Open Thread - 07-05-24 - The Mighty Quinn
Sometimes it feels like I'm witnessing a Greek Tragedy. One that even Sophocles may not have dreamed of.
Surely, the same human dynamics were at play in Sophocles' time as they are today, but if one wanted to pen a modern Greek Tragedy a seminal factor that would be beyond an ancient Greek's understanding would be, digital technology. That technology amplifies the modern stage exponentially, in which the ancient Greeks would have to invent a new vocabulary to explain the plight of the contemporary hoi polloi.
Let's examine more closely the three strategies that Sophocles would have commonly employed when attempting to persuade a reader.
Pathos, the appeal of emotion, is endemic in all forms media. It represents the constant contemporary din of fear mongering, exacerbated by the constant flow of information that we are bombarded with, 24/7. If Sophocles could time warp his mind into the present day, he would find it already labelled: newspeak.
Logos, the appeal to logic, in our modern tragedy, inverts itself as illogical reasoning. Reason stands on its head in this new form of illogos (to illogically coin a new phrase). Again, if Sophocles could time warp his mind into the present day, he would find it already labelled: doublethink.
Ethos is used to convey the writer’s credibility and authority. I warrant no credibility other than some guy on the internet trying to write something worth wasting a few minutes in reading time. My only claim to fame is I have no claim to fame.
What would Sophocles think of the doubled edged sword that technology has become?
It (digital technology) has allowed humans from all corners of the world to interact with one another in real time. To discuss, to compare, to coordinate. The sum of human intelligence is accessible to all at the click of a link. I think Sophocles would be surprised, though, by the negative effect that access to knowledge has had on the actual behavior exhibited in chat rooms and forums of all types across the www. Some would say it has lead to a devolution of human intelligence. That would surely be a vehicle that Sophocles would have ridden in a triumph of words about the foibles of man.
On the other hand digital technology has given the upper hand to those that wish to rule the world, the masters of the universe. A construct fashioned to constrain free will, a concept that could well be adapted to a Greek Tragedy in an earlier time when Democritus argued that matter was subdivided into indivisible and immutable particles. Democritus had no way to envision the role that the atom, and more specifically, the electron, would have many hundreds of years later in imprisoning the minds of the vast majority of his kinsfolk, willingly. Sophocles would no doubt write an epic Tragedy about how the high powers would use technology in an unwilling manner, as an invisible boundary, that which any despot down through the centuries could only dream of. The time of those dreams are upon us.
It remains to be seen how the last act plays out. I have high hopes that digital technology will be used for the good of the hoi polloi, that is, as only a method of willful slavery, and not that of physical means.
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
I started putting this together yesterday, the 4th, until the double celebration caught up with me. I finished it this morning. It was originally going to be about the drama unfolding on the national political stage, but it ended up up going in the direction of the double edged sword of modern technology. I kind of rushed the ending, I hope that it makes sense.
Here's a version of Quinn the Eskimo done by the guy that wrote the song:
As a much beloved and deceased tragedian of our's would say: Peace out.
Hi JtC, I just could't resist. We love Francis Cabrel.
Quinn the Eskimo in French
1
Click the link for French lyrics and original words in English.
Sung French is a great way to learn spoken French. Try to sing as fast as Francis!
Happy anniversary too.
ETA: The music has a delightful Cajun(?)sound. And, Francis has has a whle album of Dylan songs if you go to You Tube.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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Good morning Dawn...
that was great, thank you for that. Yes, the squeezebox with the rhythmic back beat is mindful of Cajun music. I love it.
Thanks also for the anniversary well wishes, my friend.
Thanks for stopping in on this 5th of July.
Good morning...
Got the garden chores done early, and now hibernating in the AC, sorting tomatoes, and preparing breakfast.
The digital world has its good and bad points. Like most tools, it can be used for good and ill. It too has evolved and changed. One way I can notice is the way today's searches suck compared to what would turn up just a few years ago. Seems all the search engines have sold us out to TPTB. Limiting results is a small way in which information can be manipulated. Any advice y'all might have on better searches would be appreciated.
Enjoy your anniversary! Our 44th comes up in a couple of weeks.
Hope everyone had a good fourth of July and were able to eat something delicious. Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Hang on to your books...
it's not too far a stretch of the imagination that in the future all books will be in a digital format. How easy it would be to edit and rewrite the wisdom of the ages.
There's also the possibility that all of written knowledge could be lost forever if archived in digital format only. Hard copies of books would be invaluable under that scenario.
The internet search engines, especially google, for the most part, have become worthless. They point to the current flavor of political propaganda and corporate interests. The forces that be would love nothing more than the internet to become a vehicle of commerce only, just like TV and the endless commercials.
Happy 44th in advance!
We enjoyed a great ribeye dinner, with the appropriate libations, of course!
Thanks for stopping in.
apropos, I was just sadly reminded of something that
I first heard in the early sixties, which has been gaining currency every since, a pseudo-truism. "It's a free country, everybody is entitled to their own opinion". This is, of course, superficially true, but is used to justify beliefs that are not matters of opinion, but simply falsehoods or denial of reality. Most recently somebody declared that they were "not a round-earther" and that "science is a pagan religion"
There is a cult of science, it is true, but empiricism, with added bells and whistles, is still empirical. The problem with everybody being entitled to their own beliefs/opinions is that that proposition is used to wall out all discussion and block the introduction of facts and logic. This is the ultimate in the merikin fetish of individuality and self deteremination and leads to the exaltation of ideology over reason. It is a keystone of that illogos you note.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Indeed...
the walls that separate us are made from bricks of ideology, the internet and its echo chambers have assisted the architects of illogical reasoning into building those walls ever higher.
In some respects, digital technology has lowered expectations, rather than lifting humanity to higher level. Just ask any flat-earther, they have proliferated with the advent of the internet. Logical people can't understand illogical people.
Why trouble oneself with the complexities of reason and empirical evidence when it's so much easier to say "I belong to this, or that" or "This is the way" and retreat to the comfort zone of "nah nah na nah nah, I can't hear you" that ideology provides?
Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
Simplicius is especially amusing today
Regime Media Utters the Un-utterable
As for the projected fifty-state map, here's Due Dissidence:
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
I read that Simplicious article this morning.
Glad you brought it up. Saves me from sticking it into my Saturday OT. Lol!
The timing of the media's flip is incredible, looking ever more like it is scripted. Hours before the debate, it was misinformation to speak of Biden's decline. Hours after the debate, his decline was all over the media. Hours later, media reports Biden won't step aside.
I have shopping to do, will catch Due Dissidence upon my return.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Hard not to
notice also that Kamala's name is being mentioned more favorably by more msm analysts in this Biden coverage. If the party arranges for her with behind the scenes machinations to receive the nomination, if Joe finally steps aside, it would avoid some difficult optics of by-passing the first black woman VP, and Ds desperately need to keep their black voter base intact/stop the hemorrhaging to Trump.
Another non-trivial factor is that she would be the recipient of Biden's current $220 campaign warchest which would otherwise not be transferrable if the party nominated someone other than Kamala.
Moi, no longer a loyal D, I prefer a more organic transparent process where Geriatric Joe steps aside in the next week, several candidates including Kamala toss their hat in the ring, and there is a 5 week period where the candidates campaign before the August convention. Let her stand on her own two feet and make her case, preferably with at least one debate among the 4-5 contestants.
I also see more and more
media coverage of Newsom, Killary, and Michelle Obama.
This soap opera of ways and means to keep Trump down and out has a 1 to 1 win-loss record.
Meanwhile, let's not discuss looming war, looming banking crisis, and the growth of a brand, spanking new criminal class: homeless people.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Astute observations...
my dear.
This was the direction...
I was initially headed in in this piece; It's a script, like Greek Tragedy. But it morphed into a piece on digital technology.
The script will play out as it was written.
I was thinking "farce."
I'm trying to imagine what's "tragic" about supporting a senile President and his team of violent idiots until one discovers that one can no longer hide said President's dementia. I suppose a case can be made that it's tragic that what's left of America's activists can't be bothered to select what has been the obvious course of action for thirty-two years now: organizing outside of the Democratic Party.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.