Is This Novelty Brent?
If you pay particular attention to the centre image, this is the look and feel that sparked the article. BTW, I am switching to American English for the Grammar of this article because the majority of our audience is from America. Is this significant? Well, I will jump back into that, though, in the heading Too Big for your Own Britches (BTW, I can't remember what "Too Big for your Own Britches" means, so, while you and I both consult the Google Oracle for a definition to agree on, let me remind you that Google as a modern-day equivalent to the Oracle of Delphi is something fascinating to think about. AI much?
You probably want an explanation as to why this article brings Brent's identity into question. Or was the emphasis on novelty instead of the identity focus (notice the social commentary?)?
Any howdy, my novelty is for my friend Brent a really special word, saved for the crème de la crème of human discoveries? Well, I am not quite sure what Brent's definition looks like, but I do know that it is a zenith of sorts.
So basically, I am asking Brent if the article (not his identity) is novel. So now here is my idea.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, the look and feel of the thumbnail drew me in. It's not like I am attracted to middle-aged smart guys (so you have nothing to worry about, Brent, our relationship has its limitations). Still, I imagined myself giving a similar opening. What do you think of the cabin in the woods feel? I mean, it worked for Heidegger.
From here, an animated version of Socrates could appear over my right shoulder. I am excited to share my thoughts about referring to Socrates as daimon. This is Ancient Greek for supernatural power, which I think Plato's philosophy still has on the West. Taking the artistic risk of representing Socrates as that little voice in my head, otherwise known as my conscious, was hardly the intent. It comes up short when describing the entirety of this philosophical expression.
Homer used the daimon interchangeably with theos, the distinction here is that theos is for a personality of a god, whereas daimn (or daemon) is the activity of a god.
Do you notice the three navigating icons in the top right of the Nacho God T-Shirt? Creating this image took me roughly five minutes. I consulted the Google Oracle (again) and searched for the term T-Shirt Designer online. Lo and behold, https://www.customink.com/ provided the background; I uploaded the Socrates art and provided the text. Now, I think this is a novel use of my time to create the effect I had in mind.
The low and behold verbal magic want trick is another phrase that I am uncertain where that phrase came from or what it means (see heading LB below).
Now, I could have tried to make the perfect representation, but considering the time, intended use, and the message I was trying to convey, I think this image does everything I wanted. I mean, he was convicted and sentenced to death for corrupting the youth. Could he imagine that 2,600 years a fellow philosopher layered light in a way to have a weird representation of him floating over some weird arrangement of sticks? Could he have guessed that Nacho God! was some sort of language? I mean, if you plopped 398 BC Socrates into a comfy chair in front of a desktop computer with a big screen into 2022.
My best-educated guess is that the light would be novel to him, unimaginable. Yet, ten minutes in this kind of front-row seat would dissipate quickly, making me think about the half-life of a novel idea, thought, or experience. Would a fleeting feeling be less novel than the Pythagorean Theorem? Hmm.
As it turns out, there may be a twist to the thought experiment that introduced computers and the internet to the Nacho God. Light theory has been a tiresome academic discussion regarding the Ancient Greeks at their optical relationship with the Agean sea. Did they see blue? Did they see the same kind of blue we see?
I thought this was an interesting and valid question and made plenty of jokes, interchanging this guy, with this sky. I mean, Christianity got to do it with Good, God, Sun, and Sun, so why can't I have some fun with the sky?
Read the captions for each image below:
Okay, now that we have the finger scroll out of the way, the rest of this article will attempt to crack Brent's novelty definition or pulverize it to a pulp-like consistency.
I assumed the Greeks didn't see blue quite the same way, with the same semantic importance as we do. I vaguely recalled a genetic adaptation that gives certain cultures a more comprehensive range of perceptible colors. And then I heard Steven Fry's comments about the Did they see blue? Did they see the same kind of blue we see? controversy.
In Heros (2012), Stephen Fry says the following in footnote 184;
William Gladstone, finding time while serving as Prime Minister of Great Britain, wrote a book on Homer which included the first serious study of Greeks and color. It has recently reemerged as an interesting element in the renewed Sapir-Whorf debate in academic linguistics. If you are interested, I recommend Guy Deutscher’s Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages.
For anyone that hasn't discovered the audio version of Stephen Fry's series on Ancient Greece, you are missing a real gem. His voice and narration are exquisite. I would love to understand how he created these books and how did he research the stories and pull them together in the way he did. It is pretty incredible.
It's evident that the Evernote placement is a result of my searching for Obsidian as a writing and note-taking tool, which I am just about to give up on. Obsidian claims that their app is "your second brain". Wow, what a limited brain that second brain would be if I made that concession. Then again, maybe if I gave it more time, the value of my Obsidian brain would magically reveal itself or imprint on some automatic behavior I can hardly take credit for. Tiring.
Besides this, keep giving it a try philosophy reminds me too much of the failed scientific approximation of human sociology, otherwise known as Marxism. Double tiring.
Do you remember this image?
The images two images to the right of the center and the two images to the left of the center represent what Google thinks I should be looking at.
Starting from the far left, if I were socially hyper-sensitive, I would focus on "Pedophilia", whereas "Postmodernism" is the carrier for the algorithm, "Pedophilia" would increase this particular instance of a philosophy video from The Living Philosophy YouTube channel. If you still haven't grasped the point of my far left plea for help, it's because ... ...
Wait, what was I talking about?
Oh ya, the philosophy video works; yes, I want to see that channel. I may or may not click on the video, but I like to see content from The Living Philosophy.
Next in line is the leader of the pack, this alpha female creator has made a video about the life-changing effectiveness of a pencil, and she has 165k views in only six days! I know you can't see me, but I am shaking my head in disbelief about the lopsided nature of this value hierarchy. Better yet, let's examine that in the "Examination Room" heading below.
To the right of center we have my good friend Professor Steve Keen, which, BTW, we are going to be launching a new series called Steve and Friends. The first episode will be a live broadcast on Saturday, November 5th.
If you haven't yet seen this exchange between Peter Bofinger and Steve Keen, here is a shorter version that I created and posted on the COVID and Climate Correlations YouTube page.
Too Big for your Own Britches
Ah yes, conceit, hubris, and the sounds of "I told you so" echo in the psyches of the human pursuit. Novel responses to the curves that life serves you are slowly moving into a tennis metaphor, my love.
It's with the the ideal form of love that I imagine and derives the best response to a man (or woman) falling from grace, for I know it's not becoming to remark smugly, rub his nose in his own mistakes, or block a social status recovery.
The fallacy of the left fundamentally places me in the Conservative camp. I think that only the people closest to the falling star will soften his landing and support his recovery, and for anyone who counters that there are those that "fall through the cracks", and so this would be the exception to the rule and not a reason for radical social reform.
For instance, can more people heal and develop better social coping skills with tough love versus living in a system that may incentivize a sedentary lifestyle? Still, this is fundamentally the divide that separates ideological differences in America and beyond. Europe likes to think they are better and more socially progressive; however, if we are heading for a post-abundance world, then that story might change as resources become limited and more scarce. How do you divide necessities?
Lo and Behold
Lo and behold presents us with something that could have been predicted. Yet another possibility for a "told you so".
Examination Room
Let's not go there.