Sentimentality, Cynicism and Scientific Pantheism I imagine most of us have seen the speech by Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. If you havent, here: youtu.be/w8HdOHrc3OQ Theres one part that I want to quote in light of our aspirations here: We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. I like this a lot, but also think that it is possible to correct too far the other way, and feel too much and think too little. The dictator cites the perils of cynicism, but I think the perils of sentimentality are perhaps just as great (thats how propaganda works, by inciting bad feelings that override our reason and call us to action in some way). The cynic sees indifference in the universe. Nothing is sacred. Thats probably part of the crisis of civilization. Pantheism is our expression of the sense of awe and realization of our connections to each other, to wild nature and to the rest of the cosmos. Those things are an antidote to the cyncism. The sentimentalist sees benevolence/design in the universe and projects agency on that. Nature is seen as having a perfect order in the same way that God is seen as perfect. Our ideal causes us to retrofit perfection on the flawed reality (which means we dont see it clearly at all). I think our emphasis on science helps us maintain something closer to a middle way where mind and heart have a conversation and can be a check on each other. I dont think these poles are mutually exclusive either, or that any of us might really sit in the middle. I can be cynical about some things and sentimental about others (often without noticing it). The photo is a composite of 161 frames from last nights time lapse.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:27:48 +0000
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