#modern thought

[sarahislam]

We lead inner lives that are deeply at odd with our external existence,

Our multiple and shifting perspectives,

Our confusion and dilemma,

exhaustion to cope with the practical world that awaits makes us incomprehensible and frail but that is what we are, not an existence full of water and dust but sagacious species of thought and discretion.

[infinitysisters]

The final legacy of materialism is coercive utopianism. Although the belief that all thought and behavior are predetermined by material causes would seem to deny the power of human beings to reshape their world, materialism in fact inspired a fierce strain of coercive utopianism. Claiming either that they were merely the servants of the forces of materialism–or with Nietzsche, that they could overcome materialism by a sheer act of will–materialist reformers tried to create secular utopias in Russia and Germany. In America, meanwhile, significant parts of the cultural elite began to believe that we could engineer the perfect society through social science and planning. ...𝗶𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹. 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲. C.S. Lewis painted a grim portrait of this kind of despotism in his novel That Hideous Strength. There the spirit of modern social science becomes incarnate in something called the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments—NICE, for short. Of course, there is nothing nice about NICE; its social scientists are exactly the type of technocrats that Lewis feared. In the name of science and humanity, they claimed the right to remake society without bothering to obtain its consent. While we are a long way off from the nightmare vision depicted by Lewis in That Hideous Strength, we certainly should be able to understand some of what he is getting at. Public policy decisions in America today are made increasingly by the type of technocrats that Lewis talked about, as legislators have transferred much of their authority to a vast array of independent regulatory agencies staffed by unelected experts.Lewis did not dispute that technocrats have plenty of knowledge that may be necessary for good public policy. But it is not sufficient. Political problems are preeminently moral problems, according to Lewis, and technocrats are no better equipped than any other citizen to function as moralists.

John G. West

[estherkahn]

L'existentialisme, au moins dans sa version française, est d'abord un abandon des embarras de la philosophie moderne pour l'engagement sans réserve dans l'action. [...] Quand il commença à devenir clair à l'homme moderne qu'il vivait à présent dans un monde où sa conscience et sa tradition n'étaient même pas capables de poser des questions adéquates, significatives [...] l'action, avec ce qu'elle implique et ce à quoi elle oblige, son être-engagée, semblait offrir l'espoir, non de résoudre les problèmes, mais de rendre possible l'art de vivre avec eux sans devenir, selon l'expression de Sartre, un salaud, un hypocrite.

Hannah Arendt, Préface à La crise de la culture

[wisdomfish]

Many secular thinkers argue that human life has no objective value or moral significance, because it is the product of accidental processes without plan or purpose.  This has led many intellectuals to devalue human life. Darwinian thinking has promoted biological determinism, the notion that human behavior is merely the product of our heredity, while Marxism is a movement (among others) that advanced environmental determinism, the idea that humans are just inputs from their environment.  Some secular thinkers, following Nietzsche’s lead, reject determinism, but still have no basis for valuing all humans. However, while devaluing human life, secular thinkers are often inconsistent, because in various ways they show that they do indeed value human life. Christians can take advantage of this to show that our understanding of the value of human life points to the existence of God.

[homelessbutclassy]

This bit from Breakfast of Champions has been fucking with my head lately.

Trout asked about the truck, and the driver said it was the greatest truck in the world. The tractor alone cost twenty-eight thousand dollars. It was powered by a three hundred and twenty-four horsepower Cummins Diesel engine, which was turbo-charged, so it would function well at high altitudes. It had hydraulic steering, air brakes, a thirteenspeed transmission, and was owned by his brother-inlaw. 

His brother-in-law, he said, owned twenty-eight trucks, and was President of the Pyramid Trucking Company. 

“Why did he name his company Pyramid?” asked Trout. “I mean—this thing can go a hundred miles an hour, if it has to. It’s fast and useful and unornamental. It’s as up-to-date as a rocket ship. I never saw anything that was less like a pyramid than this truck.” 

A pyramid was a sort of huge stone tomb which Egyptians had built thousands and thousands of years before. The Egyptians didn’t build them anymore. The tombs looked like this, and tourists would come from far away to gaze at them:

“Why would anybody in the business of highspeed transportation name his business and his trucks after buildings which haven’t moved an eighth of an inch since Christ was born?” 

The driver’s answer was prompt. It was peevish, too, as though he thought Trout was stupid to have to ask a question like that. “He liked the sound of it,” he said. “Don’t you like the sound of it?” 

Trout nodded in order to keep things friendly. “Yes,” he said, “it’s a very nice sound.” 

Trout sat back and thought about the conversation. He shaped it into a story, which he never got around to writing until he was an old, old man. It was about a planet where the language kept turning into pure music, because the creatures there were so enchanted by sounds. Words became musical notes. Sentences became melodies. They were useless as conveyors of information, because nobody knew or cared what the meanings of words were anymore. 

So leaders in government and commerce, in order to function, had to invent new and much uglier vocabularies and sentence structures all the time, which would resist being transmuted to music.

From Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday by Kurt Vonnegut

[mykonos-slavi]

"We [the secular and educated] will assess the success of our lives in accordance not with whether they were righteous, but whether they were interesting and fun." Yes.

[gkchestertonquote]

Men do not know where their own thoughts came from. They do not know what their own words imply. They come in at the end of every controversy and know nothing of where it began or what it is all about. They are constantly assuming certain absolutes, which, if correctly defined, would strike even themselves as being not absolutes but absurdities. To think thus is to be in a tangle; to go on thinking is to be in more and more of a tangle. And at the back of all there is always something understood which is really something misunderstood.

G.K. Chesterton in The Thing

[zlesna-blog]

The Modern 7 Wonders Of The World

I am a huge fan of the Civilization franchise. I've been playing these games since I've been gaming honestly. Anyways, in these games you can build a wonder to give your civilization an extra push. Most of the wonders are wonders indeed, like the Louvre, Pyramids, Statue of Liberty, etc. This gave me an idea for a topic. See, the game goes on to list modern wonders. But what are the real modern wonders of our era? This isn't a typical top list in that all of these monuments to civilization are equally important in my opinion. But they are very different then older era wonders as older era's needed a physical symbol, like Mount Rushmore, or the Terracotta Army today's era still needs symbols, but as we think differently and our age is different these wonders are not the same.

The Internet- You can't touch the internet in the same way you can touch the Hanging Gardens. But the Internet is the biggest reason for why our world is so different from what it used to be. Everything you want to see, know, and hear is at your fingertips. You don't have to go through the same channel to become famous anymore. You can post a video on youtube and become infamous. Things are free that were once expensive. Everyone can know everything and can make a choice of what they want to know. I learned how to fix my PC issues through Google. You can check the stock market, talk to your friend in Austria live and see them, and play web games all at the same time.

Hollywood- As someone who tends to be very opinionated and very snooty I almost hate mentioning this, however... Hollywood turned the entertainment industry into America's biggest resource. Hollywood has become the holy land of actors, not Broadway. Hollywood provides more work then most industries can claim. And it pays well. Do you know what a Gaffer is? Look it up, thats a job. X-Men listed 15 thousand people helping to make their film and to be honest this is the norm, really. American is able to look like were are doing fine, I believe, because of the movie industry. It's modern idolatry, symbolism, literature, and propaganda all wrapped in one bundle.

The Pirate Bay- Some of you may find this a lot controversial. And it probably is. If you know what torrenting is, chances are, you at the very least have a history with it. Why is it that after all these years this site is still up? Because it's more then just a place to get free stuff illegally. It's a modern wonder, it has meaning. When the common man knows what he is doing and does it anyways without batting an eye, that says something. I'm not judging, not at all, our age is based on gotta have it all and the truth is the common man can't have it all. We never could. But what if we could? You would think there would be a massive effect on the entertainment industry if 'everyone' was doing it, but the industry is stronger then ever. Why? Is it because of Pirate Bay? I don't have that answer, but I do believe its a marvel to be wondered at.

Smartphones- I hate that this is on the list, but it has to be. Smartphones have ruined my life(exaggeration). You can access virtually everything(internet, games, photos), some phones can be used to hack other phones or even the internet itself with the proper know-how, you can communicate with anyone on the PLANET whenever you wish. Wow. And the best part is, almost all of us take this for granted even though fifteen years ago we barely had cell phones let alone the ability to check up on your son while they are in school. You know I have over ten HOURS of music on my phone. You know, for when I'm on those long roadtrips from one state to another. Smartphones, I salute you.

Jerusalem- I bet you weren't expecting this one. This city is so old. How can it be a modern wonder? Religion, as much as those of science hate it, will probably always be relevant. But it's a mark of old, and unchanging ways. Religion symbolize so many things that can be found in this one city. Jerusalem somehow manages to be a Mecca for three different religions. It's also a genius place to visit if your from any other religion, or lack thereof. There is so much turmoil. So much hope. So much history. I have heard tales of even Atheists who are still Atheists, taking a moment to pray. That, is the mark of a Wonder.

Disney World- Not Disneyland, Disney World. Here's why. Disney is the commercial city of happiness. In this modern era of being programmed to think a certain way, Disney did it first and still does it best. People come from every inch of the world to see this place and BE HAPPY. I call it a city, because that is what it is. It's a massive city with several sections(Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom) and the whole thing is a world of tourism. Florida used to be a state built on Cattle and Citrus, but know we're know for our tourism industry. This is all thanks to Disney. No other wonder on this list actually has the look of a wonder like Disney World does.

Modern Man- I may be overstepping my bounds on this one and this isn't some ego trip I promise. I'm sure that today we are a wonder, tomorrow robots take our place. So enjoy it while it lasts. If you, the reader, were taken and sent beck in time, say, seventy years(I'm serious, only seventy) you could be a Champion. And a hundred years before that, a god. Our world has evolved so quickly in just a few years that we haven't even noticed who we've become. Modern man knows so much more then he/she used to or even could. We're taller, bigger, and are capeable of greater things. And here is the best part, we are all the same for the most part. SO, enjoy being on the top because when the Android Revolution comes(and make no mistakes, it will) we will lose.

What did I miss, and where was I wrong? Please share your insight. I would love to hear it, as I always do.