Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 10:30 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Dehumanizing Internet
#11
RE: Dehumanizing Internet
(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.
Reply
#12
RE: Dehumanizing Internet
(March 13, 2019 at 11:00 pm)bennyboy Wrote: Am I unique?  I always thought so, but now I'm not so sure.

OFC you're unique and special Benny, just like everyone elseWink
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply
#13
RE: Dehumanizing Internet
Are you an individualist? I find it odd that, living in a society that values community and family, you are lamenting the lack of individuality. You are truly special, benny.
[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]
Reply
#14
RE: Dehumanizing Internet
(March 13, 2019 at 11:00 pm)bennyboy Wrote: It occurred to me that the internet is making about 80% of us redundant on a pretty basic level.

Where I came from, not that many people thought like me, or expressed ideas like the ones you guys do.  That gave me a niche-- just by being a pretty smart guy and knowing how to use words, I had a role.

But there's that same guy in every town, and a hundred of them in every city, and thousands of cities in the world.

I started playing a little game-- I go to any other site, and figure out which guy is the bennboy, or the Khem, or the Little Ricky, or the Shell B or the Losty or the Jorg.  They're all there, in slight variations, like archetypal internet gods.

It seems to me that technology hasn't just made certain production jobs irrelevant-- it has made entire categories of thinkers pretty much irrelevant as well, in the sense that you could weed out 99% of the bennyboys out there and still have that category of thinking well enough represented.  And at the risk of being mean-- I'm not sure that if this entire forum (or any other particular one) disappeared, that the holographic info that is archetypal humanity would be affected even a little bit.

Am I unique?  I always thought so, but now I'm not so sure.

Kudos to you for discovering that you aren't unique. In my experience, the more certain that a person is that they are an independent thinker, the more precisely their thinking aligns with other like minded people. You know, the hippies were just such radical thinkers who all dressed sort of the same way, said the same things, and totally freed their minds, man!  People were noticing this quite awhile before the internet, but the internet has made the phenomenon far more apparent.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
Reply
#15
RE: Dehumanizing Internet
(March 14, 2019 at 8:52 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: Are you an individualist?  I find it odd that, living in a society that values community and family, you are lamenting the lack of individuality.  You are truly special, benny.

You forgot the quotation marks. Tongue
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  The miracle of the internet drfuzzy 48 5373 February 20, 2016 at 6:44 pm
Last Post: comet
  Internet Philosophical Resources Caecilian 1 1564 May 24, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Last Post: Rev. Rye



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)