Huddled Yearning Masses: Getting Dumber

If one is to take the ideas of postmodernism to a point then one will discover that we are dumber than we should be. Absolutisms and worldviews are all reflections of the reality "out there". They all are narratives that tell a story one way or another. Christianity, Science, Judaism, Taoism, Buddhism, Atheism, Islam, and others are all just stories trying to explain objective truth through a subjective medium, which ends up being impossible. However, these stories aren't useless, they are in fact very useful. They are based on reality and therefore reflect something "out there" even though they can't actually define what is "out there". I come to the point now that religions throughout the world are shrinking. Pluralism in America and the world abroad is getting smaller. In fact just by our being here we are standing, quite literally, on the graves of many people who practiced religion in a way that doesn't exist anymore. Early American Tribes were as pluralistic in their beliefs as anyone. With the demise of these worldviews we have in fact become less knowledgeable about the world itself. Just as multiple viewpoints help us understand an event in History so does multiple religions. By describing the world in unusual and unique forms we gain more understanding about the world "out there". In this spirit a one world order or religion would be devastating to our intelligence of the world we live in.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pyhton 3.4 - Continue

Continue keeps the loop going. It allows you loop to do whatever else it wants to do outside of that statement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68EhtQbgXRc Lakers_jerseys_taken = [ 8 , 24 , 32 , 34 ] print ( 'These are the jersey \' s still available:' ) for number in range ( 101 ): if number in Lakers_jerseys_taken: print ( 'You must be crazy' ) continue print (number)
Read more

Conversations Ongoing: Valuing Modernization in Early European History

Western scholarship has been known to focus on several metanarratives that define itself. These narratives can influence how we as historians view a certain time period, people, or event. Modernization in early European history can be seen as a major driving force in past and current scholarship. Influences of scientific progress, a fracturing Catholic Church, and growing capitalistic influences dominate the ideas scholars possess when viewing Europe during this time period. In regard to our own ideas about the narrative of modernization, its benefits and costs, one should be cognizant of this in viewing the social, economic, political and religious changes early "modern" Europeans faced.
Read more

Conversations Ongoing: A Bunch of Amateurs

Image
Jack Hitt's a Bunch of Amateurs To analyze the American character one must take into account the narratives of our country, specifically the three metanarratives that it is based on. In Hitt's analysis of our national character he finds an endless list of examples stretching back to our early Vaudevillian days of americans striking out, trying to get-rich-quick, seemingly fearless in the face of overwhelming odds. I believe that piggy-backing onto the narratives of scientific progress, manifest destiny, and modernization one can easily get caught up in them. Cherry-picking evidence of those who have succeeded, painting a picture of our collective desire to innovate is troublesome. Simply put, I can create the opposite narrative quite easily. Many people in the USA have little to no interest in innovation, modernization, or the like. Quite the opposite. This place is much more than a collective bunch of amateurs but rather it includes them into the fold o...
Read more