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Why Do You Want to Share Your Ideas?
This morning I heard an author being interviewed. In my humble opinion, the radio-person asked a strange question: “Why do you want to share your ideas?”
in order to visualize for yourself just how strange this question is, consider how every human being is brought into this world. Even before we are born we seem to be aware of human conversation. Parents give their children names — they speak to them by name. They narrate everyday life, every day. They introduce their children to society. They bring them to schools, and these schools teach children the “proper” way(s) to use language(s). The entire social fabric of humanity is interwoven with languages, with expressions and with many techniques for sharing ideas with one another.
And so when this radio-person asked: “Why do you want to share your ideas?” I found this shocking. I gasped and was taken aback, and wondered: how would I answer this question if it were asked of me?
I think my first “gut reaction” was something like “I wish to communicate” (or maybe “I wish to practice communication” or something like that). Yet words often have quite multi-faceted connotations and therefore such expressions can have quite unintended interpretations. Later I thought maybe “I wish to express myself” might be a better way of putting it, but now I feel “I wish to participate in humanity” might be best of all.
And now I have to chuckle — because of an insight that occurred to me at least a decade ago already: I myself am not particularly proud of the species I apparently “belong” to (see also e.g. “Sometimes I Feel So Proud to be Maladjusted“)
It is widely accepted as an established fact that some of the most severe (and perhaps also cruel) punishments known are things like ostracization or solitary confinement. Nonethless, one of the first things that occurred to this radio-person was to ask: “Why do you want to share your ideas?”
When something as absurd as this happens, I become flabbergasted — even (almost) speechless. Yet there is indeed an Internet-Abbreviation that seems to hit the nail on the … um, head … namely: SMH.
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This Life is Different
I know a woman who is a singer / songwriter — more or less. She’s written some Christmas-themed songs, and she is currently on tour singing some of these and also some of her favorites. I visited one of her events and she sang a song that I feel was (at least somewhat) intended for me. I enjoy this imagined intimacy, so I didn’t even ask her about it. I will not name her to spare us both the disappointment of reality crashing in on our dreams.
Instead I will write this post — and again: it’s (at least in part) for her.
I have never lost my religion, but my beliefs have indeed changed quite a bit over the years. In my humble opinion, all calendar-based religions are essentially a matter of worshipping the Sun. I think Sun-worship makes a lot of sense, since this results in acting appropriately throughout the seasons.
Source: https://www.carnivalarts.org.uk/post/what-is-yule Beyond that, it doesn’t really matter much what I believe — insofar as it probably doesn’t have much impact on reality.
The way I see it, there are basically two approaches to belief systems. Believers can either be tolerant or intolerant. With intolerant believers, failure to believe what they believe results in believing the different person is certainly lost.
One way this plays out in many modern Christian cultures is when they ask things like “what are you doing for Christmas?” My response to such questions is usually bewilderment at the fact that those people seem to be in a sort of mesmerized state of existence. Depending on my mood, I might reply with something like “nothing” or maybe “sleeping a lot”. The mesmerized people often react with something like shock and / or pity that I am not living in line with their own herd behavior.
As I mentioned above, I don’t believe such herd behavior is wrong. Neither is it exclusively right, and so I see no reason to share in the herd mentality that everyone else might be lost.
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Human Brain Conditioner: Human Nature is a Top Secret Affair
Over the past several weeks, I have focused on the quasi “post-mortem dump” of the so-called media‘s election coverage in the United States. I no longer usually pay much attention to the junk that has increasingly become known as “mainstream media” — I prefer to focus more on the distinction between “rational media and “irrational media” (see e.g. “Rational Media” [ https://phlat.design.blog/2024/01/14/rational-media ] ).
Just a few day ago, I wrote a longish essay that spans media trends over the past half millennium (since about the time of Gutenberg’s printing press — see “Taking words out of context and thereby thinking outside of the box” [ https://contextual.news.blog/2024/12/05/taking-words-out-of-context-and-thereby-thinking-outside-of-the-box ] ). In my long and winding blathering I also touched upon a concept which became quite popular during the Enlightenment: “Natural Law”.
In the past few days of reflecting upon those reflections, I am now struck (yet again, since I have noted this before [at least privately] ) by an oversight in both natural sciences and social sciences over the past few centuries (i.e. since the Enlightenment): there is no longer widespread publishing and communication about scientific discoveries.
Increasingly, scientists do their scientific work (and thereby produce “science“) behind closed doors. Whether in a lab in Wuhan, China or in a video studio in New York, Hollywood, Austin or indeed anywhere in America there are people studying anything and everything from the most itty bitty microscopic tidbit to a full-blown celebrity impression, and especially inside of cyberspace headquarters, top-notch geeks sit around conference tables and study what kinds of impact each and every pixel on their platforms will have on each and every message blurted out through each and every application, advertisement and whatnot more.
All of this manipulation and manipulative propaganda scheming is (of course) TOP SECRET. The algorithms are TOP SECRET. The money is TOP SECRET. The deals are TOP SECRET. Pretty much everything is TOP SECRET.
One thing, that is NOT a secret is a very well-known fact on Wall Street: this is a very big deal, and this is very BIG BUSINESS. Billions of suckers are being duped every day, and they are even standing in line waiting to pay an entrance fee to the REALLY BIG SHOW.
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Dispatch from the Other Side
Now that we’re in full-on Christmas season, I’m beginning to take stock of all the so-called “news” I’ve been avoiding over the past several weeks.
The last thing I remember being aware of was the fact that when the election in the United States was decided, the German coalition government fell apart immediately — it was in fact the very same day. I found that very curious.
Since then, it seems to me like a large quantity of hot air has been expressed.
Source: https://www.rollingstone.de/nirvana-nevermind-baby-wird-zum-prozesshansel-2401073 It also appears as if a large portion of the propaganda industry may be a little lost — but only in America. Locally, it appears that Germany has now caught on to smear campaign tactics (maybe just about half a century after they were introduced) and are pressing forward full speed ahead in an effort to Blitzkrieg the centrist myth into the minds of so-called mainstream media consumers, and thereby to prevent so-called extremists and radicals from exercising free speech and similar dubious tactics. Here, mainstream remains everything but sidelined.
The general tenor is that whereas the USA has now completely lost the plot, good old-fashioned mainstream propaganda should be able to guarantee more of the same regardless of real-world nuisances such as widespread crumbling output from almost every other industry.
Nonetheless, there is a spectre haunting Europe — the spectre of recession (if not even outright depression). Let’s wait and see if they can make an awful lot of hot air in Berlin.
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Interesting Things
What interests you? This is a question I have by mulling over (with one of my best friends) during our annual November retreat. And just today, we also introduced the notion of (grammatical) subjects and objects of attention into the mix of ideas.
He is fully aware of what has been not only fully but also increasingly the focus of my attention over the past several decades, namely so-called natural language. I recall how just about a year ago I was chatting in a bar with some new acquaintances coming from academic circles … particularly how I drew attention to natural language by contrasting it with the newfangled notion of artificial languages.
But I digress … .
Source; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_shoe Today many people find things like IG or YT or whatever platform interesting — and I wonder what these people find interesting about these things. If I was to be informed of some natural disaster, or a similarly significant “world event”, would I care whether such information arrived via IG or YT or whatever else (maybe “X”)? I have long held while “content is king”, context is queen (and that she wears the pants) … yet what is the contextual information provided by the beloved platforms which the herds and masses of men (and women) flock to in order to check out “what’s going on?” [1]
In my humble opinion, the only thing these so-called platforms bring to the contextual equations is rules and regulations about things that are allowed to happen on the platform (or not). In this vein, the corresponding platform audiences self-select into buckets and categories of attention limits — in other words: mostly self-imposed attention limits. Some people might even go so far as to say these various platforms are selected in acts of self-censorship.
[1] For more about various implications of context, see also “Contextual Meanings” [ https://contextual.news.blog ]
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Be There or Be Square?
I am currently travelling, so being somewhere somewhat escapes me.
I am currently also quite focused on interpersonal matters, so phrases like “be there or be square” are currently particularly intriguing.
If you don’t wish to offend someone by saying that they are boring or uncool, it would be best to avoid this phrase and to use an alternative phrase instead, such as ‘I hope you can make it’.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/be-there-or-be-square
I have very little (or nothing) to conclude here — apart from (perhaps) that I feel as though this sort of threat is often woven into the fabric of communications in a competitive atmosphere.
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Mediation Between Rational Media and Real World Advertising Interests
A little over a week ago, I posted a review of a blog post which mentioned using Google to search for typing.com [1] and of course I was amused that someone (and indeed people in general) still feel an urge to continue using irrational media. [2]
Curious nonetheless, I went to check out typing.com — and was amazed to find what seems to be a very highly organized and professional website, plus a portfolio of other websites, all highly focused within the broad field of education (e.g. teaching.com and reading.com).
This very impressive offering includes an “About Us” page with a link to a manifesto that is also nothing short of phenomenal. All in all, I guess you could say I’m blown away.
And yet there’s also a catch. What seems to be pure success is also mired with spyware. A quick glance at the source code of typing.com revealed tracking by Google Analytics.
While I understand the short-term motivation to sell users down the river to this marketing and advertising behemoth, I always feel it is such a pity to disrespect your own target audience this way. Which parent would say to their own child that it’s perfectly OK to accept candy from strangers? This case is actually even more extreme, as Google has never been particularly secretive about their information gathering schemes. [3]
And of course this Silicon Valley giant is such a fat cat that most companies see a clear path to Eldorado via Mountain View.
I agree that it takes a lot of guts to say something like “I don’t believe in Beatles” (see “Case Study in the Contrast Between Rational vs. Irrational Media: “I Don’t Believe in Beatles”“) and today it (oddly?) seems to be as ordinary as apple pie to believe in the Pope (see “If Google is the Pope of the Internet, Then Who Are You & I?“).
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_pie #[1] See “One day I just decided that I wanted to get better at typing so after a quick google search I found Typing.com” [ https://wants.blog/2024/11/01/one-day-i-just-decided-that-i-wanted-to-get-better-at-typing-so-after-a-quick-google-search-i-found-typing-com ]
[2] See “Rational Media” [ https://phlat.design.blog/2024/01/14/rational-media ]
[3] Then again, see also “The BIC Browser is Watching You“
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After More than 2 Decades of Blogging, When Will We Ever Be Able to Clearly Define What is a Blog?
I am quite certain that most people feel quite differently than I do about what the term “Blog” refers to. Personally, I feel I stick rather closely to the original understanding that it’s shorthand for “weblog” (see also “Captain’s Log“). In my humble opinion, a blog is the result of using software to create a list of entries that are (at least) chronologically ordered (and may also be organized in other ways).
Yet for most people, I think “blog” means primarily something created be an individual. Thus, I disagree with most people insofar as I view things like twitter.com as a blog for billions of users (both people and robots 😉 ), yet most people don’t.
This is why most people seem to view most (if not all) blogs as ridiculous and insignificant. Just the other day I did a somewhat “deep dive” into this queer prejudice here: “The Innumerable Empty Spaces that Separate Big Things from Small Things” [ https://phlat.design.blog/2024/11/02/the-innumerable-empty-spaces-that-separate-big-things-from-small-things ].
Most people are more or less completely lost online — they have little or no publicacy skills whatsoever (see also “What is Publicacy + Why does it Matter?“). Since they have little or no knowledge about the vast amounts of personal information they voluntarily share with marketing companies and spy organizations (see “The BIC Browser is Watching You“), they are oblivious to the propaganda they consume on a daily basis as if it were something like scientific knowledge. I am beginning to think that nothing short of a holocaust will ever motivate a sizable portion of the population to wake up.
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Crickets …
I have to admit that I am a little disappointed with the complete lack of any response from Mrs, Müller (see “Technology + Culture + Ethics + Education in Deutschland (Interview with Silke Müller)” [ https://europe.politics.blog/2024/10/20/technology-culture-ethics-education-in-deutschland-interview-with-silke-muller ] ).
After the event which we both attended, she and I had a chance to talk briefly before she was whisked away to somewhere else. I asked about how I could reach her, she mentioned her website and then I followed up the very same day … which is now almost 2 months ago.
Apart from an auto-reply email I received from some robotic machine, I have heard nothing … but crickets (in my mind, I guess 😉 ) ….
“Staying safe in cricket swarms” [ https://elkodaily.com/news/local/ndot-helps-with-safety-when-mormon-crickets-swarm-roadways/article_80b7a1ac-1708-11ef-b260-dbd1d64fe25a.html ] I have addressed many different facets of this problem over the years (e.g. “How to Explain Ignorance” [ https://socio.business.blog/2023/09/10/how-to-explain-ignorance ] ). I was chatting with a friend shortly after the event and I joked how the professor I mentioned last week will probably instruct the people attending the seminar about using Google for “research”. 😛 My friend has since come back with some comments about narcissism and how some people are very much focused on advancing themselves (or their own “careers”) with little or hardly any thought of the world around them.
I myself have often alluded to the metaphor of the French Revolution as a depiction of how “out of touch” some people can be about their own impending doom. Today, I have an eerie notion about how there seems to be a parallel to the completely meaningless murmur of crickets becoming louder and louder day by day.
It seems quite quick, simple and easy to simply shrug and “shake it off” — doesn’t it?
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Is Fake News a Dilemma (or maybe an Industry)?
I’m a little late with this week’s post — but I do have an excuse! 😀
I had to prepare some other texts, which I will refer to below.
The question in the title is inspired by recent remarks made by Silke Müller — see “Technology + Culture + Ethics + Education in Deutschland (Interview with Silke Müller)” [ https://europe.politics.blog/2024/10/20/technology-culture-ethics-education-in-deutschland-interview-with-silke-muller ].
Silke Müller (HomBuch 2024) She and I both attended an event in which she presented her latest book and I (and others) were invited to ask questions. I have transcribed my question and her answers … albeit in German (see “Technologie + Kultur + Ethik + Erziehung in Deutschland (Interview mit Silke Müller) — Aufruf zur Transkription” [ https://europa.politics.blog/2024/10/20/technologie-kultur-ethik-erziehung-in-deutschland-interview-mit-silke-muller-aufruf-zur-transkription ] ). I may try to translate them sometime, but I did not have enough time to do that yet.
At the event, a professor from a university “artificial intelligence” department offered support for a week-long training seminar having to do with issues I raised (and which Mrs. Müller replied to, mentioning that schools and teachers are presently not well prepared to help students learn the required skills). Yet I wonder: if a university department which receives money from an advertising agency, is that a good place to learn something (such as “critical thinking skills”) about how students ought to interpret so-called “information” from the advertising industry?
In Germany and America, there is much talk about how Putin (or some “Russian propaganda” machine) creates “fake news”. I find it odd that there is so little being said about how some of the largest corporations on the entire planet create “fake news” — insofar as advertising is not only their first and foremost business model but in some cases also upwards of 99% of their income — they actually make money by making fake news 24/7/365!
Perhaps what Mrs. Müller refers to as a “dilemma” has more to do with calling Russians bad versus calling Americans good?
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