Thursday, September 29
Boston: day 5
ok, so I'm just passing through overnight, but regardless, it's my 5th day in Boston. I feel like I'm really starting to get to know this city. doesn't take much for me. I've got the feel of the layout, just not the specs of all the street names. I need my numbered New York grid, thank you.
the whole college town really bothers me. it was the first thing I noticed when I got on the T from the bus. there's this prevailing unspoken competition between everyone to be cooler, more successful, party harder, get better grades, stand out in some way but not be outcast... because everyone is about the same age and in some way ridiculously homogenous. my theory is that the environment of a homogenous population creates more pressure to stand out and establish an individual identity, which, ironically, results in a forced false identity - simply a reaction to the surrounding environment. but then you could argue that our whole social reality is a result of reactions to our environment. which social theory was that again?
anyone?
Margie?
by the way, I was nearly blown into a light post by the wind. yikes.
the whole college town really bothers me. it was the first thing I noticed when I got on the T from the bus. there's this prevailing unspoken competition between everyone to be cooler, more successful, party harder, get better grades, stand out in some way but not be outcast... because everyone is about the same age and in some way ridiculously homogenous. my theory is that the environment of a homogenous population creates more pressure to stand out and establish an individual identity, which, ironically, results in a forced false identity - simply a reaction to the surrounding environment. but then you could argue that our whole social reality is a result of reactions to our environment. which social theory was that again?
anyone?
Margie?
by the way, I was nearly blown into a light post by the wind. yikes.
# posted by SJ @ 1:47 PM 
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An awful lot depends on what you mean by 'reaction.'
Your hypothesis is implicitly deterministic - and so you begin an' end with positivism. And that would certainly suit a purely reactively constructed social fabric.
But you seem to be tantilizing close to Bergson too. He certainly paints science as distorting reality. And the institutional, assembly-line education practiced by modern universities certainly fit the bill of mechanistic mind. Which'd echo your stated dissatisfaction with the warped students.
You've brushed on the centrality of subjective experience to Bergson's thinking. Somewhat more problematic is finding agreement between your discussion of will-to-individuality and the centrality of insight to freedom in his view. At which point, I'd say the correspondence fails altogether since Bergon's is earnest but yours a mockery. But that'd be premature, for Bergson(& more terrifyingly Sartre) hoist this to the inevitability of our purely passive participation in a reality which we can neither ignore nor control. And on this point, your tone and some of the content of your reflections matches quite precisely.
Feeling particularly joyful are we? Now you need only clutch Hegel under your arm, trudge the streets of Paris under a grey sky, and mutter about Derrida darkly. Can't stop playing with the happy, happy funtime ball.... Tsk-tsk.
I'd heartily recommend you go find a view of the ocean and consume seafood & chocolate. Repeat if necessary.
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Your hypothesis is implicitly deterministic - and so you begin an' end with positivism. And that would certainly suit a purely reactively constructed social fabric.
But you seem to be tantilizing close to Bergson too. He certainly paints science as distorting reality. And the institutional, assembly-line education practiced by modern universities certainly fit the bill of mechanistic mind. Which'd echo your stated dissatisfaction with the warped students.
You've brushed on the centrality of subjective experience to Bergson's thinking. Somewhat more problematic is finding agreement between your discussion of will-to-individuality and the centrality of insight to freedom in his view. At which point, I'd say the correspondence fails altogether since Bergon's is earnest but yours a mockery. But that'd be premature, for Bergson(& more terrifyingly Sartre) hoist this to the inevitability of our purely passive participation in a reality which we can neither ignore nor control. And on this point, your tone and some of the content of your reflections matches quite precisely.
Feeling particularly joyful are we? Now you need only clutch Hegel under your arm, trudge the streets of Paris under a grey sky, and mutter about Derrida darkly. Can't stop playing with the happy, happy funtime ball.... Tsk-tsk.
I'd heartily recommend you go find a view of the ocean and consume seafood & chocolate. Repeat if necessary.
# posted by 
: 4:11 PM
: 4:11 PM 
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