| >> | 1498258361903.jpg -(118021B / 115.25KB, 540x534) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. ![]() >>207915
>we don't have records of the kind of awful shit people might shout at you in the street in ancient Athens
Just an interesting note; we kind of do have this. Or more accurately, we have some graffiti from Ancient Rome, and it's actually pretty similar to modern day bullshit. Like one example says 'Theophilus, don’t perform oral sex on girls against the city wall like a dog' and If anyone sits here, let him read this first of all: if anyone wants a screw, he should look for Attice; she costs 4 sestertii'. So perhaps you are right, at least in your idea that people then and people now are basically the same then and now.
I wrote an essay a while back saying something similar, in fact. That rather than the tail end of human existence, this is just a new stage of humanity. We're just getting the truth faster and harder than people ever have before. And yes, that sudden new burst of stimuli kinda fucks with your ability to function. We need to get used to dealing with all this new information, learn how to exist with it. Most of human behavior is learned, in fact some very credible scientists think that even emotions may be learned(not that they don't exist, but happy/sad/angry/etc are made up ways to represent thousands of brain states that could be classified differently). It's sorta like we hit (another) puberty as an entire race. Now's that awkward period where we're insufferably and maybe even a bit self-harming as we learn to deal with these new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.
I mean people thought New York City was coming to an end a while ago. The Economist Thomas Malthus predicted that it'd be buried in horse shit. Because you know, when the main mode of transportation for a major city shits multiple times a day it's only a matter of time before it all builds up. And apparently it was believable because the streets really were filling up with horse shit. But then someone came up with the car, and those worries disappeared. Ingenuity saved the day then, and I don't see any reason why human ingenuity won't likely save the day now. Whether it's in the form of some ridiculously awesome invention, or just people learning to live with one another.
And learning to live with one another is the main thing. I see all sorts of people throwing around all sorts of phrases. Alt-rightism, post-modernism, ancapism, libertarianism, etc etc etc but it's all bullshit. We have two hundred posts of that here but all it ended up as an academic exercise that amounts to the debate version of ping pong. And that's what happens every time.
If you really wanna solve anything you have to ask why that is. Why can't we all sit down and have a discussion as humans about connectedness and humanity? Are we too jaded as a culture to have a sincere discussion about love without nullifying it every five minutes? Is it just too boring, would we rather entertain ourselves arguing about subjects where we can yell about Postmodernism and namedrop Hegel and Nietzsche?
I know that sounds stupid and lame and whatever, but I know it works from personal experience. I won't give too many details to prevent another flame war, but I'm part of a minority group and I'm part of organizations that ally with other groups, minority and otherwise, to work together and affect positive change. Even though there's a lot more talk of caring about one another than political theory, we've gotten some pretty big changes in police departments and the way they handle mental illness, in affordable housing, and in other stuff. All that to say, I'm beginning to doubt that acting like you know better than everyone else is REALLY the best way to improve things. Don't get me wrong, I grew up on the internet so that stuff comes second nature to me as much as anyone else here. But I'm finding that making real change is a lot more lame and less-impassioned than a philosophical debate on post-structuralism. |
