[MD] Nobel and the intellectual level

[John Carl]

Andre the definer offers us a new one: "Plattonian":

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 11:17 AM, Andre Broersen <andrebroersen at gmail.com>wrote:

> My wholehearted congratulations to President Obama for receiving the Nobel
> Peace Prize.
>
> Many people think it is premature, many people think it does not reflect
> his
> concrete actions and achievements.
>
> All Plattonians will think this is a farce.
>


John the dictionary reader looks it up to see if he is a Plattonian...

farce |färs|nouna comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and
typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable
situations.• the genre of such works.• an absurd event : the debate turned
into a drunken farce.ORIGIN early 16th cent.: from French, literally
‘stuffing,’ from farcir ‘to stuff,’ from Latin farcire. An earlier
sense of [forcemeat
stuffing]became used metaphorically for comic interludes “stuffed” into the
texts of religious plays, whence current usage.


Hmmm...interesting origin.   I like farce as stuffing.  I serve it often to
my guests - those who take their religious texts too seriously don't find
the dish tasty...

  I'll take the particular last definition to be the most appropriate:
 since Obama's prize is an event, and thus I'll have to look up whether or
not this event fits the definition of "absurd" and thus I, "plattonian".

absurd |əbˈsərd; -ˈzərd|adjective(of an idea or suggestion) wildly
unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate: it would be absurd to blame
contemporary Germans for Nazi crimes | so you think I'm a spy? How absurd!
| [as n. ] ( the absurd) he had a keen eye for the incongruous and the
absurd.• (of a person or a person's behavior or actions) foolish;
unreasonable :she was being absurd—and imagining things.• (of an object or
situation) arousing amusement or derision; ridiculous : gym shorts and knee
socks looked absurd on such a tall girl.

well it certainly it seems to me that the object in this case (the peace
prize event) did arouse some derision - at least on the part of some people,
and thus by definition, it was a farce and I thus I conclude I am, by your
definition,  a Plattonian.

Since I know that now, I oughta cast some derision on the idea of getting
peace prizes for what you say in election campaigns, but to belabor the
point would be an insult to the intellect of the audience.

Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit that its usually more
useful to give peace prizes to people who actually bring peace to the world
in some fashion, don't you think?

I'm sure if we could interview bombed out afghan villages, they'd want a
different definition of peace prize.

A local community radio station read a plea from the youth of Afghanistan
that reminded me so much of the example of Indian prose that Pirsig quotes
in Lila, I felt the same lump of recognition of pure rhetoric as any plains
indian speech.  I loved and admired the warrior people of Afghanistan since
I learned about them doing research for a college paper during the Soviet
Occupation.  I predicted a Soviet failure and I predict an American one as
well.  Throwing more troops and violence at the mountains isn't going to
wipe out the fighters who live in the mountains.  Never has, never will.

Allah be praised.


> I'd say this is en encouragement for the idea (intellectual PoV) of
> diplomacy, talk, peace, brother- and sisterhood and compassion over social
> PoV's and entrenched interests. An old and renewed turn in international
> relations.
>

All Plattonians would use inorganic/organic and social static PoV's to
> establish and maintain tensions.
>
>
Well now that  I know I'm a plattonian,  I know you're wrong, because I
wouldn't use "inorganic/organic and social static PoV's to establish and
maintain tensions".  I wouldn't even know where to start to attempt such a
thing.  Nor would I see any need, as "tensions" are patterns in stasis
brought about by opposing forces and thus maintain themselves without any
need for my intervention.

Which makes me useless and a lousy dance partner as well but oh well.


Want some stuffing?




> Support the dynamic idea and not the aftermath of the wank!!!
>
> Andre
>


dynamic ideas only exist in a mind, everything after that, written or
spoken,  is  wankery.

You just can't avoid it.

Go ahead.  Try.