Since it's getting a lot of comments... I did it originally as just something silly (you know, like there's a 98% chance my cat is trying to kill me), but it generated interest. Terby - who started it - and I e-mailed a bit on it this morning, and I finally nailed down why post-modernism annoys the hell out of me.
It's the whining.
Okay, I get that everything's relative. And subjective. And every person re-defines, well, everything, by their own experience. In that, yes, I'm very post-modern. But then we get to the gloomy fuckers like Nietzsche, who stated "God is dead" and then went on to whine about it for several books' worth of gloom and doom. I do not track on the reasoning that since everything is relative, life sucks. In fact, I suspect that if we each build/define our own reality, we could take the opportunity to make it something POSITIVE, or at least NICE, since it's all subjective and in our heads anyway. Call me crazy, but if I'm defining my own reality, why not make it a nice place to live?
So there you go. Why post-modernism sucks oozing rat ass.
A few tangential but vaguely related thoughts.
First, for those who didn't take the test, the question everyone's bothered by is about burning books. Basically, if you're going to burn a book, which one would it be. The choices were: anything that advocates terrorism, the Bible, something by Nietzsche, and something by Descartes. And while I'm against burning ANY books, in principle, when I got into the spirit of the test, my answer to that question was "Hell, burn them ALL."
Second, I took a world religions class from a prof who was actually a philosophy prof and was teaching world religions because the prof who normally did that was terribly sick. He regularly begged me to take one of his philosophy classes the next semester. Finally, one day, I broke down and told him as politely as possible, I think philosophy is just mental jacking off, and if you're gonna sit around and think Great Thoughts, they should at least be your own instead of someone else's. That just made him more determined to sign me up. But I never did.
Can't stand philosophy. Every human since the dawn of humanity has wondered this stuff, and come up with their own answers. Just because some of these wankers got their own answers published in books doesn't make them more right or worthy or accurate. Just makes them published.
This was probably very post-modern, wasn't it?
Heavy sigh.
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8 comments:
Yeah, philosophy was completely ruined for me when I took a freshman year History of Science and Technology course, where the professor explained that we value the work of a bunch of ancient white dudes because we discovered a few libraries full of their books (or scrolls or whatever) just as a bunch of middle-class folks were starting to elevate themselves to the point of having time for leisure and education.
I'll throw Descartes on the fire not for "I think, therefore I think I am," but for "Animals don't think, therefore pain doesn't hurt them," which - I think - did a lot of damage.
I sentence him to an afterlife ruled by cats.
I did the test yesterday and am a resounding modernist (64%), which sits well with the "please don't make me take the other side of the argument just so there can be an argument" type of person I am. And yes to me philosophy is very close to an annoying argument that I can't wait to get away from, unlike my husband who thrives on the challenge of taking the other side just to see where it can go (we don't have discussions like this together, I sic him on his friends! Keeps the marriage healthy!!!!)). The irony here is that PhD, is a Doctorate of Philosophy and I have one.
Ooops--I accidentally put my PM rant on your other post... oh well... y'all didn't miss much!
he he. I'll show this to Sean later - he did German philosophy in his Honours year.
I do agree it's a bit of a wank, but I also think it's just part of the big soup pot of human thought that, if it's your thing, is great and I'm not bothered by its existence.
I reckon there's just a group of people whose brains work that way and their existence matters, just not as much as those who would elevate them might think.
I never took Philosophy...because it wasn't required. Basically I'm too impatient.
I came out as an Ancient! But, actually, there were sometimes no answers that fit me at all. Like: which books to burn. None, I'd say, but that wasn't an option. Very silly test.But fun! (My word is "headie". Hmm.)
I readily confess to being an unobservant nudnik. How do I get to your etsy store?
I'm spoiled by Ravelry. I keep looking for your "love (1)" button.
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