pint o' soma
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- paraselene
The Paraselene Lecture™
today's topic: why politics likes to get into bed with language
the following is a somewhat pessimistic account. paraselene™ is not responsible for any suicidal impulses experienced by the attendees of the lecture.*
thing one: utopia vs. dystopia
we're all pretty much aware of the distinction, but for today's purposes it is useful to delve a bit more deeply into the binarism. the most important thing to remember is that utopia is impossible and dystopia is mandatory. qua: dystopia is nothing more than a sculpture of utopia; what happens when the platonic ideal of the thing is brought into material reality. any given utopian vision (because it depends upon premeditated changes to the social fabric) is always doomed to be somebody's dystopia. this dystopic vision always has greater power than the utopia itself, and cancels it out.
it is much easier to represent hell than heaven.
questions so far?
*granted, it's all a bunch o' shite that doesn't stand up to lengthy investigation, but it at least creates the kind of cartesian framework that i find useful for point-makin' and general friday afternoon time-wastin'.
- hiphoprelic0
Nicely put.
I have found the same: no matter how right and/or good for the whole something is, someone, somewhere is not going to like it.
- skt0
show off
- Blofeldt0
I think constant re-invention and refinement is the human condition. We'd still be in caves, if at the time, we thought caves were just fine.
- vespa0
does this soma come cherry flavoured? actually i'd like it sans-carbs cos i've found that pints tend to bloat my language, is there a Soma-Lite™ option on the market?
- paraselene0
exactly, blofeldt! that's why humanity has a mandate to consider utopias. utopia and dystopia are "the strophe and antestrophe which comment upon the human condition". it's the grey area between perfection and perdition in which we build the machinery of our everyday lives. one is always a reflection of the other and we inhabit the surface area of the mirror.
- paraselene0
that's a nice apple.
i'm just fucking around, guys. you know that, right? it's friday.
- mr_snuggles0
man that's deep. I think there was something like this on the OC last night...
- Blofeldt0
surely no one aims for dystopia. Our ability for imagination drives towards a utopia that will never be reached.
- paraselene0
we desire one and fear the other.
phil dick doesn't aim for dystopia, but he aims to represent an exaggeration of the shadowy bits of our contemporary social architecture. it's a really useful thing, like satire.
the formula being: this is what things will be like if we don't figure our shit out.