Fuck 'Exploring Inner Space' - A Response.

Originally posted in the comments of sjef's post "Fuck 'exploring inner space'. " It was a bit long and in the hopes it doesn't get buried, I thought I'd repost it here.

Original Post

Wow. Okay. First off I haven’t been able to go through all of the comments, so please excuse me if I go on to say something redundant. I both agree and disagree with a lot of this, and even what I disagree with I largely understand.

On Inner Space: Without falling into ‘know thyself’ clichés, inner space is an important aspect of human existence and must be properly cultivated in order to improve upon the world in which we live. This isn’t to say a focus and understanding of the outer world isn’t important, or even necessary, just that you can’t have one without the other. The Inner is essentially the outer on a smaller and more personal scale. While this statement may sound in conflict with itself. It is really true. A fine division between the inner and outer world is next to impossible, and it is the tension between the two – a sort of Hegelian dialectic – which will open up new possibilities. Obviously different people will give more focus to one or the other, but once one is forsaken in favour of the other is dangerous, and in my mind would (and has) lead headlong into a kind of Sophism.

I don’t consider excessive drug-induced exploration, or playing tons of video games exploring inner space. While anything can be useful to certain point, abuse of one thing, or method leads to an inevitable sort of apathetic holding pattern. This can be said of rigorous scientific method as much as it can of Learyesque use of psychedelics.

I think it is unfortunately true that people in many cases don’t maximize their potential (re: confront and understand their inner world), in an effort to improve the lot of humanity as a whole. Why is such a tricky question. The problems of malaise stemming from creature comforts and ingrained cultural apathy (a focus on consumption and style), is definitely part of it. I would also lay the blame partially on it on the Scientistic mentality. When rationality as a tool for explanation is placed on such a high pedestal as we have done, it is very easy for the world/universe to become disenchanted and viewed as simply a system of mathematical chaos. Disenchantment leads to laziness and a kind of nihilism. If you’re disenchanted by the universe as a whole, why not find comfort in food, or cars, or big TVs? As an aside I’m not advocating for religion by saying this, it’s just a thought.

Another kind of nihilism can come from seeing the whole situation as pointless, as looking at the small efforts as not enough. The smallest of beginnings can always lead to much larger things and have a tendency to take place at the most fecund time. Think of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus.

There is a lot of ‘rad doodles and poems’ that are pretty pointless, and the internet has helped accelerate the dissemination (and appreciation) of them. While I’m not making the direct connections here, I do believe this also has to do with disenchantment to a degree. There is some status attached to being a ‘poet’ or able to draw, or in a band. But just doing these things doesn’t make them meaningful. It also doesn’t mean they are meaningless. Personally, I struggle with this – even though I know it to be silly – with my artistic life, which encompassed even my higher education. I truly believe in a project (in progress) that can continue to help me better understand myself, as well as influence the condition of others, and maybe – a long way down the road – assist on a grander scale of enacting the cultural shift that many of us are clamoring for. Having said that I don’t see it as an abstract pastime (many do), and I think that view could further contribute to nihilism and disillusionment (with which sometimes I struggle). I see at as a mission. Something difficult yes, but possible. And while sometimes it’s hard to maintain resolve in the face of our culture, I will continue to push ahead. I think this is something many people in the collective do with their respective projects.

I agree as well that a many people pursue a higher education because that is what they are ‘supposed’ to do next. If we weren’t as affluent in the west as we are, this wouldn’t even be an option. The sheer amount of ‘educated’ (as in degree holding) people, has in a lot of ways cheapened what that kind of education was supposed to be about to begin with. Especially for those who took it really seriously. Where I live, having a university degree is not going to necessarily guarantee you financial stability, or even success. Just as further education may not push you up the ranks. I think part of the problem here along with disillusionment is a lack of meaningful options with regards to what people can do with their lives. There are options of course, but they either seen as unapproachable or people are too disinterested to tackle them.

There is much that can be discussed regarding the failure of the post WWII era to fully bring about the better world, and cultural revolution that was promised. There are some interesting ideas concerning this, some of which are drawn from and related to, a post I’m going to make in the near future to the total library. Which will also include ideas of the inner/outer dichotomy, as well as some interesting ideas as to what contributing causes of these cultural shifts (or lack of) may be.

This ended up being pretty long. I thought about making it its own post but I think its better left here. Some of it may seem a tad disjointed but it’s a complex and multi-faceted set of issues.

Interesting aside: From dmitridb: “a psychedelic videogame which focuses on a creative plot that tricks people into working towards one thing and then ending up not attaining that thing and instead learning the lesson of their follies which they are enacting at that very moment.” The show ‘Lost’ is sort of like this (I know, I know), and I hear people constantly complaining about how their questions are never answered, and giving up because it will never go anywhere…while in fact they are in many ways missing the purpose and point.

Thu, Apr 3, 2008  Permanent link

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Are we continuing the ‘project’ of the industrial revolution?

I’m reading an excellent novel (name withheld for now, cause there will be a post on it when I’m done), where one section takes place during the industrial revolution and centres around a factory worker in the new production sector of the time.

It’s been well observed that while this was responsible for lifting the average person above the large bracket of being a peasant, it caused many shifts in the human experience and lifestyle. One of the most notable has to do with time. Before the advent of factory work (i.e. shifts) it could be three o’ clock in one village and one-thirty ten miles down the road. Time was approximate, and based on interaction with your immediate neighbours, who all kept the same time. At first factories had no clocks to keep track of time. The end of the day was indicated by a whistle blown by a foreman or supervisor, who was the sole possessor of a pocket watch. What ended up happening is people would show up at different times for work, and in an effort to standardize this, clocks began to appear on factory walls. Eventually, they began appearing in the more populated ‘blue collar’ areas generally, and expanding their presence in our daily lives. This heavily contributed to the focus now placed on knowing the time.

As point of comparison though, have things changed that much? In many ways the factory has become the office. And while the work isn’t as hard, and many people are better off financially (what does this even mean? – a whole other question), the principles are very similar. It is where the vast majority of people (in the west at least) work. It is monotonous, requires interaction with a machine and often involves no personal investment. The similarity lies in how they can both to be said to be numbing. There is a lot written about the alienation of industrialism, and even more discussion of it in the present day. Are they very different kinds of alienation? If anything it may even be worse.

A friend of mine who worked in an office told me he used to put pieces of a sticky paper over things that displayed the time (i.e. the phone, the corner of the computer screen). I asked why, and the answer is obvious, it was to try and avoid seeing it, and hence, hope the day would pass faster. Did not having clocks in the factory assist help the day pass faster? Did it make is seem less endless or moreso? Despite having covered the clocks at work, my friend noted it was still next to impossible to not know the time, as everyone else did. The illusion was short lived, but it did stop him from looking at the clock every five minutes.

Have we really moved beyond factories and production, or is the new ‘machine age’ the same as the old one? The office is in many ways the new factory, and our disconnect maybe hasn’t changed that much. The themes of industrialization have continued in a different form.

Is this also reflected in Postmodernism continuing the ‘project’ of Modernism?

Wed, Apr 2, 2008  Permanent link

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A Begining

I’ve always been sort of troubled by the notion of ‘social networking’ websites, and as a result have never bothered to be involved in them – other than once, and that was business related.

I don’t consider space collective to be one, as it’s intention does not seem to be to be a place to ‘hook up’ and show off all of the trendy places where one hangs out, and all the trendy things one consumes. It’s about ideas. Constructing them, exchanging them, building new vistas - all with ideas. If you replace the individual at the centre of the popular networking sites and replace it with the ‘idea(s)’, you pretty much have Space Collective. I have no problem with it working for some people; and I can understand the interesting and useful qualities of these sites, it just doesn’t sit well with me personally.

Aside from the vapidity present in much of the modern internet social phenomena, the thing that has always troubled me the most about it is the construction of personality and image. Going back to Barthes and Baudrillard these are interesting and potentially useful concepts, especially in the realm of art; and when used to give further meaning and illustrate depth, instead of dressing something up as more than it seems. In the social internet universe however, it becomes easy to do just this. Construct yourself, or your profile not in terms of who you are, but as how you would like to be seen, who you would like to be. Everyone’s perceptions of themselves are of course bound to be a little skewed, but in its sheer amount it’s become almost like the third level of simulacra. People cease to be themselves and become something else. When does this virtual image and personality seep into the non-virtual one? Which person is the real one? Is there one at all? Maybe the voice of the person no longer exists and there is security to be found in building oneself in an ‘infinite’ place that is available to be seen by all. Maybe the loss of voice is the byproduct of a world where there are so many confusing and clashing voices free-floating around us, that knowing one’s own becomes a tricky proposition. Does building ourselves in this way legitimize our uncertain existence?

Intentional construction can be a great thing. Allegory and symbolism can be wonderful. An extreme example is the Hindu pantheon of gods. Admittedly built on metaphor and allegory making use of a rich diversity of images that in the end say something symbolically. What the gods describe and represent is very real, and this in turn gives the ‘images’ worth and the gods life. In the virtual world I find that much of the constructed image is the same. In many ways its endless boring repetition, with only slight variation based on the niche the realm it falls into. Sure, there are many different niches, but there all at their base very similar and not as individual as they would like to believe. While this sounds like one of those silly ‘there really is nothing new’ statements…it’s not that. I find that people don’t try. Often people aren’t building things out of ideas, or even using the medium to construct things of meaning, or express ideas. They are building a surface that is based on what is attractive and playing dress up with what is deemed (and by whom?) to be socially relevant.

By no means is the above ‘right’ or fully fleshed out even. It is simply an idea, and is heartfelt. This, I think, is why I’m here. And grateful to be so. Thanks.

Tue, Apr 1, 2008  Permanent link

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