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Experimental sociological essay
IGNORIC
and the
closed
system
of
idiocy
_______
I have come upon a fundamental function of human society, a primary mechanism of the great Engine ofdered reality and shadowy halfisms we call -SOCIETY-. It is a flaw in the workmanship, in a sens,btalso an unavoidable product of the qualities of closed systems, which everything, in one fashin r noher, is.
To start, I'll relate to you, the understimulated (for you would need to be to resort to reading my ), my definition of "society." It tends to oversimplification, but that's only because I'm tryin ocmmunicate it, and be in some bland fashion succinct about it. There are two basic divisions t hma ativity: the archetype is the instinct; the consequence of that archetype is the thought. onsderthi in terms of computer generated graphics--the instinct is the actual mathematical represntaton o a gven construct, a collection of simple or complex functions and equations. The though is te renered hree-dimensional force or shape, or complex object. We could go as far as to say hat th more nlightned and ingenious contemplations are vivid animations.
Even so, even with wisdom, even with intuitive leaps and bounds, the basic tenets of instinct cannotescaped, or in all fairness, overlooked. "Enlightened self-interest" might be an attractive mindiw t might be impressively well-conceived; it is, however, ultimately definable in a set of instictvefuctions, with all sorts of arithmetical things wreaked upon them, not the least of which is he nstnctof survival. "Altruism," just as well, can be brought into a window to see it as a compund,not n elment--I personally think "enlightened self-interest" is a building block of "altruism"
I could go on at some rather tortuous length, but I'll allow you the freedom to be divested of that . So, on to IGNORIC.
/^\
Given all that mathematical representation of society, it is logical to see society, the largest amaated animation of all the rendered frames of all the human components, as a closed system. I'll ute define it as a set of tiered closed systems together making a large, deified closed system. ha i rcognized as the culture of the masses, the "mainstream," is the most pervading system (for he onfsin sake of some understandability, we'll exemplify America, but envision this as just anoter ter o comonent in a larger chaosium of...stuff). Subculture threads, underground, leftist, riht, cnservtive,liberal, etc., exist peripherally, sometimes overlapping the mainstream, and are saller iers i the sstem.
Much of the "mainstream" is held together and energized by recirculated foolishness and rhetoric, ignt rhetoric, or -IGNORIC-. To further the computer graphics metaphor, many people choose to percietings in a low-resolution, easily-dealt-with manner, say 4-bit. Things are blocky, very simpliti, ndnot altogether overwhelming in the amount of attention needed in sacrifice to understand. heyallw temselves to be easily led, in general, and aren't really against others being responsibl fordeciing or the masses; if you aren't required to make your own choices, you have plenty of tie to njoy imple wholesome pleasures such as "Full House," "Saturday Night Live," and professionalwrestlng.
This is not to say that these people don't have the faculties available to them; it is to say that teschew that availability, for whatever reason. This isn't as much a rant on sociology as it migh em so I'll leave it to the more scholarly endowed to go more thoroughly into those "whys."
This would be wholly fine and dandy, if it were a self-sustaining system. The problem is, it isn't.e colossal monster of the mainstream is quite possibly the largest parasitic mechanism in the solrssem. Over time, the "mainstream" loses it's energy, it's motive force, as do most "closed" sysem, s here really and truly aren't any that are completely closed; entropy is a function of the Uivese,notjust physics. And, how must the pervasive mass-mind feed itself? Dithered cannibalism.
"Dithered cannibalism?" Yes. The large tier must masticate the morsels of higher-resolution contemion from those tangential nodes of society aspiring to those activities. Okay, in English. 4-bi hners read the text from 16-bit thinkers, see some interesting concepts, and adopt them, later t crclae sad mimickries of them. Why sad mimickries? That's where the "dithering" comes into play
For a 4-bit graphics system to display a 16-bit image, it must first "dither" it, or convert it to able form. Think of the Internet. It has existed for 20 or so years (or more--I don't claim to b ires thinker), has been a mutable thing of mental exercise in various manners, and has for the eterfrction of those years been accessible only to those people who could adapt to the "klunky" o "uattactve" interface. Now the masses have grabbed with a desperate deathgrip anything vaguely cybe-" rlate, have dithered it to a more digestible clump of shit, and liberally handed it out toall wllingto tae it.
I have *been* on AOL, and while I did enjoy the time, that was due more to the other people who happ to be sharing the system with me than with most of the features. It's pretty, but it's far lessefcent at anything it does than a command line interface. I've *used* Windows, and will continuetodoso but only insofar as it justifies itself; that could mean that I have Windows apps that aregoo ons, r that copying files all around my harddisk in my (ample) free time is more convenient. I hae, i thepast year and a half of computer ownership, realized how horrible the conventional GU is.
But, it is probably one of the most readily recognizable examples of dithered cannibalism. It is al fine exemplification of why we must find a different manner in which to conduct our society. Th RAet has grown, and degenerated, mostly due to the rabidity of Society-At-Large, it's low-res metait, nd utter ignorance of things delectable and crystaline in their purity.
So, am I being elitist in all this? No, I don't think so. As I said, I don't purport to be a hi-reinker. And, more importantly, I recognize a distinction here, a rather important one: it is notta he masses don't have the hardware for hi-res thought; it is simply a matter of the OS used on ha hrdare. Or maybe it's just the optimization of the OS we're all given. I don't know.
However, if our society is to attain anything that our more specifically imaginative ideas detail, wve at least two paths from which to choose: (1)we try to educate and upgrade the masses as much spsible, and use all those resources out there; (2)those hi-res, using whatever methodology works echw he low- (and?) mid-res thinkers, and go on with a gene pool where the bell curve doesn't exst n ay pactical way.
Oh, one of many possible third paths: the hi-res turn the low-res into labor cattle so that the hi-can direct their attention to more deserving areas. Many would argue that this is the current siuto, but I am not convinced.
__________________
Muraii/\gODfACTORY
__________________
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