tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post8639519943894007150..comments2024-03-28T00:17:55.823+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Reading is bad for you; or, What help can we expect from writers?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-61483103278023510202021-02-25T11:42:05.204+00:002021-02-25T11:42:05.204+00:00@Bonald - Probably - the reason is that these work...@Bonald - Probably - the reason is that these works were not so bad, were maybe net-good - at the time they came out. But now (in current context, the way people are) they have crossed the line and do net-harm. Probably the opposite happens, too. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-50220286453368381032021-02-24T00:56:07.409+00:002021-02-24T00:56:07.409+00:00"So, we meet up with a book after a gap of so..."So, we meet up with a book after a gap of some years, and are appalled at the corruption it has undergone in the meantime. We are sure that it did not used to be so nasty when we knew it before; but clearly, in the meantime, the book has made bad choices, not repented them, and doubled-down on its wrongness."<br /><br />That's brilliantly put, and I have experienced it many times, and even more often with television shows and movies. As I get older, I become less tolerant of establishment propaganda. Where once I either didn't notice it, or if I did I didn't pay it much attention, now almost any admixture of it spoils my appreciation. I would actually prefer not to have become so sensitive, and I am glad that in my younger years I was able to enjoy things that now I couldn't tolerate in their entirety, and I can remember the good bits.Bonaldhttps://bonald.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-45260985900433297932021-02-23T18:38:21.203+00:002021-02-23T18:38:21.203+00:00I'm beginning to think you have prophetic powe...I'm beginning to think you have prophetic powers; almost made a comment about how Christopher Tolkien at least was able to stop most of the damage to Tolkien's legacy.<br /><br />Then Vox Day posted this...<br />https://voxday.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-convergence-of-tolkien.html?m=1Rangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12201994446688581703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-41865399860527696992021-02-23T04:21:10.244+00:002021-02-23T04:21:10.244+00:00Jake, indeed. The omnipresence of devices also rob...Jake, indeed. The omnipresence of devices also robs people of their thought -- the devil machines insinuate themselves in every spare moment of free time -- at the bus stop, on the bus, between class, before bed, during meals even! Times that used to be spent in reflection or communication -- now, taken over by these wicked little machines . . . which fill, fill, fill everyone's consciousness at all waking hours. It's really a marvelous form of thought control. Give the devils their due. They're clever.Joseph A.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-81005267663934642982021-02-23T00:33:16.627+00:002021-02-23T00:33:16.627+00:00I have given up on "the Internet" and no...I have given up on "the Internet" and now use a search engine specifically for blogspsot instead of a general search engine because the only good part of the internet (in religion/philosophy at least) is blogs like this one, which I found in that way.John Smittynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-36893510305730774892021-02-22T17:16:01.950+00:002021-02-22T17:16:01.950+00:00After the internet - people got less, and less wel...<i>After the internet - people got less, and less well informed. Probably because they stopped thinking - and without thinking, all information is just 'random'.</i><br /><br />I just googled that Bruce, and google said that you are wrong! <br /><br />Another great little essay on something that has impinged itself on me recently. I tried re-reading The Brother's Karamozov recently, and it seemed like a different book. Rougher and less interesting that I remember. I was thinking that I'd changed (and I have), but I didn't think of the notion that the book had changed. Brilliant.<br /><br />The system may not be succeeding at turning people into voracious, literate readers, but it has turned people into shallow creatures who don't generally discuss or argue with you. They simply do a web search to "prove" how wrong you are. <br /><br />At least in the pre-Internet period, they had to go find a book or encyclopedia or do some actual labor to produce evidence that you were wrong. And that meant there could be a chance of them stumbling upon information that could prove you right. Now the algorithms filter out all bad-think, and guide all searchers towards the goals and assumptions and "facts" that the System wants them to have. And they do.<br /><br />There is far less freedom of thought now than pre-Internet. Jacob Gitteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10559764359800682222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-32912852630555996522021-02-22T13:51:59.000+00:002021-02-22T13:51:59.000+00:00@Adil - "The System wants to make sure everyo...@Adil - "The System wants to make sure everyone is "literate" and "generally educated" - Not sure whether I agree with that! If so, the plan isn't working very well.<br /><br />Thinking back to the mid 90s when people were predicting the effect of the internet, it was supposed to make people better informed. Clearly that hasn't happened. It didn't even happen in academia, where it had been supposed that lack of access to libraries was a serious constraint. <br /><br />After the internet - people got less, and less well informed. Probably because they stopped thinking - and without thinking, all information is just 'random'. <br /><br />What I find weird is that people ask for information about simple facts that can be looked up in a few seconds - such a word definitions - yet they can't be bothered to do it. <br /><br />I suppose this tells us that humans are meant (evolved?) to learn from other humans, by direct personal contact. <br /><br />Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-34865539224430716002021-02-22T13:36:54.371+00:002021-02-22T13:36:54.371+00:00Schools and mass media make people into pathologic...Schools and mass media make people into pathological readers. People read to accumulate facts and information; to increase their bank of knowledge in a mechanical way. Being "well-informed" in this way is considered a good thing.<br /><br />Materialistic facts answer what something is and how it works. What it means and what truth it does convey never seems to enter the equation. The System wants to make sure everyone is "literate" and "generally educated" since illiterate minds may wander their own ways and God forbid, discover what things for themselves. Such pesky illiterates might accidentally stumble upon how remote-controlled the modern world really is.Adilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12458942641355740167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-21717698246866942432021-02-22T11:59:30.808+00:002021-02-22T11:59:30.808+00:00I suppose the ancient Chinese invented bureaucracy...I suppose the ancient Chinese invented bureaucracy. At any rate, I sometime think that the major weapon of Ahrimanic evil is the subversion of once-good concepts by retaining the name and changing the purpose. <br /><br />The other trick is to change the name in order to induce disorientation and to destroy good traditions and reputations - as managers do when they take-over an institution (hence a gratuitously renamed institution is identifiable as one which has experienced managerial takeover, which nowadays equates to net/ongoing-convergence to System-leftism. Ahem). <br /><br />It is characteristic for primary modern loyalty to be accorded to an abstract (often incoherent) concept such as democracy, freedom, equality or justice. Whereas, in the past, people were primarily loyal to a person.<br /><br />But even when names and official-purposes are retained, when the people are corrupt so is the institution. TS Eliot: "dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good."<br /><br />Abstractions all the way down... Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-63558130214773344552021-02-22T11:46:41.773+00:002021-02-22T11:46:41.773+00:00Don't read books!
Don't chant poems!
When ...Don't read books!<br />Don't chant poems!<br />When you read books,<br />your eyeballs wither away, leaving the bare sockets.<br />When you chant poems,<br />your heart leaks out slowly with each word.<br />People say reading books is enjoyable.<br />People say chanting poems is fun.<br />But if your lips constantly make a sound<br />like an insect chirping in autumn,<br />you will only turn into a haggard old man.<br />And even if you don't turn into a haggard old man,<br />it's annoying for others to have to hear you.<br /><br />It's so much better<br />to close your eyes, sit in your study,<br />lower the curtains, sweep the floor, burn incense,<br />take a walk when you feel energetic,<br />and when you're tired go to sleep.<br /><br />-- Yang Wanli (1127-1206)Wm Jas Tychonievichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07446790072877463982noreply@blogger.com