Marcus/Eric -
Great observations, both. I think this cuts to (part of) the heart of
the matter.
I just recently watched "Glass Castle" (current run at Violet Crown)
with Woody Harrelson playing the role of a fairly intelligent (his
daughter, the memoirist characterizes him as brilliant) but highly
dysfunctional father of 4 who himself has (mostly/almost) escaped the
small Appalachian coal-mining town he was raised in by an acutely
abusive mother and an apathetic/dysfunctional father and greater
community. The family lives a vagabond life with Harrelson's character
(Rex) leading them on an alternatingly merry and curiosity-driven chase
through skipping out on bill collectors and trying to find the "next big
opportunity" and "escape the forces out to repress us!". It is (IMO)
a great story of a nearly effective attempt (by the parents) to
escape/transcend their own dysfunctional roots and the mostly effective
experience of the children escaping their own (passed down a generation)
from that half-functional platform.
I also picked up (at a "tiny library" in a neighborhood) a copy JD
Vance's "Hillbilly Legacy", a memoir written by a 31 year old Harvard
educated lawyer, now living happily (and presumably functionally) in San
Francisco with his wife and child(ren?), but still quite attached
emotionally/romantically to his own roots in Appalachia (a small KY coal
mining town) and the Rustbelt (Middletown OH, aka MiddleTucky) where all
of his family and most of his childhood friends still live and vote for
and continue to support Trump.
The common thread is the abject hopelessness that surrounded the people
locked into those environments by circumstance, including lack of
perspective to "just leave". Vance credits his Grandparents who raised
him most of his life for having had enough perspective to shield him
from the worst of that and to encourage/help him "just leave". His
chronicle (I also listened to an NPR book interview when it came out
maybe a year ago) includes feeling that he had "done everything in his
power to waste his life up until about 18 years old" and looking at his
cohort and family, might use the term "but for the grace of God, there
go I".
My Pollyanna (a fairly significant player in my personal Pantheon of
Personalities which helps me cope with the kinds of Cosmic Ennui and
Existential Angst that comes with trying to be a thinking/caring person
in these hyper-connected, seemingly chaotic times) has me looking for a
"bright side" of all of this.
I particularly want to call out the following quote from Marcus:
/A healthy society is one where individuals can mature to the point
they can begin to doubt the meaning in their own anxiety (whether by
themselves, with their shrink or their spiritual authority) and make
it to the next day. /
and offer a rewording (my words are _underlined_) or expansion:
"/whether with themselves, their shrink, their spiritual
authority,/ _or their community of emergently self-enlightened people_"
and
"/and make it /_beyond_/the next day/ _and into a new era of
contagious enlightened self-interest_"
I hope that if we can ever get through this acutely dark/inverted time
that we can follow some of the example of Nelson Mandela in his
perspective and leadership out of the centuries long oppression of his
people that was most recently exhibited as Apartheid. Obviously that
moment was only a partial antidote, as too many of the original problems
linger or arise again. But I *think* it was a better solution than to
the similarly genocidal/punative response many of his people were
calling for when the descendents of their Colonial Overlords finally fell.
I heard recently a quote from Barbara Boxer as she left the political
stage after many decades:
"No victory is final"
This underscores why we are dealing with the rise of
white-supremacy/nazi/confederate/kkk, gender oppression, and many other
battles presumed to have been won. This moment (in most places) is
nothing like the conditions of the antebellum South, nor the era of
Nazi/Fascist power in Europe, but there are clearly strong echoes.
Such things *might* be suppressed temporarily by force, but ultimately
those kinds of behaviours/activities dissipate through healing and
enlightenment much more than regulation/punishment/suppression.
my $.02,
- Steve
On 8/16/17 9:10 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
Eric writes:
< It is not so far from Nietzche’s notion that “God is dead” creates a
problem for people, and they will face a fork in the road in how they
try to deal with it. >
Yeah, it is probably nothing new that is happening nor a new
interpretation. Institutions of various kinds can give individuals a
role to play and guidelines for conduct, but a highly interconnected
population with a complex economy will stress these institutions and
reveal their limitations. Meanwhile, only exceptional and delusional
individuals can really make a convincing case (esp. to themselves)
about their unique value either coupled-to or uncoupled-from from
institutions. However, I fear the stakes are pretty high now -- the
contagion of people going bonkers could be fast with social media. A
healthy society is one where individuals can mature to the point they
can begin to doubt the meaning in their own anxiety (whether by
themselves, with their shrink or their spiritual authority) and make
it to the next day.
Marcus
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> on behalf of Eric Smith
<desm...@santafe.edu>
*Sent:* Wednesday, August 16, 2017 6:56:23 AM
*To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme
> Their desperation and rage just comes from a feeling that they can't
confront, that they just don't have much to offer.
>
> Marcus
Reading this, I feel like you could found a new generation of
something that is like existentialist philosophy but equally-well
political theory.
It is not so far from Nietzche’s notion that “God is dead” creates a
problem for people, and they will face a fork in the road in how they
try to deal with it. Maybe even, considering the currents running
through European and particularly German society at the time he was
writing (and that he specifically wrote about), driven by concerns
based on similar observations.
It strikes me that this is an available point of view for almost any
person. Granted, the distribution of rewards and frustrations differs
from person to person and also from region to region, and that
matters. But the black box (black hole?) of how minds form characters
and orientations in response to streams of these things draws from an
immense and to me-obscure range of inputs.
Makes me wonder,
Eric
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