Blog 10

It’s a widely believed phenomenon that history repeats itself. This idea can consistently be applied to situations worldwide, amongst societies that undergo routine efforts to establish systems free of the flaws that could cause them to fail. They are driven to expand for the sake of a larger global role and a stronger economy, driven to harbor leaders based on their ability to steer a nation in such directions; driven to last, and driven to prosper. Ideally, every civilization strives to be the best, either because of the shared desire amongst its citizens to collectively optimize their abilities, or because it feels at competition with contemporary civilizations. Ecofactual and artifactual evidence (i.e. tools, architecture, irrigation, other city-planning; ceremonial, utilitarian and other art) supports the first of these two reasons, depicting inadvertent and contemplative progress within societies that as far as we know had not yet been exposed to the tangible existence of others; a trend which informs us by means of simultaneous suggestion and proof that the development of a group of humans, limited to in long-term interaction with only each other, will be linear. To categorize such groupings as ‘societies’ is to assign them a title that indicates similarity, but it is crucial both to note that contemporary societies have developed differently by comparison, and to contemplate the causation. The similarities lie in the dynamics of communal life that exist as the product of innate individual efforts to meet survival and social needs – which, when collected, create a consequential need for societal equilibrium – and which are all embodied in the process of social interaction. Observations are built on observations; by this reason, such lineage unfolds in societies because development is directed by progress, and the options of those societies in isolation are less than those which emerge as the outcome of encountering foreign developments. Therein lie the comparable differences amongst societies, particularly those historically contemporary. These similarities and differences play a critical role in any society’s approach to preserving its equilibrium, and just as critical a role in any historical analysis of the internal characteristics of humanity that they symbolize. upon such exposure, the pool of developmental options theoretically expands exponentially. Disparities provide a potential sphere of influence, while recognized commodities illuminate elemental mannerisms of a community, refining their role. as the observational process proceeds, new influences will ignite the prevalence of certain observations, which set the state for future development, establishing trends that reflect human nature and in theory benefit any effort to navigate the prosperity of civilization. The rise of subjective trends even seems to fractal nature’s survival of the fittest, if applied conceptually. Such patterns serve as the backbone for societal equilibrium, but the exposure of new methods puts our rationale to use, potentially evoking new discoveries. The implement improvement upon the equilibrium, social relationships in areas such as politics and the economy may undergo a progressive transformation until they become unstable, igniting attempts to form new systems and improve their methodical structuring. Yet today we seem to be standing at the world’s edge; we have achieved total exposure to date, but we have no achieved perfection, and though the fire of speculation is still ablaze, many believe the realm of improvement has been maximized. Karl Marx, having pinpointed the rise of capitalism, deducted that individualism can in some cases function as the foundation for collective success, and in other cases, collectivism provides the best available life to individuals. By reasonable association of their fundamental values, Marx detects that when one fails, society turns toward the other, asserting that every failure or societal collapse will trigger a movement of sentiment that directly opposes the sentiment serving the previous movement, creating an endless cycle of capitalism and communism rather than seeking a medium. Isaac Asimov, a groundbreaking science fiction author, imaginatively envisioned a future dictate by similar philosophies to Marx’s in his Foundation series. To rule a galaxy, experts use a method called psychohistory to predict the future by applying the laws of statics to mass human activity, using a device called the Prime Radiant to generate pschohistorical equations that can reveal a flow of events that haven’t happened yet. It occurred to me that the development of our history has objectively completed one full cycle as yet unlabeled, beginning with inherent similarities, then transforming interactively – with differences triggering war and competition – and now, in full circle, striving to exploit the initial apparent similarities in search of worldwide cooperation, and society-wide satisfaction, and I have to as: could it be that our knowledge is preventing us from developing anything new?

Making Sense

There is something about the description of beauty as an idea of object “beyond order” that doesn’t resonate well with me. Chaos, the absence of order, can be beautiful in many circumstances; some might argue in all because they find beauty in the idea of chaos. Human interaction, asteroids in space, the identical composition of mycelia and dark matter, are all chaotic things that many people find beautiful. But there is also, certainly, beauty to be found in order. The natural order that we find occurring without the implementation of structure by any outer stimuli is awesome – Nature, largely free of conscious thought, directs itself as if by the hands of a brilliant, omnipotent and omniscient conductor, igniting and maintaining order at the constant speed of life. Almost every species existing, both plant and animal, has been fashioned for survival and has developed physical traits that are implicative of the existence of other species contemporary to them (i.e. camouflage, instincts, built-in defenses) that are all a product of extensive time spent living with other species as a response to the needs, actions and survival of both, or all, called symbiotic relationships. Species grow colors and mutations after enough interaction with another species; bright colors imply poison, sharp talons pierce resistant skin and shells, opposable thumbs help climb towards food and out of reach of predators; the sticky legs of one insect pollinate the plant from which it feeds…all these occurrences without any conscious thought. There are still “primary forests” out there without any essence of human activity or influence, believe it of not, and they are indeed beautiful.

Free Choice Blog

While I was studying monsters and the psychology of fear, I perceived certain observable trends symbolic of the development of human tradition, and they really sidetracked me. It’s obvious today, especially with our advancements in medicine and psychology, that life has many stages which divide our mental and physical growth and into which we can compartmentalize our experiences. When I look at some traditions that were born of monsters, or that monsters were born of, I see integration of certain human activities into the construction of hteir identities and the notoriety that ensues from their ability to affect the lives of those whose existence pertains to them. A monster who may represent death, or natural disasters, or goo/bad luck, or folly, or mischief, sets an expectation in its believers to at some point in their lives see evidence of its existence. Nobody necessarily wants to stay alive to witness a natural disaster, bad luck, folly or anything of the like, but if the legend is alive, they may expect it regardless. Other traditions seem to encompass typical experiences we encounter in the span of a lifetime, like school, success, love and more. All birthdays, and certainly some in particular, have traditional celebrations – like the mitzvah held for practicing Jews at the age of 13. With the recent passing of my 21st birthday, which incorporated many conventional celebratory ideas both in practice and in my mental state, I have been preoccupied with the thought that the expectation of certain experiences encourages us to reach them during the duration of a lifetime. Even the concept of bad luck becomes an experience we associate with value, from the growth and sometimes lessons it can evoke. Because there are many infamous associations with the age of 21, especially in western civilization, I, as many people surely are, was very inclined to make it to 21 years– to at the least remain alive until it arrived and even further, to have made certain achievements by the time I reached it. By this rationality, I think that traditions have a life-elongating effect on us.

Seeing Crow's Shadow exhibit

The Seeing Crow’s Shadow exhibit was a surprising and a thought-evoking experience. My surprise stemmed from encountering collective attitude belonging to the tribe from which the exhibit’s art was born, an attitude I had never before seen evidence of amongst the west coast’s Native American tribes, while those throughout the Midwest and even some in the southwest who I’ve observed to be much more integrated with their surrounding civilizations than those living on the reservations surrounding us. The attitude was one of optimistic interest and effort towards forming some new levels of infusion between themselves and society around them.
The content of the exhibit was in a variety of printmaking mediums. Having worked an exhibit of Native American art last semester, I was not expecting to behold a collection exclusively of prints. The exhibit I worked on, like the majority of tribal art (at least of that which I’ve seen), was comprised of many mediums, including painting, sculpture, jewelry, woven baskets, poetry, and music – all very traditional techniques for artistic expression and creativity. It lacked prints entirely, evidently because the practice is not native to their culture. From this observation I infer that the art of printmaking is a practice adopted by Native American tribes to juxtapose their worldly perspectives with those of other cultures in a clearer and more direct manner, wearing down the boundaries between their cultures and others.

Le Chien Andalou

The analytical claim made by the creators of the film Le Chien Andalou is that the content bore absolutely no symbolism and that nothing that could be considered symbolic would be accepted as material. In the depiction of sequential imagery, no matter how void of meaning the images are individually, the encompassing audience reception leaves lots of room to create interpretation rooted in personal encounters with the content of each image is it can be found by anyone free of context in the world, and either intentionally or inadvertently, symbolism can be inferred and meaning can be constructed. I saw many messages outside the realm of psychoanalysis through content-specific implications. The first click! I felt in my brain was the idea of mind over matter that I inferred from the blade activity. I felt another click! when the Vermeer painting was revealed from the abrupt ceasing of the woman's reading targeting the film's inherent value of art. The next click! ensued in the form of seance, igniting the concept of reincarnation in my mind, which was followed by yet another click! as the hand of the man who had just been brought to the present erupts ants from a hole in the palm, alluding to a schizophrenic syndrome which I personally interpreted as a reminder of our inability to access supernatural powers for personal benefit, making the point that if they could be channeled, it would be all-inclusive and not only to our desires; there is a world of bad to be had there, and even if we seek only the god, the bad will come as well.

There seems to be a larger point here that connects to something our class has been making me think about. In regards to the development of prehistory, I asserted in a previous blog that the faith of civilizations older and smaller than ours are today remained so stable, as Curtis claims in The Cave Painters, largely because of a lack of exposure to other humans, amongst whom philosophy has room to develop in a different direction; therefore the more humans there were in the world, the more our development sped up. I base this off my belief that every mind is capable of original thought. By the same standard, I think that the film Le Chien Andalou was left predominantly ambiguous because its worldwide reception and analyses, such as all of ours in this class, would complete it as a work of art.

Questioning Stability

In his analysis of the longevity of prehistoric, paleolithic cultures, Gregory Curtis speculates what is was about the structure of such civilization that was so durable that their societies maintained such profoundly similar lifestyles for a span of 25,000 years, whereas modern or "classical" society underwent drastic changes throughout the last 4,000 years. Curtis hypothesizes that this is in large part due to the acceptance of answers dedicated to the same questions we today instinctively ask ourselves. I don't necessarily believe that the answers such cultures allocated to these questions were as sound as Curtis makes them out to be; I don't think that our modern answers are any more or less sound, and furthermore, I don't think that their mindsets were as tenacious as Curtis infers from their art because of the soundness of their logic. With so few people in the world, especially in comparison with recent numbers of population, and means of survival very accessible, cultures in separate areas had space to diverge in the directions of their development- not to say they took off in many different directions; that does not seem to be the case during that large period of time- but if it had been, they would not likely have come into contact with each other in a matter that would cause either war or cultural competition. Curtis deconstructs their art to signify strikingly similar widespread culture and philosophy. Even if philosophies had been highly varied between these societies, the chances of them sharing and/or comparing ideas was slim. If they had, I believe that an influx in development would have been the result, and by the same line of reasoning, I believe that population growth was the cause of our rapid expansion and all ensuing change. Once these numbers reached the point which ignited the mental and technological development that followed, our unavoidable encounters and subsequent contemplations of ideologies presented to us by foreign cultures as responses to the questions shared by all of humanity caused collective human civilization to take off with such momentum.

From all of this, I deduct that it took as much time as it did for population to grow and for culture to expand with it, and that the more people exist in the world, the larger a thought pool there is for understanding the world. Every brain has the capacity for more individual thought, and as our numbers continued to collect on this Earth, observations were built upon observations, therefore our conscience widened, our perceptions advanced, and the options became so numerous that the questions themselves grew more tenacious than the answers presented for them thus far. In summary, it wasn't the answers of these ancient societies that were so satisfactory, but the circumstances in which they could maintain their life were the source of their endurance.

Using the Force

Between Laming-Emperaire’s two schools, I would wholeheartedly belong to the second. The knowledge of specific dates and locations belonging to artifacts is of little importance to our understanding of history and humanity without being able to decipher from them the details of our evolution, and the roles they played in its development; where they fit its lineage is not enough. The discovery of facts without the research and critical contemplation that would allow us to achieve a deeper understanding of how we as a species have reached the state that we find ourselves in today and our relationship to the world is like a collection of blank puzzle pieces that doesn’t depict any kind of picture even after the pieces are fit together. I think it is extremely important as a human to understand humans, and I believe such understanding is impossible to attain without using artifacts to connect the dots of a complex timeline stringing along multiple civilizations and without using mental expertise to envision the collective effect that each stage of human progress had upon all subsequent stages. Strategically pinpointing the very crucial staples of human capability to our best abilities allows us to better perceive the world we live in now with mental illustration. For example, there is extensive evidence of various societies sharing technological advancements without any correspondence of information between them; to examine what each culture used these inventions for, how they invented them and when the need surfaced for an object of its function brings us infinitely closer to grasping our invisible nature as humans. It is the job of those in this second group to recognize how crucial each small development of any civilization was, and is, to the overall direction of their culture, and to the potential of a mind-blowing amount of cultivated resources that was made available to us with the initiation of trade, interaction and communication. The building blocks of our world need glue to be held fast together, and I want to be a part of the group that crafts that glue.