30th
Broken Glass and Intentional Communities
Broken Glass is beautiful, but it also punctures tires and kids cut their hands on it. {Think of the children!}
Beauty is transient. It needs an appreciative observer in the moment it exists. Remember Jody Foster at the end of Contact? Eventually the broken glass will grind down into sand, and into everything again at the end of time.
Our sunsets are beautiful from smog and pollutants. Poisonous frogs are beautiful. The slick, metallic allure of a submachine gun could be beautiful. I’m sure some have been moved to tears through the elegant design and fair chaos of a cluster bomb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_bomb If everything is beautiful, everything is equally ugly. How do you differentiate between the two? Or, if only some things are beautiful, who gets to define that absolute?
I’m a complete advocate of removing oneself from the city - if you want to start a community with others sharing a similar vision, I think that’s a good cause. I was only offering suggestions for ways people could begin to get involved in the place they already live in. It’s good practice, working constructively with people around you who have shared space in Richmond. Without that background, you might not have the skills to start your own commune without turning it into Zendik Farms.
Decay? I suppose you could love that, but what I see is abandoned cinemas that could be community centers or daycare. I see broken down buildings that should be homes. I see neglect from our elected officials and from our overworked citizens who don’t have the time, the energy, or the vision to repair it themselves. I see decay in the landscape in billboards, but I also see opportunity.
Disorder, the universe floats naturally towards it - but within the journey to the heat death of the universe, there are small instances of brilliant and useful complexity. Ecosystems on our own planet support thousands of species. Life on volcano vents. Mammals working in social groups. Mammals, who have the capacity for empathy.
We evolved empathy because it was beneficial to mammals working in social groups. The part of my brain that lights up when I bring a glass to my lips also lights up when I watch you bring a glass to your lips. When I see you hurt, I hurt a little bit too. From this, I derive the platitude Human Suffering is a Bad Thing, because when one person suffers, others will suffer too. (You could also extend this to All Animal Suffering is a Bad Thing, and I would agree, but that’s a different conversation and leads to vegetarianism, or the farming of your own domesticated animals in small numbers)
Only those tortured at Guantanamo suffered until those photos were released. One could argue that in order to reduce human suffering, those photos should never have been released. But with those photos came empathy, action, art, and a load of other things that were focused at relieving human suffering, at humanizing the victims of Guantanamo. (Or any disaster or event, recorded through image or sound that humanizes the victims)
The alpha male in a group of Bonobos is usually the most peaceful and diplomatic. There are two ways for a Bonobos alpha male to get kicked off his post: 1) resignation or natural death and 2) violent overthrow from angry Bonobos. Through natural selection alone, the most kind, empathic individuals are usually the ones with the most power in small communities. Humans live in large communities, and we don’t do so much violent overthrowing anymore.
People born without empathy are called sociopaths. This is a break from the norm. When they see another person get injured, they don’t “feel their pain”. Autistic people also do not have the same capacity for empathy, but I’ve never heard of a violent or conniving autistic person who climbs their way up the social ladder in order to abuse those at the bottom.
Those who repeatedly expose themselves to violent images can over time decrease their ability to empathize with others.
Female infants are socialized to have a great capacity for emapthy - our playthings have human faces, and we are told to care for them and anticipate their needs.
Male infants tend to be given trains, blocks, guns. Non-living things which do not need to be nurtured. Even plastic army men are faceless pawns for their owner’s disposal.
What if infants were equally socialized for empathy and analytical skills?
tba:
Dana, I love what this little video sketch prompted from you.
At the same time civic engagement still needs so much finessing, lest it rings hollow. Repeated platitudes sometimes give that “Let’s just help one another” response a bad name…especially for the uninitiated. Isn’t the path to hell paved with good intentions? Like the Tao Te Ching suggests….why do we think we can run the universe better than it runs itself?
Isn’t a withdrawal from the city and establishing another system equally as valid. And what if part of my vision is that I love the decay and disorder within the city. I find the broken glass beautiful….so why would I want to pick it up or get rid of it?
