Thursday, February 10, 2011
Because I say so, that's why!
The article about Gramm and Goldman's famine, mentioned in the previous entry, includes one wildly powerful quotation from John Lanchester.
"Finance, like other forms of human behaviour, underwent a change in the 20th century, a shift equivalent to the emergence of modernism in the arts – a break with common sense, a turn towards self-referentiality and abstraction and notions that couldn't be explained in workaday English."
The same turn has happened in science and in law, and in all cases it happened around 1970.
[Footnote for accuracy: the type has always existed, as Swift illustrated 300 years ago. But the complete takeover by this type, the fulfillment of Swift's dystopia, happened around 1970.]
Polistra has discussed this evil tendency in a mathy way, as the abandonment of all natural limits, the loss of all feel for cycles and friction and feedback.
These insane Men of Infinite Appetites believe they have transcended the lowly bounds of earth, transcended the lowly laws of physics, transcended the lowly laws of economics.
They believe that their own computer models, or their own artistic "installations", or their own multi-layer derivatives, or their own injunctions based purely on ideology, are the same as factual reality.
Why? Because I say so, that's why. Pure raw infantile ego, pure aristocracy.
I am an Artist, therefore everything I do is Art. I am a Scientist, therefore everything I do is Science. I am a Financier, therefore everything I create has Value. I am a Justice, therefore everything I say becomes part of the Constitution.
You lowly Vulgarians and Skeptics are NOT ALLOWED to question My Noble and Godlike Work, because you are Vulgarians and Skeptics and I am God.
What's the difference between these Men of Infinite Appetites and the lunatics we "treat" with drugs (or more often leave on the streets to suffer and create trouble?) Easy. The Men of Infinite Appetites have titles of nobility, which in modern terms means graduate degrees. PhD, LLD, MBA, MFA. The lunatics we "treat" with drugs do not have titles of nobility.
= = = = =
In short, we are back in the Dark Ages. It's official. The Enlightenment, the Protestant Reformation, the concept that reality exists and can be observed in a common way, has been cancelled. Lights out. We're back to Dark Matter, Hidden Warmth, Hidden Dimensions, Dark Markets, Penumbras & Emanations, Hidden Discrimination. Mysterious forces and factors that can never be observed but must be obeyed on faith, no matter how many trillions of dollars the obedience costs, no matter how many millions of people are killed in the process. Why? Because the Priest says so. ¶ 3:21 AM
"Finance, like other forms of human behaviour, underwent a change in the 20th century, a shift equivalent to the emergence of modernism in the arts – a break with common sense, a turn towards self-referentiality and abstraction and notions that couldn't be explained in workaday English."
The same turn has happened in science and in law, and in all cases it happened around 1970.
[Footnote for accuracy: the type has always existed, as Swift illustrated 300 years ago. But the complete takeover by this type, the fulfillment of Swift's dystopia, happened around 1970.]
Polistra has discussed this evil tendency in a mathy way, as the abandonment of all natural limits, the loss of all feel for cycles and friction and feedback.
These insane Men of Infinite Appetites believe they have transcended the lowly bounds of earth, transcended the lowly laws of physics, transcended the lowly laws of economics.
They believe that their own computer models, or their own artistic "installations", or their own multi-layer derivatives, or their own injunctions based purely on ideology, are the same as factual reality.
Why? Because I say so, that's why. Pure raw infantile ego, pure aristocracy.
I am an Artist, therefore everything I do is Art. I am a Scientist, therefore everything I do is Science. I am a Financier, therefore everything I create has Value. I am a Justice, therefore everything I say becomes part of the Constitution.
You lowly Vulgarians and Skeptics are NOT ALLOWED to question My Noble and Godlike Work, because you are Vulgarians and Skeptics and I am God.
What's the difference between these Men of Infinite Appetites and the lunatics we "treat" with drugs (or more often leave on the streets to suffer and create trouble?) Easy. The Men of Infinite Appetites have titles of nobility, which in modern terms means graduate degrees. PhD, LLD, MBA, MFA. The lunatics we "treat" with drugs do not have titles of nobility.
= = = = =
In short, we are back in the Dark Ages. It's official. The Enlightenment, the Protestant Reformation, the concept that reality exists and can be observed in a common way, has been cancelled. Lights out. We're back to Dark Matter, Hidden Warmth, Hidden Dimensions, Dark Markets, Penumbras & Emanations, Hidden Discrimination. Mysterious forces and factors that can never be observed but must be obeyed on faith, no matter how many trillions of dollars the obedience costs, no matter how many millions of people are killed in the process. Why? Because the Priest says so. ¶ 3:21 AM
