New issue of JOHO
Posted on:: September 3rd, 2004
I’ve published a new issue of my newsletter, which you can read here. It’s got an article about why the Dewey Decimal System is prejudiced and why small talk (chit chat, not the programming language) is so important. Plus some other stuff. But I’m almost out of time here on the public library’s computer…
Categories: Uncategorized dw
Amazing dedication!
(small talk and gerede are not the same)
I take it to be not so much an issue of small talk vs. big talk, but of expression per se. That is, as humans, what we do–express ourselves, and our individualities. Wittgenstein feels it’s fine to talk a little nonsense, because logic, by itself, is without recognition of the differences between us that we express when we communicate.
Heidegger was important to me, too, not so much for his philsophy, as for the professor who allowed me into the world where philosophy was happening–a world too often reserved for the privileged few. I transferred this delight into regard for Heidegger, but I now know it was just the freedom of expression; the freedom in being counted as a significant other.
I do not respect white lies, myself. Lying drives me nuts. It undermines expression. There may be a place for not being exactly to the point at times, but the stupidity of a lie make expression too trivial. We regard thinkers as great to the extent of their plasticity of character–their acceptance of the difficulty of authentic expression and its risks. White lies also demean the other by condescending to them. Nietzsche says to “be a hard bed to your friend,” and emphasizes friend; and this from a man with few enough of them.
PS: And I no longer care what anyone says about religion. If there is a God at all, there is only one–or at least one greater than all the others, anyway, regardless of what anybody thinks anyway, for God’s sake!
When it gets to dogs, this social networking thing has gone to far
Today I received an long ‘zine email from David Weinberger, who reminded me that he had set up a neighborhood on the fashionable new geographically-based academia-powered social networking site, i-Neighbors, so I went and checked out North Berkeley, th…
Small Talk
David Weinberger has a nice item on small talk. Here’s a big chunk:I’ve come to be a fan of small talk and white lies. Here’s why. First, especially when you’re meeting someone new, small talk is a sign of respect….
For example, if there are more than one god, there must be a greater god. therefore (obviously) he cannot be overtaken by a lesser god, or he would not have been a greater god to begin with (cor. I), thus (Ax. I), he cannot make mistakes. Proof–So (obviously) he will stay a greater god. QED.