I'm really impressed more than one woman reads this thing, I was convinced if anything is 99.9% male readership it's Gray Mirror. Thanks you based ladies. Anyways:
"There is a common thread between this and the last success—they are both completely deracinated, post-traditional people inventing wisdom for themselves. It is true that a good, old-fashioned, well-aged religion, lived in for many generations, is an excellent source of wisdom. But you can actually make wisdom yourself...."
can you, though? I've been thinking about this lately. I'm as deracinated as they come and have no particular allegiance to any tradition by birth --- but I don't think the level of wisdom baked into centuries old traditions can be matched by any one brain over the span of a single lifetime. I think major traditions have been subject to an evolution-esque process that involves its participants, but is bigger than them. A child learns to treat others well cause Jesus said so. The child does not understand the reasoning behind this rule, nor do they need to. This same phenomenon scales through adulthood all the way up to Unabomber level IQs. You can understand the tradition more than any other single individual, but still fail to understand all of it. Homebaked personal "traditions" can only be as good as (your talent) * (your time invested) < (population's talent) * (many generations).
The problem with tradition a la carte, is that the practices people leave on the buffet table were there for a reason. Humbling oneself to something one dislikes or feels is beneath his sensibilities is an integral aspect of all traditions. When you just adopt things you like, a little Buddhism here, a little Islam there, you'll inevitably fail to properly discipline yourself to the level a real tradition demands. You'll also miss out on the holistic wisdom you'd benefit from by practicing an intact tradition ---- even if you're really smart and have imbibed the complete literature.
Again yarv, what about those of us who were foolish enough to study liberal arts? Not everyone can drop out and start a Midwest remote work homestead! If you haven’t noticed, most of the country is pretty rough for folx who don’t have zoom jobs!
I'm really impressed more than one woman reads this thing, I was convinced if anything is 99.9% male readership it's Gray Mirror. Thanks you based ladies. Anyways:
"There is a common thread between this and the last success—they are both completely deracinated, post-traditional people inventing wisdom for themselves. It is true that a good, old-fashioned, well-aged religion, lived in for many generations, is an excellent source of wisdom. But you can actually make wisdom yourself...."
can you, though? I've been thinking about this lately. I'm as deracinated as they come and have no particular allegiance to any tradition by birth --- but I don't think the level of wisdom baked into centuries old traditions can be matched by any one brain over the span of a single lifetime. I think major traditions have been subject to an evolution-esque process that involves its participants, but is bigger than them. A child learns to treat others well cause Jesus said so. The child does not understand the reasoning behind this rule, nor do they need to. This same phenomenon scales through adulthood all the way up to Unabomber level IQs. You can understand the tradition more than any other single individual, but still fail to understand all of it. Homebaked personal "traditions" can only be as good as (your talent) * (your time invested) < (population's talent) * (many generations).
The problem with tradition a la carte, is that the practices people leave on the buffet table were there for a reason. Humbling oneself to something one dislikes or feels is beneath his sensibilities is an integral aspect of all traditions. When you just adopt things you like, a little Buddhism here, a little Islam there, you'll inevitably fail to properly discipline yourself to the level a real tradition demands. You'll also miss out on the holistic wisdom you'd benefit from by practicing an intact tradition ---- even if you're really smart and have imbibed the complete literature.
Help! I'm a prisoner in an advice column factory!
Again yarv, what about those of us who were foolish enough to study liberal arts? Not everyone can drop out and start a Midwest remote work homestead! If you haven’t noticed, most of the country is pretty rough for folx who don’t have zoom jobs!