[MD] Mediated Objectivism and me

[John Carl]

Hey Arlo,

I used to think about that quote a lot, back in my motorcycling days, then
one day a piece of scenery impinged upon my experience and I sorta wished
for some sort of mediating reality like a whole car, frame and engine
between me and that SUV grill looming.


> [Arlo]
> One of my favorite quotes from ZMM, one I have made into a small poster on
> my
> wall... "You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is
> completely
> different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and
> because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window
> everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all
> moving by you boringly in a frame.
>
> On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all.
> You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of
> presence
> is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is
> the
> real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you
> can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and
> the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate
> consciousness."
>
>
Unless you die.



> I don't think "television", or any technology, is inherently bad. I think
> that
> was a point of ZMM, but its obvious that this technology, in our culture,
> has
> evolved in a way that is not entirely Good. I've never been to the
> Antarctic,
> will likely never make it there, so a program showing me the continent is
> something I appreciate greatly. But like anything else, too much becomes a
> bad
> thing. When people start preferring documentaries about mountains in their
> own
> backyard than actually going out and experiencing them themselves, you have
> to
> realize we've crossed a bad line.
>
>
I think the long term effects on self-consciousness are going to be
horrendous.  That's my instinct, my "sniff of the wind", but we'll see I
guess.  When I say "long term" I'm talking decades, not millenia.  Decades
that have passed, the horrendousness evident in new media efforts by the
govt to instill old fashioned conservative values like thrift and
trustworthyness and how to be proud to be a dad... you might call these
campaigns "good" and I can't see them as harmful so much as pathetic.

Like public address systems of the future:  Please People, Cannabilism is
NOT the answer.

Sure it's good advice, the fact that  its so needed is what's really scary.



> [John]
> It's Nova, by God!
>
> [Arlo]
> While I am not familiar with all NOVA programming, I have found what I've
> seen
> to be informative, thought-provoking, and well-done. Same with The History
> Channel. Just bashing something because of its media type is like saying
> the
> Buddha can't rest comfortably in a television documentary.


Dude, if I ever meet the Buddha in a television documenatry, I will
definitely kill him.