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Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

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31–40 of 73 posts

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#31

When I see someone mention human nature in some blog, I stop reading... Human nature is our species ability to transform nature. A cat, for example, is only doing hunting for immediate consumption. A pet cat is even more limited, just a furrring biological shell, he does not hunt. So when a human is limited in all his potentials, thinking, planning, building, etc to something like a tool on the market, optimized for…

Does that mean when I read 'human nature is' as the very next words you write I should stop reading your comment?

Or are you saying you already understand it better than anyone else writing about it?

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#32
post #19
post #14

I think the issue is more about the lack of true diversity. Look at music for example - to achieve global success, bands all over the world need to start using western rhytms and melodies, losing the very things that made them unique. Not that there's no innovation in niches, but those never reach the highlight. A friend of mine is a musician, and was fairly popular in his circles, but has almost a decade ago renounc…

Perhaps the problem is that the trend of exceptionalism and the platforms that enable it, is driving everyone to want to be global successes. We should be perfectly content being successful in our communities, and with the freedom that this brings us. Our community may be our local area, or it may be our musical niche, or other niche community related to what it is you're doing. But if everyone is chasing #1, and #1…

Or as simple as the promotion of the 'self' as the greatest social unit, rather than the community or other larger unit. And that self is not focused on healthiness and contentness, but desire fulfilled, the narcissist reigns.

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#33
post #23
post #14

I think the issue is more about the lack of true diversity. Look at music for example - to achieve global success, bands all over the world need to start using western rhytms and melodies, losing the very things that made them unique. Not that there's no innovation in niches, but those never reach the highlight. A friend of mine is a musician, and was fairly popular in his circles, but has almost a decade ago renounc…

I think the issue is more about the lack of true diversity. Look at music for example - to achieve global success, bands all over the world need to start using western rhytms and melodies, losing the very things that made them unique. Yes, sure, everything is about a lack of diversity. You might want to look some more into musical theory and where those twelves notes, rhythms and melodies originate from in the first…

Off topic, but you seem like someone who might like these less popular music theory channels I really enjoy (all to do with harmony mostly)

Metaharmony - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNKBF8Phj3M

The Labyrinth of Limitations - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XSsHlJSrc

Synthase / Midnight Oil Collective - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gWMW1Hkdik

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#34

I don't think that the author has fully outlined the case for cultural anorexia. If I was going to try and prove the premise: that people are now shedding a wide cultural "diet" for one consisting of a few mass produced, single sourced things. But I don't see evidence of that. If anything its the reverse. What I will concede is that locality of the cultural "sources" have gone. You're not going to find your next life…

> You're not going to find your next life changing art exhibit at the local gallery, you'll find it online, and then seek it out in person.

But in the past the only reason you ever found your next life changing art exhibit at the local gallery was because the local gallery was your only option.

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#35

When I see someone mention human nature in some blog, I stop reading... Human nature is our species ability to transform nature. A cat, for example, is only doing hunting for immediate consumption. A pet cat is even more limited, just a furrring biological shell, he does not hunt. So when a human is limited in all his potentials, thinking, planning, building, etc to something like a tool on the market, optimized for…

Interesting perspective. Mines a bit different..

I agree specialization has allowed the expansion to other fields. Fields like microcontrollers, biological development, energy research, etc.

This is why we see an exponential growth in development of new products and new science. If those same people were required to work in the fields to eat, we wouldn’t see the expansion.

... now ... how does this work In practice? How do we get these efficiency gains in agriculture and other necessary parts of life?

Cheap and transportable energy. Fuel, gas, etc. if we want to reduce the work week we need exponentially cheaper energy OR research into new forms of energy production. The later is currently happening and needs to continue to happen. In the mean time, we also need cheap and transportable energy.

For reference, I own a farm. I code professionally and as a hobby raise cattle and food. I can do that only because I have the fuel to run a tractor and the wireless internet provided from the satellites. To your point, in a 50-60 hour work week I can produce enough food for 20-30 families for the year AND be a highly skilled tech worker AND raise a family. All because of fuel.

Now to my point, in my opinion, specialization has less to do with it. Cheap energy is what allows it. Anyone could raise cattle or grow food with minimal training. But without fuel you can’t produce food for more than a few families per year.

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#36

When I see someone mention human nature in some blog, I stop reading... Human nature is our species ability to transform nature. A cat, for example, is only doing hunting for immediate consumption. A pet cat is even more limited, just a furrring biological shell, he does not hunt. So when a human is limited in all his potentials, thinking, planning, building, etc to something like a tool on the market, optimized for…

Does that mean when I read 'human nature is' as the very next words you write I should stop reading your comment? Or are you saying you already understand it better than anyone else writing about it?

I stopped reading as soon as I read ‘I stopped reading’ because generally that means that person has a strong opinion. Oh wait..

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#37
post #14

I think the issue is more about the lack of true diversity. Look at music for example - to achieve global success, bands all over the world need to start using western rhytms and melodies, losing the very things that made them unique. Not that there's no innovation in niches, but those never reach the highlight. A friend of mine is a musician, and was fairly popular in his circles, but has almost a decade ago renounc…

We communicate with the most detail using words, but body language, facial expressions, touch and other scrubs act as girls of communication as well. All of these things have a common foundation in pattern.

What we call art is the manipulation of these common patterns. When it's most successful, it often regurgitates patterns that have proven successful. When it's most meaningful it modifies the old pattern to make new patterns that people can appreciate.

The question then becomes, how much modification can you engage in before your work because meaningless to everyone but yourself.

Imagine if your friend was a writer who got tired of the spoken languages and began writing novels in his own custom language. Would you lament the fact that no one reads his books?

Btw, I took a (very) brief listen to your friends music and it seemed kinda interesting, but I can certainly see why he lost all of his followers.

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#39

When I see someone mention human nature in some blog, I stop reading... Human nature is our species ability to transform nature. A cat, for example, is only doing hunting for immediate consumption. A pet cat is even more limited, just a furrring biological shell, he does not hunt. So when a human is limited in all his potentials, thinking, planning, building, etc to something like a tool on the market, optimized for…

You can reduce work right now if you'd like. Live like the 1920's. No access to modern medicine, no automobile, no internet, no antibiotics. Grow your own food.

Re: Cultural anorexia: The pursuit of thicker desires in a thinning world

#40
post #39

When I see someone mention human nature in some blog, I stop reading... Human nature is our species ability to transform nature. A cat, for example, is only doing hunting for immediate consumption. A pet cat is even more limited, just a furrring biological shell, he does not hunt. So when a human is limited in all his potentials, thinking, planning, building, etc to something like a tool on the market, optimized for…

You can reduce work right now if you'd like. Live like the 1920's. No access to modern medicine, no automobile, no internet, no antibiotics. Grow your own food.

A small percentage of today's work goes towards these things (except the Internet, which is an endless sinkhole of mostly pointless labour).
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