pomoculture

[pomoculture]

Demigod's of Death

We touched on this a little in the “Lysenko, Famine’s High Priest” blog post, but lets get to the meat of what he and many like him really had going on. How do we even begin to comprehend the size of his ego, to try and force biology to fit to his opinion of what it should be; or Stalin or Mao’s supporters belief that they worked towards utopia. Maybe these “cosmos-heads” could be somewhat forgiven if there was any fruitfulness from their attempts, but they weren’t even close! There’s a term that beckons from the soviet era to refer to these unhinged academics, “The Intelligencia.” What made the intelligencia so dangerous and arrogant was their echo-chambers and adoration. Echo-chambers should need no introduction in this modern age, with social media creating hubs of like-minded individuals, from gardening to politics. When they truly become warped is when they are founded on a sacred, or irreproachable premise. Life is almost never black or white, everything has its caveat, its instance of fallibility, but this impedes conversation and the pursuit of transcendence, so we often ignore them. For the intelligencia of Soviet collegiates, the irrefutable premise was Marxism. This was made even worse by the guarantee that only vocal Marxist students had a chance of being selected for state jobs (Keep in mind that all academic jobs were administered by the state). So, the USSR really thought it had a jewel of pure truth worthy of worship figured out. Now lets imagine we’re one of these students that really “drank the Kool-Aid.” We’re tasked with plotting the way forward in every walk of life, consistent with the “holy dogma” of the party. Uplifting the downtrodden and making life better by reshaping the old ways to fit this system of casteless utopia. Thoughts and concerns of personal elitism were tabled for when the pure vision manifested (in theory). In no slight to the very definition, they were the creators of heaven. Imbued with self-righteous certainty that validated every warped theory crafting conversation and honest solution-seeking conference they held. What’s more, they were so valuable to the cause, they were shown ultimate deference by the rabble they guided, lest the secret police mark them a dissenter of the doctrine! How could one not view themselves as a god when made socially irreproachable? This should be ringing some bells of what is currently happening on our own western campuses. Intelligent, theory-inundated students that tout a doctrine so apparently righteous, that it stupefies them to be met with contention. A sign that maybe a thousand hours of study would’ve been better spent with a hundred and planting some tomatoes with a stranger. We should always be wary of people who shut down when tested in their beliefs. How arrogant and self-righteous to assume that possible fault found within their beliefs is out of the question. To view another person as so ignorant that we can only educate them, or silence them. We have to be careful of how we elevate others, especially our nerdy and naïve specialists. We need talented problem solvers, not deranged demigods.

[pomoculture]

The Greatest Bigotee

Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, a member of academia with many laurels, mostly in areas of study related to antidiscrimination and social justice. This term is used to refer to emergent or compounding effects of discrimination. Before this word became “termed”, there was no word for it other than being unlucky or “fate really sticking it to ya.” Being dumb makes life harder, being dumb and ugly makes life much harder. Fair enough! So what’s the problem? In the frame of a social justice warrior, this concept is validation to undo merit and replace it with an audit roll of identities. How a failure in a system in which racial profiling or gender or religious discrimination occurred is extrapolated to incriminate the meta-culture of offices, ’insert_here’ industry, or community. And where it exists, its not of the virtues the majority of people and cultures in this nation accept, and is deemed wrong. The lie is smuggled in when shallow people take this to mean that implicit to a rejection or slight, is first something about them that they couldn’t change. Its true that there are systemic problems just as much as its true that cultures have problems. Everyone needs to own their share of the burden, bigotry is bad, but rank ordering and quantifying types of possible discriminations so that we can warp the playing field of society is not the answer. The very delusion is staggering. Instead can’t we just trust and give each other second chances and keep promoting merit, you know, that marker of when someone is good at something we get encourage them to do it more. How are we going to make a better tomorrow promoting people for how big their “list of woes” is?

[pomoculture]

Gray Virtue

Something that the Post-Modernist frenzy used as a war-blade to the conservative cause is its quenching of human spirit. There are plenty of ways to rebut this, but we’re going to give this one a bone of sorts instead, and maybe encourage a little self-reflection. Stereotypical conservative culture would propose that we wear only one hat or one recognizable character, beyond just persona, but sound and manner as well (within and without the dramatic stigma, that stone is there to throw). Be trustworthy but also don't switch up your character, for conservatism is the nesting grounds of the paranoid. To be unified, play the game so innocuously that you are beyond reproach.

Okay, being beyond reproach is a fair virtue, rare to find in natural personalities and the corresponding triumphant (or at least non -capitulating) personal history to go with it. In a highly stable society one could easily see this virtue being socially selected for as well. But the wheel of time has turned, and while the best of this virtue is still relevant, its lower resolution cousin is often donned by the less... resolute. White knuckling for a singular persona is common in people unconcerned with shadow incorporation or individuation, or unable to get there because of Maslow’s Hierarchy (think overwhelmed by thoughts of self or paranoid drug addict), and can have the same outward appearance as a steady, predictable character. Culture does this to some degree naturally, a template to fulfill for everyone in some manner. That may all be fine too given circumstance, but its reverse looks the same. When instead of what to become its painted in what not to be. It’ll still create stability, but carry that recipe long enough and we’ll have ourselves a horde of sentient zombies… if we don’t already. We simplify ourselves when we’re nervous or meet someone new or try and put someone else at ease, but we can’t constantly go easy on those around us (including ourselves). Being mindful and risking missteps is a responsibility we all must carry to avoid devaluation of any homespun, cultural, or religious value. Being predictable and receiving expectations are necessary for our cooperation, but adaptiveness, insight, and even individuation can be sacrificed in this model at a very subtle cost. Be mindful of the opportunities we can take to be vulnerable, to test limits and ask uncomfortable questions, to grow and change. That’s the only way we repaint the color and wisdom in the monolith that carried us here.

[pomoculture]

My Heart Sinks

Something that has always knocked my heart down a peg is watching charity in action. Not because of the recipients being destitute, or the givers being insincere, or the help not being truly needed like a food kitchen. My heart sinks because in many cases, it's no solution, and often due to the relationships and risks associated with rehabilitation, it just serves to perpetuate the suffering. How can I say this about a food kitchen, people have to eat and I wouldn't think of coming against that, so how? Let's ask another question, why do people abuse, obsess, or overuse? A common question in socially affluent (not rich per say, just rich in relationships) circles that often only gets single curtain revelations like, "they're in pain" or "they've had a hard life." Answers that justify sympathy but bring no light to what an addict is truly struggling with behind his obsession. Why doesn’t everyone do substance abuse? It’s a sure fire way of escaping problems and feeling paid attention to (several common substances of abuse activate neurons associated with when they were not yet weened and with mom). Rats will overdose quite rapidly in the lonely existence of a cage without a partner. So it’s human connection. So those food kitchens often appear to simulate something like the dopamine hungry tik-tok addict for social connection. Again, no hate, just a concern I have with modeling for recovery with sympathy. Some, there at the kitchen, are truly dealing with things that plummet their chances of stability and relationships, but more and more now its people choosing that life, and surrendering their agency for an institutionally sanctioned high. Why not? They might be ugly, or have ugly thoughts about themselves, or be inexperienced in just speaking to others due to being in a crazy generation. Why not just surrender? You can’t starve in America. My heart sinks at those that pet the heads of people who gave up with potential and wit and charm and love left in them. Giving them just enough to go back to the gazebo or bench for the night. The carrot’s good in many cases, but my heart sinks because people are discouraged by the pop-culture claiming if its not a degree, it’s not worth anything. Like contributing has a point where it just falls off and no longer helped. My heart sinks, because though they don't love themselves, they're showered in care and low effort concern. Sealing them up, when all they really needed was a fully committed human being to be a family member to them. That can't be someone who doesn’t get them, or someone who only has 5 hours a week for them. It’s hard to say what to do, but making a surrendered existence continually more palpable and even attractive is only a good thing for the present moment, and draws others in who wouldn’t have given up were it not so easy now.

[pomoculture]

The Wage-Reality

The gender pay-gap was something pushed by a rage-click journalist culture to feed a hellbent activist culture. Often times when I speak to people about the fairness of working less hours and/or laborious jobs for less money, bristles flair, but the sad fact is most people don’t know how those statistics construe hours (part-time employments and/or overtime) and lower paying jobs (How many female firefighters can one expect by ratios?) to be irrelevant to the “Big Title”. There are only so many non-physical jobs that women can fill. It has to be recognized as a limiter and even a second-hand experience limiter for jobs that involve the administration of physical labor. Are we just going to decide, on no other merit than "equality of outcome", that administration is as hard and worth as much as mining? Not only this, but Nordic countries, often considered the most liberal and feminist leaned governments of the world, have demonstrated that with more freedom, men and women choose more stereotypical jobs of their gender. People want to be effective, that’s intrinsic in any effort we care about, can we please stop pushing nonsense for diversity’s sake alone?

[pomoculture]

Feminism In Levels

Feminism is a weedy word, thick with all manner of vines and roots, caveats and claims. Sometimes to come against feminism feels like a shadow boxing match. You can never land a good punch because there’s always a counter-point or goal that can make someone appear as a bad person to even criticize its ideas. Well, I want to bring to light a handy way of categorizing feminism that has aided me in discussing it. We are currently in the 4th or 5th “Wave” of feminism, each more intersectional and revolutionary than the last. The 1st wave was what you expect, women’s suffrage. The 2nd was the extension of rights in courts, job discrimination based on sex instead of merit, and near the end a voice to callout men being rapists when they’re rapists. Cool. I think anyone who is against these on all ends, could use a little sit down, or maybe even a deeply concerned discussion. When the problems come along is in the 3rd wave (1990s-2010). In this stage Kimberle Crenshaw’s Intersectionality laid its claws in the movement. Turning something that was a social bus of fairness into a Greyhound of victim validation. This is when the marginalization rhetoric and reparations talk began. Clamor to giving specialized rights for being (in the eyes of a special committee) oppressed or disadvantaged relative to another. We’ll talk about Intersectionality in a later post, but you get the gist. So if you’re ever asked are you a feminist, you can now clarify very easily to what degree. Take it from someone who has too many of these conversations, its something of a lifehack!

[pomoculture]

Why Value Anything?

Discrimination is both a blessing and a curse to the human condition. On the one hand, it gives rise to science, reason, morality, good and bad friends, and just plain good food. On the other, it can be used to censer people of different races, religions, political leanings, whole schools of thought, and other hasty generalizations that can atrophy peoples capacity to accept the nuance of reality. Discrimination has received a massive stigmatization in the 21st century as a word, and by extension the very morality of it as a pursuit, due in large part to racial discrimination. POMO has posited that from the horrors of slavery and “otherness” attribution, discriminating people as, with or without merit, is tantamount to the act of revivifying slavery and genocide. And those that agree with this will often also believe that unity in the opinion of merit is so dangerous, that, save a few enlightened positions of their own wheelhouse, should be suppressed, and continually battled against to thwart humans’ natural dispositions. Sounds a lot like a religion at this point doesn’t it. The problem is humans are hard-wired to apply value, if we try our hardest not to, we only reach nihilism and depression (Great religion!). The very act of casting our eyes on something necessitates we ignore something else. Values are intrinsic to our very existence, and if they don’t rank order, nothing is bad. POMO’ists are just high-jacking fear, loathing, and cancel culture to insert their own values. The hard sell is that the POMO religion is an artificial classroom-philosophy from a hundred years ago. The philosophers, great authors, and religious texts from “before” examined the inequality of the human experience (back when it was unequivocally worse than it is now, I might add), seeking to reveal wisdom and virtue. POMO society believes we’re all so corrupt that it would be better to bury our heads in the sand and just deny ourselves anything worth living/dying for, because depression isn't dangerous!

[pomoculture]

Lysenko, Famine's High Priest

A common assertion in POMO circles is that state intervention should equalize apparent meritocratic hierarchies into their “appropriate” level playing field. This can be used to justify the redistribution of wealth or to assuage the ego’s of the differently motivated or less capable that they matter just as much on the virtual world stage. It’s proposed that the words, and hence the categories, causes and effects, and paradigms, used to understand the basic roots of nature and biology (and everything else..) are corrupted from these implicit biases. Therefore, it’s insightful and intelligent to say gender and genetics are arbitrary, as we cannot know how far our treatment of those in these paradigms have been forced to conform and manifest our expectations over time. Right?

Example of this hyper-rationalized fallacy:

Trofim Lysenko was a soviet scientist who saw it fit to ban genetics in the USSR in 1948, and was a staunch anti-Mendelian. Corrupting an already controversial scientific theory (already on the cusp of being disproven, but not without merit) to further his own aims of despecifying quality within genetics, he forced a perspective that “disinhibited” plants from a multitude of constraints known by even the most amateur gardener. By wishing to mold the world to a paradigm of the communist utopian vision, Lysenko decided that plants could also come to reflect the wondrous revelation Lenin and Marx. (I guess I should consider myself lucky for never receiving the gen-ed class Botanic Philosophy!) While it makes sense if the logic it was based in truly reflected the nature of the world, it wasn’t. Lysenkoism was practiced by the surviving and placated scientists of the U.S.S.R. and Mao’s China, who would then go on to produce the worst famines humanity has ever known, killing over 60 million people.

[pomoculture]

The Fourth Turning

I came across a book recently that paints a very provocative perspective on the ebb and flow of society and social stability. Strauss and Howe’s generational theory outlined in the book “The Fourth Turning” encapsulates a modernization of the Etruscan saeculum concept. Put briefly, one saeculum was the span of time it took to renew the population from birth to unto death (generally fitting four distinct groups in the ~80-100 years). There were godly allotments tied to the number of saecula a town, nation, or empire was granted before it would run its course and cease. The practitioners and scholars of saeculum noticed patterns that gave it an uncanny wisdom for predicting the turmoil and downfall of nations.

William Strauss and Neil Howe formalized this, giving the generations cyclical turnings. It goes something like this: Order is recoiled from, by the next generation into personal Agency, followed by Unraveling of the institutions that brought order, and the fourth stage in the saecula is Crisis, in which society clamors for reform and tearing down the establishment. I’m not totally sure about it yet but have to admit the idea does have traction (they trace history and regions exhaustively to buttress their theory, very formidably). A more troubling thought from their conjecture to us entering the fourth turning in my mind is atomizing (the character trait of the Crisis stage) made less recoverable with the technology-accelerated, generational cleaving that appears to be happening today?

[pomoculture]

The Beginning

Post-modern philosophy has a lot to answer for in the reformation of western culture. Spear-headed by the famous philosopher, Jacques Derrida, post-modernism, or POMO, makes a series of logical steps to reduce reality to all be social construction. Since our minds are wired in a mostly consistent way with each other, we manage to ascribe reason and likeness similarly. But “Nay!” says Derrida, these natural constants are just arbitrary paradigms that could’ve been so rearranged as to undo truth itself. “Perception is reality” is the word on the street, and like most catch phrases, it has its place where its very applicable, but I take issue when I hear people say this as if it’s a universal truth (which I have more than I want to count). Reality is only found by the exchange between minds, not in the unchecked opinions or fantasies of individuals. Undermining that understanding can often produce some very funny results, but its begun harming people and shifting the very Overton Window of our culture. If you’re already in a camp similar to mine, I’ll be posting some thoughts of how we got here. If you’re undecided or all for it, I’ll be making arguments for why it’s wrong, harmful, and maybe if I’m feeling frisky, even posit what I think is right in its stead.