We think we’re very clever. Always have. Even when we know we’re being dumb as lemmings we’re awash in self-admiration. It’s irksome, but we don’t speak of it, the risk is too large. Lately I had a moment like getting hit on the head, when all goes foggy, but then focus comes back extra clear. It was a low epiphany, not a thing to boast about. Almost reluctant to bring it up. Just wondering if I’m alone with this.
Before I say, let me clarify, it wasn’t a sudden smack like some zen bonking. It came on slow but then accelerated, like a plane taking off. My satori was like settling into the fact of being airborne. Precarious but not. This flash didn’t cast us people in an especially ethereal light, not at all. The opposite. I was in the terminal and everyone and I mean everyone was on their phone, glass plastered to cheeks, as every shape and gait imaginable scurried, or dawdled to or from their gates.
Then I was on the street, and everyone was in their own separate cars, also behind glass, on the phone. Everyone, practically speaking. It just looked so dumb, embarrassing. All the privateness, and poses of important contact and going places. I couldn’t stopping thinking of how future people if future people existed would look back and scratch their heads. It’s pitiful moment, and we’re boasting about it. Even making kitschy commercials about how much better faster and waterproof the glass against our faces has become.
We don’t reflect enough how formidable a force archaic energies are. We get caught up in the swell. Objects going obsolete is about all we can count on. I just can’t shake the thought of how stupid we collectively look, and how vainglorious our device lust is. We should reflect and try to salvage some self respect. Our blindspot is spreading. This phase will make butter churns, powdered wigs, and spermaceti lamps seem pretty ingenious.
Well written and much appreciated
Nice to read these observations. And refreshing that spinoza is willing share his world on ibrattleboro, a place where self-disclosure is too often seen as an invitation to snipe.
Lately I have realized that the glass barrier can become internalized, so that even when you are surrounded by trees, you do not fully feel your surroundings, as though you are experiencing the world via an imaginary screen. It is a great feeling to open up and really be present.
Against the . . .
But what does this have to do with gluten?
The Zen bonkings that I have received were not sudden smacks, but rather deliberate and deftly aimed blows well warned.
As for snipe, I’ve eaten it a’plenty. Much prefer crow.
The Tribal Devices
Hey Spinoza, that was a great piece and done with insight and emotion and almost poetic. And it’s been a long time since I’ve commented on IBratt.
I think you got of whiff of something that’s running deep in our collective collapse into the tech-no-logic realm. The way I understand it is that we are becoming an electronic tribe and our nervous systems and worldviews are quickly becoming congruent with our machines. Marshall McLuhan said it best by stating that “we shape our tools and our tools shape us.” Before every new app comes out or some new device is announced we are already technologically modified organisms by what came before and we are ripe and ready to be modified once again by the new thing which is preparing us for the next new thing and so on.
And here’s my take on the auto-mobile; I’d like to suggest that the automobile is a deeply tribal and sacred technology. What is obvious is that we are in a relationship where we organize our lives and culture around it and that we are largely defined by it. But I’d like to take that a step further in suggesting that the automobile is a central tribal mask of the industrial world view through which we and our bodies, perceptions, opinions, and worldviews are conforming It may even be replacing our humanity like it is replacing our soundscapes and atmosphere and shaping our landscapes.
This, of course, is in deep contrast to the mask traditions utilized by many indigenous cultures throughout the world. These technologies were and are used to see through the eyes of another creature; an intelligence and perception different from our own. Our tech-no-logical culture expects us to do the same thing, but this time mediated through the veil of our machines and gadgets. We are beginning to think machine inspired thoughts with a machine like breath as the enmeshment gathers steam.
This is partially why I started VBike (www.vbikesolutions.org) VBike is a lot about the new designs and technologies that make the bike so much more relevant to our Vermont terrain and lifestyles, but it really is foremost about a way of creating a platform to open up a dialogue about the ecological, social, and spiritual dimensions of our mobility. It’s about how we experience the world through our senses, emotional attunement, and our bodies.
Boredom
We just gave a really big party with family friends coming in from all over. And I have to say, except for taking pictures, people were not using their phones. We kept them too busy with amazing unfamiliar things to even want to check
facebook. Another way of saying, people weren’t bored. They were engaged in the present moment with people and their environment. Same thing today, at the parade, river, fireworks. People were doing just about everything but talk on their phones.
My theory is that urban and suburban people live in kind of boring places with little meaningful social interaction, and so they tune out into a virtual world. I used to do that routinely in the city, with books and later my walkman. So it’s not even new but that said, devices seem to have a greater addictive quality than books or music. Although I remain pretty addicted to both….
I’m typing this on my device after a long happy day in the real (not virtual) world. I get what you’re saying but worry it might be a symptom not a cause.
Postage stamps never stopped working
My rule is that if something is popular it is not something to be adopted. (Same with blockbuster movies: don’t go see them.) People cop to the latest gadget without considering why they are doing it at all. I find this lack of analytical thought about commercial culture to be dizzying and more of a herd activity. I like watching the behavior of cows better. If you just wait a little while it all passes as has been said before. It certainly does come down in price. I have a successful business and I never have my ringer turned on nor do I own an i-phone. Who needs all those EMFs?
Me too
I am with Genie 100%.
When books started to be written on papyrus, I knew it was a fad, sure to blow over. And when it does, I will be in good shape, having kept a large storehouse of clay tablets.
Splinters and Agita
Boy, you folks are giving me heartburn. I’m yearning to sleep on a bed of nails.
There is truth that we made it so bad. We are the zigzagging herd of minnows, the collective center most that doesn’t get picked off as strays around the edges.
So you wanna pick things up? Do the unexpected. Get naked!
Alright. You don’t wanna get naked?
Sell VBikes. Make money, use more earth resources and become “one” with the terrain.
Alright. You don’t wanna sell VBikes?
How bout burn the papyrus scrolls at Alexanderia.
No?
Alright. Force the archaic energies into full view. That’ll fix your wagon.
pokemon go go go
The article presages this phenomena, huh? And predictably, it’s gigantic in scope.
The hype and hyper-mediated component of our Wired World as we approach singularity is incredible.
“But at least people are getting outside,” says the eternal glass-half-fullers.
Enjoyable post
I enjoy technology but I also enjoy “subtle energies”. Technology could be done much better I believe, it could be a joy to use and durable but the clamoring for profit spoils everything.
Zen bonking, oh boy what a great term! You’ll be quoted on that one!