Musing

Do trees have a reproductive peak analogous to those of animals?

How broad is the accepted definition of nihilism?  How does it flow so easily from existentialism?

Judging by the popularity of World of Warcraft, AIM, etc., are we going to be slaves to our virtual reality masters?

aphoristica I

There is little in human behavior more depressing than the herd mentality.  Groupthink is a pox, and the clannish denizens of the internet, particularly internet discussion forums, exhibit it constantly.  Nowhere else can one find such vivid displays of a consensus idea beating down critical opposition.

//

Baseball players have been coming clean in the aftermath of the Mitchell Report.  Amazingly, the majority of those admitting their minor indescretions have never touched steroids, and those that admit to HGH consumption (indiscretions practiced once or twice in weak moments) ascribe only the motivation of healing to their usage.  Who knew that men paid millions to play hit ball with stick were such paragons of virtue.

//

From wikipedia:  Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position which argues that Being, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value.

A sweet fruit lying on the table, waiting to be bitten.

Insulting

It is tiring and insulting to deal with the common premise that every American is a practicing Christian.  For example, in Mitt Romney's recent speech defending his Mormon beliefs to an audience of solidly right-wing conservative evangelical Christian Republicans, his language of inclusion contained no mention of those who by choice or inclination cannot believe in the Christian God.  He even invoked the Founding Fathers in an attempt to explain why he would feel comfortable bringing a devoutly pious perspective to the presidency, were he to attain it.  Indeed, Thomas Paine, the most radically free-thinking of the men considered the authors of the nation, was reviled and despised by his peers.  But the men who attended the Constitutional Convention and argued over the form of American government were sons of the Enlightenment.  To varying degrees, as a group they expressed many ideas that seem to put them solidly in line with Deist or humanist principles.  Romney also quotes Lincoln, a man that the Christians seem compelled to convert to their cause, but a man who did not practice religion in his adult life.

Now, I don't believe that Romney is doing anything more than pandering to certain powerful interests in the Republican party, nor do I believe that the United States is brimming over with rabid, dogmatic, fundamentalist Bible-thumpers, but the fact remains that our public discourse certainly implies that it is.  Lack of belief in the "Christian" god is an insurmountable obstacle to election.  Today, Lincoln would have been scorned and mercilessly attacked by political opponents for his lack of faith, or even just his lack of publicly displayed faith.

Preliminary version of an essay on art.

What constitues art? Even among pieces by the great artists, there are many examples of craft that may fail to meet any but the most simplistic definition. Art should be more, for example, than mere reproduction. Painting a red barn in a meadow at a foggy dusk is craft; evoking the sleepy evening, the weariness and emptiness of the crumbling wreck, making the observer feel the scene, qualities of this nature seem fundamental to the classification of an objet d'art. Craft alone cannot be considered art.

We now face a flood of work that frequently lacks even the most basic elements of craft. Far from democratizing art, user-generated content has instead increased the amount of sludge hiding the gems. My guess is that the lack of critical neutral feedback is causing this. A writer, an artist, a musician, these people receive real, tactile responses to their work if they publish/show/perform it in meatspace. Their relationship with their creation is personal, they touch it themselves, they *see* it. The echo-chamber of the open content portion of the web allows for very little of this. Pieces seem to gain popularity for novelty, or shock, or unintentional humor. The lack of craft displayed in the creation of these videos and songs is dismaying, and the end results are frequently appalling. All voices are not created equal. The screaming, self-centered cesspool of the internet hasn't diluted the value of the dedicated artist, it has enhanced it. People who possess the special gift to see things from awkward angles, and the skill to express that vision in ways that evoke and surprise are rare. The Frankenstein progeny of the webcam, while occasionally amusing and often titillating, serve to demonstrate how rare artists actually are. There isn't much more cream, but the milk stretches down to ocean depth.

It is not a failure of the new tools, at least to nowhere the extent that one might believe at first glance. It has never been easier, in the whole breadth of human history, to create and distribute crafted work. To be sure, access to these tools has spurred the rise of many artists in all media who perhaps never would have even begun without them, but alongside this newly empowered, growing community has arisen a furious, self-reinforcing, loud, and relentless howl of trivia, inanity, and bad taste.

woop

zoop