Two things however are clear about any religion that might derive from cybernetics and systems theory, ecology and natural history. First, that in the asking of questions, there will be no limit to our hubris; and second, that there shall always be humility in our acceptance of answers. In these two characteristics we shall be in sharp contrast with most of the religions of the world. They show little humility in their espousal of answers but great fear about what questions they will ask.
— Gregory Bateson (Angels Fear)
Thought
I just pulled out two snippets of conversation between Gregory Bateson and Mary Catherine Bateson from the book Angels Fear. The main topic of their conversation is addiction but their speak about entertainment is the highlight for me, in this time of the pandemic. Confined to our homes, surrounded by gadgets, equipped with high bandwidth connections, besides bad news, we are having to deal with endless streams of information & entertainment through various channels and in various forms.
Sorry if the conversation snippets seem disconnected or even severed. I found these quite meaningful and worthy of sharing. I recommend reading this book but, be warned - Its not entertaining.
Daughter: {…}Daddy, do you think consciousness is lethal?
Father: Mmm. Empirically it seems on its way to being so. Human consciousness linked with purpose might turn out to be rather like the tail of the argus pheasant, an extreme elaboration of a particular trait that sends a species into an evolutionary cul-de-sac. But that’s happened before. What is frightening is the possibility that the presence of a creature like us anywhere in the system may eventually be lethal to the entire system.
— Mary Catherine Bateson (Angels Fear)
Whatever it is, make your practice something that can bear some revision. Revise it, and revise it again, until it becomes something that truly sustains you.
— Christina Rosalie (A Field Guide to Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life in the Present Tense)
Materialism is a set of descriptive propositions referring to a univers in which there are no descriptive propositions. Its vocabolury and syntax, its epistemology, is suitable only for the description of such a universe. We cannot even use its language to describe our activity in description.
— Gregory Bateson (Angels Fear)
The hole in the bagel defines the torus. When the bagel is eaten, the hole does not remain to be reincarnated in a doughnut.
— Grageory Bateson (Angels Fear)
Survival and thriving are the poles between which the moments of life are strung. The balance is tenuous, and the outcome for each of us is different.
— Christina Rosalie (A Field Guide to Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life in the Present Tense)
Go all the way with it. Do not back off. For once, go all the goddamn way with what matters.
— Ernest Hemingway
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Breve New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
— Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
As I witness the world today, it seems the Brave New World & 1984 are at play together.
— rawjeev
My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born.
— Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale