RE: Dehumanizing Internet
March 14, 2019 at 5:00 am
(This post was last modified: March 14, 2019 at 5:02 am by Belacqua.)
(March 13, 2019 at 11:00 pm)bennyboy Wrote: Am I unique? I always thought so, but now I'm not so sure.
I wonder if our self-selection gives us a slightly narrow impression. People who post on sites like this one cover a fairly narrow range of types and thought.
Anglophone, interested in Christianity or its lack, literate enough to read and write these posts (such as they are), with enough free time to do this kind of thing. Not so obsessed with some other topic that we devote all our time to that other thing. etc. etc. etc.
The narcissism of small differences makes us think we're more different than we are.
Sometimes I imagine what other kinds of people there are in the world. Today I was imagining a Hindu scholar, mostly speaking a non-imperial language, focused devotedly to his theological thought and practice--the appearance of the Brahman in the material, for example. Maybe very intelligent, wise, and compassionate. Such a person would have an entirely different set of concepts through which to interpret the world. He might, to my envy, have never heard of Star Wars or Star Trek or goddam superhero movies. The way he sees the world would be unlike the way we see the world. And sites like this one would be incomprehensible to him.
I hope that the world isn't so homogenized that such people no longer exist. I read a book about Taoist hermits once. When China was opening back up to foreign tourists after Mao's long reign was over, an American writer went and sought out a few. When he found one old guy on a mountain and asked him what he thought of Mao, the hermit said, "who's that?"
It's hard for us to imagine real difference maybe. I hope it's still there.
