[Peace-discuss] Banality of Evil
"E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"
ewj at pigsqq.org
Mon Aug 26 01:38:03 UTC 2013
That mo-fo dings em every time.
Mofang is pinyin for imitation, bingdu is a virus.
Bing is disease, du is a harmful substance or infectious agent.
Mo is a pattern. Fang means copy.
I say sometimes that the mofang bingdu is by far the most dangerous
and harmful bingdu (virus). Unfortunately few Chinese know this
obscure technical term so its not a very effective pun
in general practice.
It is also a non-resonant concept among the chronically afflicted
and persistently infected.
*
The idea of ideologic resonance is an interesting one.
It is said that the success of that perfidious individual
who goes around as Bill Clinton is attributable to resonance
to his words among the population. That is a most disturbing,
nay, frightening, thing to ponder.
First of all, it points out that people are more likely accept
ideas that resonate with concepts previously acquired. If you
want to poison a dog, you don't pour strychnine on the sidewalk.
No dog will lick that up. You have to mix it with some meat,
then the dog will go for what it wants, and get the poison along
with the accepted material. Every successful virus uses a similar
mechanism to trick receptors and gain access to the interior of the cell.
One wonders how the resonant memes got there in the first place.
The nature of a dog is obvious. It is not so obvious how a Clinton
resonant meme was established among the population. I obviously dont
seem to have acquired it. Imelda Marcos has been noted
to have an awesome Presence by those susceptible to it.
Solomon noted bitterly that there was "nothing new under the sun".
Yet there seems to be a source of new information not necessarily
the same old recycled memetic garbage.
Persig calls that "Dynamic Quality". Quality he equates with the Dao.
Some call it revelation knowledge.
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona:
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven.
Dao ke dao feichang dao. - Laozi
(This triple pun is not easily unwound, as it is triply recursive.
Usually people give up and write "The Way that can be spoken of is
not the everlasting Way." Dao means way, it also means speech, words,
discussion, a path, and walking on a path. ke means able.
feichang means uncommon, not often, wonderful.)
Something is outside the box, and there is a box and an outside of it.
Taichu you dao. - John 1.1 (in the beginning there is the dao.)
Persig talks about how un-doing a contact with ultimate reality can be.
Jacob wrestled with it, and walked with a limp thereafter.
*
"And do you have an opinion?
A thought of your own?
I thought you were special
I thought you should know..."
- Shirley Manson
On 08/25/13 23:46, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
> "Virus of imitation" is great. (I'm tempted to write it, "Mo-fo dings
> you.")
>
> How would you write it in Pinyin - just "mo fang bing du"?
>
>
> On Aug 25, 2013, at 10:15 AM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"
> <ewj at pigsqq.org <mailto:ewj at pigsqq.org>> wrote:
>
>> Girard makes some interesting points about mimetic behaviour.
>>
>> People can indeed be motivated by the lust of the flesh, the lust
>> of the eyes, and the pride of life.
>> " the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh),
>> and that it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes)
>> and a tree to be desired to make one wise (pride of life).
>>
>> Paul the Apostle said that it was covetousness that got him into
>> trouble, and Girard's mimetic motivation seems to be in parallel.
>>
>> But I think that people can be motivated by love (in the best sense)
>> and by an appreciation for goodness.
>>
>> *
>>
>> "Meme" is translated into Chinese as 模仿病毒 mo fang bing du
>> which means "virus of imitation".
>>
>>
>> On 08/25/13 19:56, Karen Aram wrote:
>>> Carl
>>> I think thats a great idea, as long as we keep it informal, not a
>>> "requirement", or too structured, as the CP and SWP, with
>>> discussions separate from our regular get togethers.
>>> Let's discuss at this afternoons meeting.
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Banality of Evil
>>> From: galliher at illinois.edu
>>> Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 21:42:04 -0500
>>> CC: stuartnlevy at gmail.com; peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net;
>>> ewj at pigsqq.org
>>> To: karenaram at hotmail.com
>>>
>>> Girard is difficult but repays study, I think.
>>>
>>> If AWARE were into "internal education" in the old CP fashion, I'd
>>> suggest a reading group on Arendt and Girard.
>>>
>>> On Aug 24, 2013, at 9:02 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com
>>> <mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Wayne, I do agree with you in respect to individuals being
>>> scapegoats, though I support justice and individuals taking
>>> responsibility for their actions. Eichmann's trial and execution
>>> was just that, a show to appease, allowing many collectively to
>>> escape justice. Perhaps it brought solace to surviving victims,
>>> but I doubt it.
>>>
>>> Carl, I have to reread your statements more than once to
>>> comprehend, will comment at a later date. I enjoy the
>>> discussion/food for thought from you both.
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Banality of Evil
>>> From: galliher at illinois.edu <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>
>>> Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 20:27:17 -0500
>>> CC: karenaram at hotmail.com <mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com>;
>>> stuartnlevy at gmail.com <mailto:stuartnlevy at gmail.com>;
>>> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>> <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>>> To: ewj at pigsqq.org <mailto:ewj at pigsqq.org>
>>>
>>> The scapegoat theme is worth pursuing. I keep running into (as
>>> in a traffic accident) the work of Rene Girard. I think the
>>> cosmos is trying to tell me something.
>>>
>>> "...The phrase 'scapegoat mechanism' was not coined by Girard
>>> himself; it had been used earlier by Kenneth Burke in Permanence
>>> and Change (1935) and A Grammar of Motives (1940). However,
>>> Girard took this concept from Burke and developed it much more
>>> extensively as an interpretation of human culture.
>>>
>>> "In Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1978),
>>> Girard develops the implications of this discovery. The
>>> victimary process is the missing link between the animal world
>>> and the human world, the principle that explains the
>>> humanization of primates. It allows us to understand the need
>>> for sacrificial victims, which in turn explains the hunt which
>>> is primitively ritual, and the domestication of animals as a
>>> fortuitous result of the acclimatization of a reserve of
>>> victims, or agriculture. It shows that at the beginning of all
>>> culture is archaic religion, which Durkheim had sensed[citation
>>> needed]. The elaboration of the rites and taboos by proto-human
>>> or human groups would take infinitely varied forms while obeying
>>> a rigorous practical sense that we can detect: the prevention of
>>> the return of the mimetic crisis. So we can find in archaic
>>> religion the origin of all political or cultural institutions.
>>>
>>> "According to Girard, just as the theory of Natural selection of
>>> species is the rational principle that explains the immense
>>> diversity of forms of life, the victimization process is the
>>> rational principle that explains the origin of the infinite
>>> diversity of cultural forms. The analogy with Darwin also
>>> extends to the scientific status of the theory, as each of these
>>> presents itself as a hypothesis that is not capable of being
>>> proven experimentally, given the extreme amounts of time
>>> necessary to the production of the phenomena in question, but
>>> which imposes itself by its great explanatory power."
>>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 24, 2013, at 8:15 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"
>>> <ewj at pigsqq.org <mailto:ewj at pigsqq.org>> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 08/25/13 6:30, Karen Aram wrote:
>>>
>>> In reference to some of our discussions at the Market
>>> this morning related to the film and writings of Hannah
>>> Arendt, and her "banality of evil" I attach the below. I
>>> consider not Adolph Eichmann, but many here in the US,
>>> myself included, as the banality of evil, when viewing
>>> through the eyes of many elsewhere in the world. We
>>> drive our SUV's, feed our pets better food than some
>>> people receive, shop until we drop, consuming resources
>>> that cannot be replaced, and allowing wars and killings
>>> to take place in the name of "self defense".
>>>
>>>
>>> I would agree that after you have made certain that the last
>>> human
>>> is ok, then you take care of the first dog, but my attitude
>>> is angering
>>> to some.
>>>
>>> I consider Eichmann to be a scapegoat, much like Bin Laden
>>> and Michael Vick.
>>>
>>> Having said that humans are so much more valuable that dogs
>>> [worst human >> best dog], now I must say that there is great
>>> evil possible in the action of masses of human. Alone an
>>> individual can do relatively little evil.
>>>
>>> Scapegoats provide the hoi polloi a focus upon which to fix
>>> the pointless banality of their
>>> useless lives of vanity.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>>
>>
>
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