate or another trying to validate Foreign Concept A to one of the three above groups. It goes on like this forever. Science Friends say, give me evidence, give me proof, I want objectivity. Soc/Anth Friends say, I’m lost in circles of confusion! WHY evidence? WHAT constitutes evidence? WHY objectivity? WHAT constitutes objectivity? And really its just the everyday incommensurability that occurs all too frequently from people operating with different paradigms of knowledge production. But there it is, the constant attempt to blend together differing realities.
If someone is shouting about quantum mysticism and the listener is demanding they stop warping the ‘hard facts’ (wait for it…) of quantum mechanics into some spiritual understanding that is rooted in idealistic ideology rather than ‘true’ and ‘valid’ ‘scientific’ ‘facts’, whats to be made of it? Its frustrating, clearly, because all anyone every really wants to do is to adequately explain their belief, rooted in their own paradigm of knowledge and what constitutes knowledge, so as to allow the other person to agree and better each other’s lives. I can’t conceive of a world in which this isn’t just how it goes. That’s not to say its not possible but how can I properly conceive that which I’ve never known?
So there you are, stuck in the endless thought puzzle again. Welcome to my life. How am I to conclude this? Or should we just cede into nihilism now, get it over with, and go put a pizza in the oven? Well, the pizza probably isn’t a poor idea, but this is my larger (and I realize, unimportant and far from profound) point: Our very actions and attempts (or not) to blend together our realities is the ‘it’ we’re after. Existence (whatever you consider that to be) is the blending point, where all of these differing ontologies consistently attempt to create a blending point, often not considering they themselves are the blending point. We’re all just idiots, trapped in a life trying to create meaning, when in reality that is the meaning. And I don’t mean that as a nihilistic phrase, I mean it in the most positive tone possible. We attempt to create meaning, and succeed, simply by ever being. Whatever that means…
counterculture
I spend a lot of time thinking about the concept of “counter-culture”. Probably not enough to come up with anything brilliant, but I’ve stumbled across this one a few times. Perhaps the most enjoyable ‘fact’ of ‘the’ counter-culture, is that the moment it is conceived and acted upon, it becomes part of ‘the’ culture. Obviously (or so I hope), everything is merely a product of its environment, and of course, vice versa. Counter-culture attempts to oppose that which is seen as ‘the’ mainstream thought, but what constitutes ‘the’ mainstream? And what happens when ‘the’ counter-culture has become whatever it is that constitutes ‘the’ mainstream?
As with everything this is really just endless loops of largely meaning(ful)less thought puzzles, but every once and a while its worth making a post about hippies, right?
A Zoo for Ideas
I’m opening a zoo for ideas. We’ll cage them and give them funny descriptions. Lets call it a dictionary? We’ll give them enough space, all the food they can eat and they’ll all be right there for everyone to gawk at. Swinging from tree to tree to tree to…Caged intellect, but only at a price.
Hydroponic ‘culture’
I can’t stop conceptualizing the “postmodern” as a hydroponic culture, no less rooted in its own historicity, sense of self-presence and understanding, thriving and ever-growing as any other soil abiding equal, yet removed of something thought of as absolute and defining of the terrestrial life. If we are cyborgs, let us be hydroponic cyborgs. The joys of Anthropology.
An empty work space makes for an empty mind…
So naturally…
