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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   33914 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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the main thing that separates Marx from the reactionaries is that he believed that fundamentally the liberal bourgeois revolutions and the transformation of the peasantry into industrial proletarians was ultimately a good thing.

Notably, traditionalists mostly believe these revolutions, though massive tragedies, to also have been inevitable.

This is where linear and cyclical time meet. Change is the constant and all regimes are transitory. Hegel things we are synthesizing the perfect regime through these transitions, Calvin that we are descending to the depths of sin until redemption, and Aristotle that we are just playing out endless seasons.

Change is a good thing. It is good that winter follows autumn or summer would never happen. But winter is still harsh and terrible.

the humans of industrial society are not the humans of pre-industrial society

I don't think you can make a convincing argument that this is true. Evolution on the genetic level is not that fast, and we can see in all the pathologies of modern life precisely the maladies of people who have crafted en environment they are not suited to both psychologically and physiologically. This is what Ted denounces, that we made our bed of autism and tooth decay and are decided to invent and sell solutions to the problems we created that only make us less adapted to our environment. And Land may be right that really we are terraforming Earth for something else. But that something else is not humanity.

I don't like that. I think we can have technology without this problem. And that the way to do this is to reembrace what we have always done to moderate the excesses that have led us here and embrace a wholesome view of our nature.

there's nothing special or essential about this feeling

I couldn't disagree more. You may as well say there is nothing special or essential about the feeling you get when you are interacting with a great piece of art.

There are obviously some immaterial entities that exist like numbers or logical laws

So you are a Kantian of sorts. What is then your stance on Natural Law?

This is what Ted denounces, that we made our bed of autism and tooth decay and are decided to invent and sell solutions to the problems we created that only make us less adapted to our environment.

This is a common critique ("We are creating problems which we then have to solve") but I don't really see what the issue with that is. What's wrong with creating new problems and then solving them with new methods?

I don't like that. I think we can have technology without this problem.

I doubt it. I think Marx was right at least that culture and society are largely a reflection of underlying material conditions. The customs and morals that developed in a pastoral society 3000 years ago cannot be freely transplanted onto the 21st century. If they could, it would not last very long. And I doubt there are new moral systems that could be developed to significantly ameliorate the problems of modernity. The only salvation is to hope humanity can technologize itself out of the novel problems it's created for itself by earlier technologizing, and I don't see any problem with that.

I couldn't disagree more. You may as well say there is nothing special or essential about the feeling you get when you are interacting with a great piece of art.

Well, I agree with that too. I don't think there's anything qualitatively different between the enjoyment a person gets from watching Marvel slop #28493 and beholding the Reims Cathedral. And I say that as someone who doesn't like Marvel movies and would probably prefer visiting the Reims Cathedral.

So you are a Kantian of sorts. What is then your stance on Natural Law?

I'm vaguely familiar with both the Lockean kind and the Aristotlean kind from readings in college and a few Catholic apologist books, but I don't recall being convinced by the idea that metaphysical rights or duties of any sort exist.

What's wrong with creating new problems and then solving them with new methods?

That it is impossible to live without the solutions in the world we have created, and that these solutions require an Empire to maintain, which means we are addicted to structures of control.

I doubt it.

There are specific examples of technologies that do not have this problem and empower the individual instead of enslaving him to large organizations. Which of the "two kinds of technology" we decide to pursue is a choice.

I don't think there's anything qualitatively different between the enjoyment a person gets from watching Marvel slop #28493 and beholding the Reims Cathedral.

Have you ever asked yourself seriously why you prefer one over the other instead of assuming without inquiry that they are equivalent?

I don't recall being convinced by the idea that metaphysical rights or duties of any sort exist.

How familiar are you with Kant and the categorical imperative?

That it is impossible to live without the solutions in the world we have created, and that these solutions require an Empire to maintain, which means we are addicted to structures of control.

I still don't see an issue with this. Controlling nature and human behavior are good things.

There are specific examples of technologies that do not have this problem and empower the individual instead of enslaving him to large organizations.

What are some good technologies and bad technologies, in your view?

Have you ever asked yourself seriously why you prefer one over the other instead of assuming without inquiry that they are equivalent?

In other cases my personal feeling goes the other way. A lot of right-wingers think people only pretend to like modern art for clout but I am an unironic modern art enjoyer. I think this is much cooler and more pleasant to look at that anything Da Vinci, or Caravaggio ever produced.

How familiar are you with Kant and the categorical imperative?

I know the wikipedia definition.

I think this is much cooler

You're not alone in that, turns out some italian right wingers did as well and adapted Metzinger's style specifically. It's not really a right vs left thing.

But you're dodging the question, why do you like it? Aesthetics is specifically informative to this conversation.

Personally I see good art as a reflection and exploration of the human condition. So I'm not surprised that you would find art that explores your relationship to technology as more impactful when you live in a technological society. But what that exploration tells us is the whole question.

Controlling nature and human behavior are good things.

Pick up that can.

I disagree on the same grounds as Burroughs.

What are some good technologies and bad technologies, in your view?

Let me answer with Ted's words here:

208. We distinguish between two kinds of technology, which we will call small-scale technology and organization-dependent technology. Small-scale technology is technology that can be used by small-scale communities without outside assistance. Organization-dependent technology is technology that depends on large-scale social organization. We are aware of no significant cases of regression in small-scale technology. But organization-dependent technology DOES regress when the social organization on which it depends breaks down. Example: When the Roman Empire fell apart the Romans’ small-scale technology survived because any clever village craftsman could build, for instance, a water wheel, any skilled smith could make steel by Roman methods, and so forth. But the Romans’ organization-dependent technology DID regress. Their aqueducts fell into disrepair and were never rebuilt. Their techniques of road construction were lost. The Roman system of urban sanitation was forgotten, so that not until rather recent times did the sanitation of European cities equal that of ancient Rome.

209. The reason why technology has seemed always to progress is that, until perhaps a century or two before the Industrial Revolution, most technology was small-scale technology. But most of the technology developed since the Industrial Revolution is organization-dependent technology. Take the refrigerator for example. Without factory-made parts or the facilities of a post-industrial machine shop it would be virtually impossible for a handful of local craftsmen to build a refrigerator. If by some miracle they did succeed in building one it would be useless to them without a reliable source of electric power. So they would have to dam a stream and build a generator. Generators require large amounts of copper wire. Imagine trying to make that wire without modern machinery. And where would they get a gas suitable for refrigeration? It would be much easier to build an icehouse or preserve food by drying or pickling, as was done before the invention of the refrigerator.

I can understand being wary of technological solutions because they might cement an inhuman, soulless Empire forever and ever. But you don't believe in forever Empires, so why not give it a go? Worst case scenario, the Empire falls and we retvrn back to the way humans should be. And if there are skulls and suffering along the way, well, there's always been suffering and people were fine. At least that's what I gathered of your view.

And if there are skulls and suffering along the way, well, there's always been suffering and people were fine.

Nothing is important. Everything matters.

Gnon looks down upon those that leave fate to decide for them. Reason is part of our nature, we have to use it to the best of our abilities if we want to make the best of things. That still means whatever we build will not last, but falling to nihilism because you are not eternal is a moral fault. Humility is not renouncement.

Yes, and I am in favor of using reason to get society to where I want it. I'm being flippant because I don't believe, like you seem to do, that history doesn't have an escape velocity. Not because I'm just hoping for everything to work out on its own.

I don't really see reason in believing in things that have never happened before they do. But I know that's something I don't share with most people.

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