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Thinking about Gabbard in general, my animal instinct is to flatten my ears against my head, roll my eyes up till the whites show, bare my teeth, and trill like a cicada stuck in a Commodore 64.

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Shrapnel

Started by AFK, June 05, 2007, 07:02:05 PM

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AFK

Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

LMNO

Question:  What exactly is exploding?



Let me know if I've taken the metaphor too far.

AFK

I don't know.  I'm playing with this shrapnel idea.  The idea of things coming at you from different directions, angles, etc.  Maybe the explosion isn't necessary. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

LMNO

I  was thinking sort of like a roadside bomb on your path to thinking for yourself.

AFK

that makes sense.  Of course I envisioned the same complaint with "bombs" and "shrapnel" as with "Black" and "prison" so I had to put an asterisk on there.  Being the paranoid cynic that I am. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

LMNO

I liked the turn of phrase you used.

Payne

Well, as I read through this all,, the sense that I had was that some of these things are concepts that you (or others) throw out from themselves, as if they were the explosion. Other concepts intrude themselves on you, shrapnel from others explosions.

For example if someone was a Sexual/American Dreamist/Attention Whore (be known) they would be throwing these concepts out, like shards of a total concept of themselves (which only they can know)

But they would also be hit by shrapnel by those who were throwing out the concepts of Religion/Belonging/Family, which were "exploded out" by people who consider these values to be the most important parts of their own total concept.

Shrapnel is a good name for it IMO, but perhaps if we consider it as a perspective of a continual explosion of each and every one of us, at all times, pulling and pushing, impacting and re-acting, we can think of a bigger picture of what it means.

AFK

For the record this was all me.  And these were concepts that jumped out at me.  I kept asking myself the question, "What is it that's coming at me?"  I thought of it in terms of things that affect how I think, behave, etc.  I put the disclaimer and bit at the bottom because I know it's not all encompassing.  I know there are things that I didn't think of that would be obvious to someone else.  And you're right, the perspective should be that it is a continual explosion.  There's probably a better way to visualize this so I'm definitely open to suggestions. 

Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

P3nT4gR4m

I think the key is the ricochet effect, shrapnel causes other explosions, it's a fkin chain reaction meme cloud, all banging off each other and nobody escapes unscathed.

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"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

Jasper

I think the explosion in the center should be one's perspective, and all the shrapnel should be imploding towards it.

Payne

Well, part of my view on it is that it should be both exploding and imploding, the arrow pointing both ways.

To demonstrate the shrapnel we receive and the shrapnel we create.

Where shrapnel=concept or facet of identity, at least.

It aslo picks up on SC's post about it being a chain reaction of a sort.

I think of this in terms of the sun which is continual nuclear activity, made possible by the mass and composition of that particular star. It's one fuckin HUGE chain reaction, and it's been occuring for millions of years.

In our more social construst, the mass of people and the different concepts we find most important (our composition, if you will) are feuling a similar chain reaction, though our end product isn't light and heat, and is more undefineable, I can see certain paralells in this comparison.

Jasper

The shrapnel we create is bullshit, the shrapnel hitting us is all the objects in the OP.

LHX

also it is worth exploring the notion of being HIT by shrapnel in a place where there is a bunch of things blowing up



-- not getting hit directly by the explosion - but catching a shard of debris in your guts



you dont directly cause the malaise of others - but they take it out on everybody
neat hell

Payne

Well the shrapnel hitting us is bullshit. These are social urges for the most part (the concepts in the OP), and are individual urges writ large.

Where is the dividing line between bullshit and shrapnel?

How many people need to espouse a particular philosophy before it stops being individual bullshit and becomes a societal urge (what we are terming shrapnel, just now)?

This has already been attempted to quantify in recent days, thanks to LHX's efforts, but we haven't really come up with any real definitive answer, because ultimately, we have to make that decision on our own, as free thinkers.

The cabbages only need to hear one "cool" person espouse a particular facet of individual bullshit for it to become shrapnel, for us (generally, I have to admit) it has to pass a number of tests, passing our scrutiny intellectually.

AFK

I should point out it was not my intent that the bits of shrapnel be interpreted solely in a negative or deleterious fashion.  That's why I added the disclaimer.  Because one could argue how some of these aspects can have positive impacts on how one chooses and then walks their path.  Education being the first that comes to mind.  Using myself as an example, if it wasn't for the education I wouldn't be where I am today.  Education exposed me to skills and impacted traits so that I could do the job I am doing today in the capacity I'm performing it.  The idea of getting an education and how it could impact my path was also a positive influence.  By that same token, sure, it could be a negative.  An overbearing parent (The Family bit of shrapnel) could strong-arm a child into college to strengthen the image of the family name.  The kid gets into something he really doesn't want to and thus gets lost for a duration of time to be determined. 

So anyway, yeah there's good and bad with this. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.