Appreciating Stuff

“Imagination is funny” goes an old song “it can make cloudy days sunny …” For the more intellectual, we have Milton’s ” “mind can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.” True thoughts .

But they hardly apply to declared modern aesthetics. It is no longer appreciation that is the key to happiness, but pure quantity. A lot of anything (even misery _ read the books!) is what winning in life is all about .

Those “ancient” notions about valuing things applied to times in which folks did not have a lot to count. Oh, there was the moon and the scent of roses, but also disease and hunger. Masses of people could not accumulate mountains of stuff .

According to media and politics, the only concern of modern Americans is how many dollars they think they have, how new their houses look, how many shallow experiences they can brag about. Not a moon gaze or rose sniff in the bunch .

I suspect most people are more appreciative in their private lives. Unfortunately, none of that translates to public exposure. Appreciation is the road to ruin. Our shallow philosophies and politics reflect that .

Whatever happened to “cups running over ?”

Sex, Drugs, and Golden Old

Wealthy scions who are taking over our country are well trained in the ways of technology, finance, and getting what they want. These paragons know nothing about the rest of society or history, and think all other people are just plug-in employees to be used like any other tool (when useful and inexpensive) and discarded when they wear out. Of course, their own daddy’s old days were perfection.

I think of them as the rich “frat boys” I always hated. They believe rules are made for lesser folks. The “brothers” can drink and carouse without limit. They talk the talk, walk the walk, and hire each other on the “merit” of being alike, and having the same background, and knowing the right people. Grudgingly, they may admit nouveau riche to their closed club room .

Currently, their goal is to enshrine a 19th century capitalistic corporate mentality into government. This requires a strong authoritarian CEO who is only removed by actions of the “board” _ meaning them. Citizens are either consumers (who can like it or lump it) or employees (who are simply another inert productive input.) If they could, they’d fire everyone when times get rough .

It’s sad. We’ve seen such fanaticism before in Europe in the guise of socialism, in China in the guise of communism, in South America in the guise of superman magic fables.

Ah, but the dream of capitalistic government must surely be different .

Consolations of Continuity

Boethius wrote his enduring classic Consolations of Philosophy after he had been condemned to death by his Roman emperor. A sad story, we think, but with a smug twinge of admiration at his accomplishment at a difficult time.

Like the rest of us, Boethius was mortal. Like the rest of us, condemned to death sooner or later. For us elders, of course, it’s sooner. We may have less time to do anything then Boethius. We may have far less chance of producing anything significant. He was after all in the literate elite of Rome – a tiny fraction of a powerful population. We inhabit a world of 8 billion, all of them equally literate (or illiterate) on social media .

I suspect from all the chatter, few classics will emerge, let alone endure for thousands of years .

So my attempts in the face of fate have been reduced to revisiting my life, producing a stream of continuity – in words and artifacts, memories and conversations and even hidden thoughts. Directed at me. A consolation, if only for an hour, or late at night. Recall of a thread of being, meaningful in spite of its cosmic insignificance .

A philosophy? I guess. At this point, I’m happy to discover and utilize anything that increases my enchantment with existence. A busy pen, a happy mind .

Analog Tradition

Law is binary. You are either guilty or not. Lawyers make lots of money “proving” one thing or another. In general, you can push right up against the line (and even tiptoe a little over it) and still be completely “innocent” .

Tradition, on the other hand, is analog. It is also where we spend most of our lives. There is rarely, for example, a thin line dividing rude behavior from acceptable, but it is certainly possible to act more and more rudely .

When we interact with society, we expect rules based on law to be in place, but those are almost invisible most of the time. We are buffeted by tradition and its expectations – how far to stand apart, how loudly to express opinions, what to wear, general demeanor and behavior .

It is therefore far more jarring when traditions change dramatically then when most laws do. Old people especially can be blindsided and upset by all the terrible erosion of “normal” behavior as the young sweep away the “olden days”.

Everyone eventually settles into the “new normal” and adjusts their expectations accordingly. Traditional change – lacking enforcement apparatus – is often less jarring than law change.

The old people do occasionally try to get their revenge by passing laws to formalize those old traditions .

Grandpa’s Keys

In a patriarchal society, Grandpa can be revered or feared, cherished or abandoned. By virtue of years, he has often accumulated property, power, and moral leadership. Arguing with the paterfamilias usually brings trouble.

These days, Grandpa is increasingly elderly. Folks used to die off before their late ’60s. Now they may hang on indefinitely. Their brains can be sharp but more rigid, their various bodily functions less youthful, agility impaired. Desires remain, reflexes deteriorate, judgments are suspect . And technology multiplies their power.

At some point, the car keys that Grandpa has used to drive everywhere all his life must be – sometimes forcibly – taken away. Hopefully before a terrible accident.

That is right, logical, even compassionate. But the old guy resents it. Maybe screams. Maybe sulks. Maybe uses his property and power to punish. There is often no easy or happy way to do so.

There are worse consequences of longer lifespan. Our geriatric leaders are a good example. In many ways, they have come to resemble a decrepit superhero, full of old power, confused and dangerous. Our society however, is unable to restrain his impulsive behavior as he cruises along in the batmobile .

Face Value

Someone who accepts anything at “face value” is considered naive and shallow. We have been taught from the cradle that everything is complex, nothing is exactly as it appears, and if you trust your first impressions you will be in trouble .

A certain amount of cynicism is probably healthy. “Face value” is often only one aspect of anything. But – and this is the most important fact – it is usually the most important and obvious facet of anything. In many cases face value is all we need to judge things. A healthy looking apple is probably a fruit that is good for you. Something that quacks and looks like a duck is probably a duck .

One reason that everyone is so worried and nervous could be that they cannot take anything for granted. Maybe that apple is poisoned, or is overpriced, or represents terrible labor practices or elimination of nature or … Maybe that duck is really a clever robotic bomb. There is no end to the fractal, increasingly minor and implausible qualifications and contradictions .

And yet – we mostly exist at the level of “face value”. Sometimes it is a good idea to simply accept things as they appear to be, to not dissect them too deeply. Life and consciousness after all, are limited. Pursuing below face value may cost us much of our precious time, our happiness, and our sanity.

Like Sleeping Beauty, I’ll probably take a big bite of that delicious looking apple while the duck looks on and the hell with it …

High T

Ponce de Leon is alive and well! The fountain of youth (for men) has finally been discovered! More testosterone will make them young, vigorous, sculpted, sexy and – of course – much happier than they are .

It’s natural! (So is arsenic.) Pay no attention to those doctors behind the screen muttering about side effects. It’s your life! Make it better !

This culture lives on advertising. Usually I enjoy the commercials and realize that most people have been immunized enough by constant exposure to retain a degree of skepticism. Even when I grew up long ago, comic books had full page ads on how Charles Atlas could help you fight off bullies kicking sand in your face .

Ah, but bodybuilding requires work. Curing “low t” is just a matter of taking a pill or enduring injection. Just like drinking from the fountain of youth. Hey, this smiling face promises, and he looks pretty honest .

We have become a culture looking for easy solutions, maybe because we have little time or energy for complex ones. Slogans to fix social problems. Pills for physical issues .

Hope, if not exactly a fountain, springs eternal.

Rural

Since antiquity, common sense and solid values were supposed to reside in country folk. Not the unwashed peasants (of course) so much as a virtuous landowner. Cincinnatus returning overnight to his plow. Western Europe – the English in particular – made a fetish of the landed aristocracy .

In the US, Thomas Jefferson created the myth of a country-filled with yeoman farmers, who lived on small self-sufficient farms and in their spare time discussed philosophy and engaged in politics. The countryside contained value, cities were filled with vice. That has congealed into a nostalgic view of “olden” days when (“real”) men were men, and everyone else knew their place and stayed in it .

These days, of course, most people live in suburban situations, neither quite rural nor quite urban. Suburbs contain few of the virtues and most of the vices of each. The global Internet further scrambles the mix .

Ah, but we continue to be told how solid rural living is. No matter that farming is done with huge complicated machines produced elsewhere. It suits the ruling oligarchs to fan the embers of this mythology, since the actual potential power of this constituency is so small .

All harmless enough. Unless, of course, the ruling class becomes ignorant and stupid enough to take it seriously .

Infanticide!

There, that got your attention! And such is the real purpose of shock words these days – to condense a slur, rally a slogan, and sometimes promote a hidden message. I remember when students would shout “hey hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today .”

Some issues are tangled, mysterious, insoluble. Abortion and women’s rights _ or potentially crippled-child rights _ is one of the toughest. Definitions are almost impossible. The world refuses to be solved .

For the record, I am in favor of all children, everywhere, being born normal, healthy, and into circumstances where they are well cared for until their late teens. For the record, in our real world, even if babies are born normal and healthy, society often lets them die or suffer from neglect, starvation, war, disease, or other violence. And genetic luck guarantees that many embryos do not produce normally healthy babies. It used to be far worse – nature was never kind .

But “baby killer” is an effective slur. Nobody wants to be so labeled. The problem is that those who use it are – like those anti-war demonstrators – really pursuing a deeper agenda One in which it is the duty of women to produce and raise children and leave the rest of the stuff to men.

I dislike such people and their agenda. Perhaps one day I too will have to find something simplistic to shout back. Isn’t that really the true problem with our civilization? Not stupidity, not evil, just fatigue at complex, seemingly insoluble, issues .

Business Visionary

We generally admire the extraordinary individuals who through intelligence, drive, or structured vision lead their companies to heights and influence. In the old days Ford, Carnegie, Vanderbilt. In modern times, Gates, Murdoch, Musk .

They are generally saluted as less evil embodiments of human ambition – helpful to society rather than disruptive politicians like Napoleon or Hitler .

No doubt there is some truth in that. Corporations are often a force for good, producing wealth which eventually trickles down to all. A cornerstone of our affluent modern world. Almost forgotten are the days when they were labeled (with some justification) “merchants of death.”

Remember, however, that all of those leaders were human. No matter how ruthless, they were constrained to mortal existence and secondary desires. I believe that, increasingly, AI driven business will become ruthless in ways we cannot imagine, completely morally bankrupt from a social point of view .

The dangers of treating employees like machines has long been luridly documented in literature. AI goes a step further, since it cannot understand any fundamental difference between flesh and metal, nor any obligation to consciousness versus obedience .

Today’s specialized titans of industry, unfortunately, are already well down the road to AI sterility.