PoMo, the value of literary fiction, and realism

[glen ep ropella]

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

I found this talk interesting given our recent discussions of
post-modernism, the value of literary fiction, and the old standard of
realism.  I disagree that it all boils down to an industrialized
education system; but I agree that all the elements he mentions, from
industrialized education to medicating children to the over-valuation of
abstract thought, etc. are part of the cause of PoMo (and its
unjustified propagation), the lowered value of literary fiction (at
least in some of us), and _both_ the hyperfocus on and the abandonment
of realism.

--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com


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[Vladimyr Burachynsky]

Glen,
Have you read Slavoj Zizek, "In Defense of Lost Causes or A Plague of
Fantasies"? The two of you share much in common but Zizek is much funnier.

His attacks on post modernism are often spectacular. Unfortunately neither
of you two seem to have found a way out of the trap of solipsism disguised
as a philosophy. That may be part of the problem here, we have a phenomenon
so odoius that it has been mistakenly lumped in with other philosophies when
in fact I suspect it is simply a rubbish tip which we had to give a name.

In the absence of a philosophy we seem to have latched on to Reality TV and
Twitter. Nearly everything lately called revolutionary is simply self
indulgent / self infatuated. Funny now that everyone is supposed to be
equal; the dirty infighting for fame and media attention is unsurpassed.

Fame or the camera spotlight are our highest goals as a society. Zizek tries
to compare this era to past events but seems to have failed. No bloody
revolutionary will ever get us out of this swamp.

I like to call it the Tyranny of Mediocrity.
I recall upsetting the PTA ,20 tears ago, claiming that ADHD was a fictional
disease striking the middleclass two parent families that did not have
enough time to cook dinner.Often the diagnosing physicians were also
juggling careers and families. My goodness the foolish beliefs we have had
to endure, remember Facilitated Learning where the mentally deficient could
write stories typical of middle aged women with a need for fame. Curious how
a belief system can so delude the public. Now Druids are a recognized
religion in the UK and witches run for office in the US. No wonder the
Inquisition was disbanded when so many obviously delusional people started
claiming to have fornicated with the devil's minions. The Inquisitors lost
hope in ever finding a legitimate witch. They switched the focus to
alchemists and counterfeiters. Every night we can hear interviews with
criminals justifying their actions because of some newly formulated self
acquired Right. Here is a title "A Plague of Human Rights". In the same week
I saw activists claim that women had the Right to Abortions, The Right to
Abandon Infants, The Right to raise male children to be Mothers, The Right
to end the lives of the suffering with Dignity. The Right to Kill their
spouses who they accused of abusing them. The even pronounce that they have
the Right to be believed whatever contrary evidence exists. They have the
Right to impose their specific delusion on the rest of mankind. It is not
just PoMo this is fundamentally an issue between civic responsibility and
selfish interests. PoMo is a "Pseudo Philosophy created to rationalize
selfishness"  
Well Glen try being a little more outrageous and you may have a new career
as a fiction writer.

One curious thought I have had reading Zizek is that he is trying to
describe the basics of a psychology that is embedded within a complex
system. In part the confusion arises as a result of parallax, if we assume
normal linear causality we keep looking into an endless hall of mirrors and
we keep seeing the apparent coincidence of contradictions. Perhaps
philosophy itself will change when it recognizes that the classic cause and
effect system is no longer quite meaningful. In part as the world becomes
more complex the populace reverts to solipsism as the only means of survival
and thereby insuring their own demise.
Good hunting , thanks for the link!


 
 
Vladimyr Ivan Burachynsky
Ph.D.(Civil Eng.), M.Sc.(Mech.Eng.), M.Sc.(Biology)
 
120-1053 Beaverhill Blvd.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
CANADA R2J 3R2
(204) 2548321  Phone/Fax
[hidden email]
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf
Of glen e. p. ropella
Sent: November 8, 2010 6:40 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: [FRIAM] PoMo, the value of literary fiction, and realism


RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

I found this talk interesting given our recent discussions of
post-modernism, the value of literary fiction, and the old standard of
realism.  I disagree that it all boils down to an industrialized
education system; but I agree that all the elements he mentions, from
industrialized education to medicating children to the over-valuation of
abstract thought, etc. are part of the cause of PoMo (and its
unjustified propagation), the lowered value of literary fiction (at
least in some of us), and _both_ the hyperfocus on and the abandonment
of realism.

--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[glen ep ropella]

Vladimyr Ivan Burachynsky wrote  circa 11/08/2010 08:05 PM:
> Have you read Slavoj Zizek, "In Defense of Lost Causes or A Plague of
> Fantasies"? The two of you share much in common but Zizek is much funnier.

Ouch!  That stings. ;-)  No, I haven't read his work.

> His attacks on post modernism are often spectacular. Unfortunately neither
> of you two seem to have found a way out of the trap of solipsism disguised
> as a philosophy. That may be part of the problem here, we have a phenomenon
> so odoius that it has been mistakenly lumped in with other philosophies when
> in fact I suspect it is simply a rubbish tip which we had to give a name.

Well, I don't know anything about Zizek; but I'm not lumping anything
with philosophies.  I'm just suggesting that two of our recent threads
(PoMo and literary fiction) and one persistent thread (realism, or the
lack thereof) on this list may be related to the economy and the rise in
population density.  I'm not concerned with philosophy so much as
speculating on the causes of things like a perceived over medication of
children in response to perceived epidemics like ADHD (or even autism).
 By "things like", I also mean:

   Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities
   http://www.pnas.org/content/104/17/7301.abstract

In other words, I see things like PoMo (and the bifurcation of life into
"academic vs. non-academic", as Robinson put it in the video) as a
consequence of information overload and constant innovation as we
approach the carrying capacity of the earth.

It's not about philosophy.  It's about applied complexity. ;-)

> In the absence of a philosophy we seem to have latched on to Reality TV and
> Twitter.

Perhaps we can view Reality TV and Twitter, also, as consequences of
urbanization, constant innovation, and increased density rather than
harking back to obsolete terms and methods like "philosophy"?

> Fame or the camera spotlight are our highest goals as a society.

And perhaps we can view individuals' attempts to gain the spotlight as
the remnants of a bygone age where the individual was more important?
In our current age the individual is receding in importance.  And given
that the US is a fairly sparse region, it's not surprising that
individuals here are clamoring for a little spotlight as they feel the
encroaching collective bear down on them.  These phenomena seem more
like growing pains than narcissism to me.

> I like to call it the Tyranny of Mediocrity.
> I recall upsetting the PTA ,20 tears ago, claiming that ADHD was a fictional
> disease striking the middleclass two parent families that did not have
> enough time to cook dinner.Often the diagnosing physicians were also
> juggling careers and families. My goodness the foolish beliefs we have had
> to endure, remember Facilitated Learning where the mentally deficient could
> write stories typical of middle aged women with a need for fame. Curious how
> a belief system can so delude the public. Now Druids are a recognized
> religion in the UK and witches run for office in the US. No wonder the
> Inquisition was disbanded when so many obviously delusional people started
> claiming to have fornicated with the devil's minions. The Inquisitors lost
> hope in ever finding a legitimate witch. They switched the focus to
> alchemists and counterfeiters. Every night we can hear interviews with
> criminals justifying their actions because of some newly formulated self
> acquired Right. Here is a title "A Plague of Human Rights". In the same week
> I saw activists claim that women had the Right to Abortions, The Right to
> Abandon Infants, The Right to raise male children to be Mothers, The Right
> to end the lives of the suffering with Dignity. The Right to Kill their
> spouses who they accused of abusing them. The even pronounce that they have
> the Right to be believed whatever contrary evidence exists. They have the
> Right to impose their specific delusion on the rest of mankind. It is not
> just PoMo this is fundamentally an issue between civic responsibility and
> selfish interests. PoMo is a "Pseudo Philosophy created to rationalize
> selfishness"  

That's a great rant! ;-)  But it misses the fundamental issue, which was
brought out nicely by Robinson in the section about "divergent
thinking".  The point of applied complexity is to work on the _inverse_
problem, hypothesizing potential generators for recognized phenomena.
All the things you mention are the phenomena.  What are the potential
generators?  If we are a complex system, then is it possible that these
multifarious phenomena _might_ be generated by a, the same, small core
of generators.  Think divergently!  "How many uses are there for a
paperclip?"

My speculation would be that all of the phenomena you list:

o the _seeming_ abundance of mediocrity (despite Bettencourt's construct
that innovation is fastest in cities and most of us live in cities these
days)
o the apparent epidemic of ADHD
o the accommodation of 2-6 sigma religious beliefs
o the fattening of the distribution of various "rights"
o gibbering, entrenched, academics who speak nonsense and get tenure for it

My speculation is that all of that might simply be our growing pains as
we approach the human population carrying capacity of the earth.

> Perhaps
> philosophy itself will change when it recognizes that the classic cause and
> effect system is no longer quite meaningful. In part as the world becomes
> more complex the populace reverts to solipsism as the only means of survival
> and thereby insuring their own demise.

And I'll make one final riposte!  8^)

I think philosophy, as a discipline, is _already_ changing.  Witness
Russ' recent paper and where it was published, or more generally, take a
look at the IACAP: http://www.ia-cap.org/.  I think we're seeing more
philosophers turn to effective computation, as computing (and the
constellation of disciplines it brings with it) percolates through
society.  Philosophy is changing to incorporate the new tools available
to it and it's doing it for the same purposes it has always had, to
explore cause and effect.  And as our overly simplistic, linear models
of cause and effect degrade into complex, non-linear models, philosophy
follows right along.... even leads the way in many cases.

But if my "story" is true, it's not solipsism at all.  It's actually
_realist_ in the sense that we're seeing all human activity track with
(some tightly as with quantum mechanics, some loosely as with PoMo) our
degradation, or expansion if you will, from the overly simplistic model
we successfully used when the earth was sparsely populated to this
complex model we now have to use in a more densely populated, mostly
urban world.

--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org