One of the texts on my \u201csummer reading\u201d list was \u201cThe Plague\u201d (by Albert Camus). I had never read anything of Camus’ before, and I was stunned by his immense ability to explicate intricate details of human thought and behavior, and also very eloquently at that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
this attitude implies that such actions shine out as rare exceptions, while callousness and apathy are the general rule [1]<\/p>Albert Camus, “The Plague”<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I am at a point right now, where I sense callousness<\/em> and apathy<\/em> from all sides, while I go under in a pool of bullshit as if I were sinking in quicksand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my central missions, ideas and struggles over the past couple decades has been raising awareness for the illness I refer to as \u201cretard media\u201d (you would not be severely wrong to equate this with what many other people refer to as \u201csocial media\u201d, but you would actually be largely wrong \u2013 for more on this, see my definition of \u201cretard media\u201d<\/a>). Recently, Netflix published a documentary called \u201cThe Social Dilemma\u201d \u2013 and this documentary echoes a lot of what I have been saying all along (except that the proposed solution is actually quite remarkably along the lines of \u201cmore of the same\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More of the same bullshit: What a dismal outlook for humanity. I have said for many years already, that I am not at all proud of the species I apparently belong to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retard media is not the only<\/em> catastrophic disaster happening in our world, but regretably it’s one most people don’t get — let alone do they realize that it is indeed<\/em> a catastrophic disaster that works like a catalyst<\/em>, a steroid<\/em> to boost the power of humanity’s ignorance of other catastrophic disasters most humans seem very callous and apathetic towards. Boost the power<\/strong>! Boost the power of ignorance<\/strong> \u2013 that is what humanity has come to. I distinctly remember sitting on a sofa with my brother and sister, sometime in the last millennium<\/em>, watching a weather report during a hurricane event. The weatherman was babbling on about some statistics, and then said something like \u201clet’s see what our reporter out on the beach is experiencing\u201d \u2026 and I commented \u201clet’s go to the videotape\u201d \u2026 and my bother completely cracked up. Of course kids today may have never even heard of the expression \u201clet’s go to the videotape\u201d, but there was an era of sportscasting highlights where this expression was as regular, ordinary and standard as greeting someone on the street with a \u201chello\u201d or \u201cgood day\u201d. Today, the expression shines out like a rare antiquity of a bygone era, but what remains standard is the monetization of the incredible, the sensationalist, the clickbait<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere’s a sucker born every minute<\/em>\u201d seems as steadfast today as the day P.T. Barnum was alleged to have said it, centuries ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, an online friend said \/ wrote to me (essentially \u2013 I have slightly changed the wording, in order to protect the privacy of my friend … but the meaning of the statement is, IMHO, still the same): \u201cI understand that this is very important to you<\/em>\u201d — and added that this is simply not on their radar \u2013 not in the slightest (*). At first, I was very appreciative of their apparent empathy, but then on second (or maybe third) thought it slowly began to dawn on me what the significance of \u201cto you\u201d in this expression is (after all, following Zipf’s insights into the economics of expressions [in particular the one known as the \u201cprinciple of least effort\u201d], there must be something<\/em> to motivate someone to express those two additional syllables which would alternatively seem superfluous). Also following Gricean maxims of implicature, it must be that \u201cthis<\/a>\u201d in the above expression is apparently deemed not<\/strong><\/em> important<\/strong> in the standard case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is that callous or apathetic? Or is it really just <\/strong>me<\/strong><\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(*) Here I would like to note that this perspective on my work is not at all a \u201crare exception\u201d, but rather that it has been the incessantly repeated callousness and apathy I have come to know only too well, staring me in the face non-stop, day in and day out.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
[1] The full paragraph reads (in English translation): \u201cBut the narrator is inclined to think that by attributing overimportance to praiseworthy actions one may, by implication, be paying indirect but potent homage to the worse side of human nature. For this attitude implies that such actions shine out as rare exceptions, while callousness and apathy are the general rule. The narrator does not share that view. The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.\u201d<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the texts on my \u201csummer reading\u201d list was \u201cThe Plague\u201d (by Albert Camus). I had never read anything of Camus’ before, and I was stunned by his immense ability to explicate intricate details of human thought and behavior, … Continue reading