Intro:
Almost everybody has thought of living in a misery without meaning, and that feeling is so dry that we barely see the shape of our own lives. Most of us visualize this feeling of insignificance as a hole in our lives, a feeling of emptiness that is never be able to fill but to cover as much as we can. The reason we felt that way as Matt Fried would describe, is that most of us receive massive of affections since we are a baby. We try to perform as what Erving Goffman claimed, that we put ourselves out there on stage, and to be certain characters that will receive some sort of response from the others that we desire to get with the same manner that we perform them to the audience. Usually due to politeness of human beings, we are fortunate enough to receive a sense of satisfaction from the others if we perform well enough to signify who we are. Because we are all practice to be a great performer to get this intangible attention to feel like in a spotlight the whole time, we create a competition over coolness for our own selfish interests. As everybody is trying to fish for coolness to get a sense of importance in life to fulfill the imaginary hole of emptiness and meaninglessness, we risk the chance from overfishing to lead ourselves to fall into the "social trap", resulting in a reflection of human foolishness.
Argument 1:
“Social trap is a term used by psychologists to describe a situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole.” If being cool is an “act” to acquire impermanent attention or significant value reflecting selfishness, we are as a whole are definitely overfishing for the sense of cool. By saying that, I am not arguing that it is wrong to be cool, but most of us are certainly seeking for cool in the wrong way. Such as the video Merchants of Cool, it reveals how foolish the teenagers are now a day being puppets of large corporations. They are being utilized as “rats” for the experts to experiment on, and seek what is cool to them and sold it back to them resulting they are the ultimate consumers who are supporting the “wicked” corporations to reflect their ignorance of the whole situation. Many teenagers do not realize they are being used, and often times even though they are aware of what the commercials are doing them, they simply buy it. From the video clip, Miller said, “Kids feel frustrated and lonely today because they are encouraged to feel that way.” Many of us might they we just naturally feel the emptiness whenever we encounter that, but what we are not aware of is that, that’s what the media taught us how to feel. Perhaps to put it this way, before we actually feel the sense of emptiness in us, we already visualize it as a hole from the given images from the media.
Argument 2:
In Buddhism, emptiness does not parallel with the word “nothingness”. Emptiness is still something rather than simply nothing exist in this universe. As the way the Kadampa Buddhists would put it, “all things are totally empty of any defining essence. Consequently all things have no fixed identity ('inherent existence') and are in a state of impermanence - change and flux - constantly becoming and decaying”. If that was the correct definition for emptiness, it shows that a lot of the Western definition of emptiness has been mis-understood. Most of us will think that emptiness means nothing exists, is simply blank. But what we don’t understand is that if we are stuck in the idea of nothing exists, we are claiming that everything is “impermanence”, constantly changing. Within this definition of emptiness, we tend to “behave in ways that only solidify your [our] own ego and cause harm to yourself [ourselves] and others”. I believe this is true because we constantly fishing for the sense of coolness for our own satisfaction, and we tied to the understanding of it will last although we know it doesn’t. This also reveals how being cool is the idea of chasing after desire, it is certainly something that most of the people will not meet completely in lives. What most of us don’t understand was that clinging to the idea of emptiness is the consequence of understanding everything is impermanence, resulting our foolishness for seeking for a way to make things to stay in the motion of permanent. If we accept the fact that emptiness is just simply emptiness, a feeling that everybody feel, we will stop to “behave in ways that only solidify to our own ego” and won’t be competing over the sense of cool.
Argument 3
Competition over cool are everywhere, we can easily see it in groups like gender, race, age, etc. We like to knock off others to make ourselves to feel better, special and unique in the group often offers the sense of importance which satisfies people in a short-term. In school, we can define people based on their GPA, in society, we can define people based on their social class and through media we can define people based on their popularity. It seems like is all about competitions, and being successful in varies of way to live cool. All these competitions could be seem as a Social Dilemma. One of the famous one is called “prisoner’s dilemma”, which is a game theory originally created by Merrill Flood. The scenario was,
“Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects from the other) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent (cooperates with the other), the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?”
“The problem results from the fact that both can play this game -- that is, defect -- and if both do, then both do worse than they would had they both kept silent. This peculiar parable serves as a model of cooperation between two or more individuals (or corporations or countries) in ordinary life in that in many cases each individual would be personally better off not cooperating (defecting) on the other.”
I have to figure out a way to put this in a way that really supports the overall thesis and I am still researching more about this argument. But the idea is that, if everybody stops “defect” each other, then we won’t worsen the whole situation.
Argument 4
If we see cool as a “public good” like an mp3 file, or air, we will not fight over it.
“For example, if one individual visits a doctor there is one less doctor's visit for everyone else, and it is possible to exclude others from visiting the doctor; it is a rivaled and excludable private good. Conversely, breathing air neither significantly reduces the amount of air available to others, nor can people be effectively excluded from using the air. This makes it a public good, but one that is economically trivial, as air is a free good. A less straight-forward example is the exchange of MP3 music files on the internet: the use of these files by any one person does not restrict the use by anyone else and there is little effective control over the exchange of these music files.”
Almost everybody has thought of living in a misery without meaning, and that feeling is so dry that we barely see the shape of our own lives. Most of us visualize this feeling of insignificance as a hole in our lives, a feeling of emptiness that is never be able to fill but to cover as much as we can. The reason we felt that way as Matt Fried would describe, is that most of us receive massive of affections since we are a baby. We try to perform as what Erving Goffman claimed, that we put ourselves out there on stage, and to be certain characters that will receive some sort of response from the others that we desire to get with the same manner that we perform them to the audience. Usually due to politeness of human beings, we are fortunate enough to receive a sense of satisfaction from the others if we perform well enough to signify who we are. Because we are all practice to be a great performer to get this intangible attention to feel like in a spotlight the whole time, we create a competition over coolness for our own selfish interests. As everybody is trying to fish for coolness to get a sense of importance in life to fulfill the imaginary hole of emptiness and meaninglessness, we risk the chance from overfishing to lead ourselves to fall into the "social trap", resulting in a reflection of human foolishness.
Argument 1:
“Social trap is a term used by psychologists to describe a situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole.” If being cool is an “act” to acquire impermanent attention or significant value reflecting selfishness, we are as a whole are definitely overfishing for the sense of cool. By saying that, I am not arguing that it is wrong to be cool, but most of us are certainly seeking for cool in the wrong way. Such as the video Merchants of Cool, it reveals how foolish the teenagers are now a day being puppets of large corporations. They are being utilized as “rats” for the experts to experiment on, and seek what is cool to them and sold it back to them resulting they are the ultimate consumers who are supporting the “wicked” corporations to reflect their ignorance of the whole situation. Many teenagers do not realize they are being used, and often times even though they are aware of what the commercials are doing them, they simply buy it. From the video clip, Miller said, “Kids feel frustrated and lonely today because they are encouraged to feel that way.” Many of us might they we just naturally feel the emptiness whenever we encounter that, but what we are not aware of is that, that’s what the media taught us how to feel. Perhaps to put it this way, before we actually feel the sense of emptiness in us, we already visualize it as a hole from the given images from the media.
Argument 2:
In Buddhism, emptiness does not parallel with the word “nothingness”. Emptiness is still something rather than simply nothing exist in this universe. As the way the Kadampa Buddhists would put it, “all things are totally empty of any defining essence. Consequently all things have no fixed identity ('inherent existence') and are in a state of impermanence - change and flux - constantly becoming and decaying”. If that was the correct definition for emptiness, it shows that a lot of the Western definition of emptiness has been mis-understood. Most of us will think that emptiness means nothing exists, is simply blank. But what we don’t understand is that if we are stuck in the idea of nothing exists, we are claiming that everything is “impermanence”, constantly changing. Within this definition of emptiness, we tend to “behave in ways that only solidify your [our] own ego and cause harm to yourself [ourselves] and others”. I believe this is true because we constantly fishing for the sense of coolness for our own satisfaction, and we tied to the understanding of it will last although we know it doesn’t. This also reveals how being cool is the idea of chasing after desire, it is certainly something that most of the people will not meet completely in lives. What most of us don’t understand was that clinging to the idea of emptiness is the consequence of understanding everything is impermanence, resulting our foolishness for seeking for a way to make things to stay in the motion of permanent. If we accept the fact that emptiness is just simply emptiness, a feeling that everybody feel, we will stop to “behave in ways that only solidify to our own ego” and won’t be competing over the sense of cool.
Argument 3
Competition over cool are everywhere, we can easily see it in groups like gender, race, age, etc. We like to knock off others to make ourselves to feel better, special and unique in the group often offers the sense of importance which satisfies people in a short-term. In school, we can define people based on their GPA, in society, we can define people based on their social class and through media we can define people based on their popularity. It seems like is all about competitions, and being successful in varies of way to live cool. All these competitions could be seem as a Social Dilemma. One of the famous one is called “prisoner’s dilemma”, which is a game theory originally created by Merrill Flood. The scenario was,
“Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects from the other) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent (cooperates with the other), the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?”
“The problem results from the fact that both can play this game -- that is, defect -- and if both do, then both do worse than they would had they both kept silent. This peculiar parable serves as a model of cooperation between two or more individuals (or corporations or countries) in ordinary life in that in many cases each individual would be personally better off not cooperating (defecting) on the other.”
I have to figure out a way to put this in a way that really supports the overall thesis and I am still researching more about this argument. But the idea is that, if everybody stops “defect” each other, then we won’t worsen the whole situation.
Argument 4
If we see cool as a “public good” like an mp3 file, or air, we will not fight over it.
“For example, if one individual visits a doctor there is one less doctor's visit for everyone else, and it is possible to exclude others from visiting the doctor; it is a rivaled and excludable private good. Conversely, breathing air neither significantly reduces the amount of air available to others, nor can people be effectively excluded from using the air. This makes it a public good, but one that is economically trivial, as air is a free good. A less straight-forward example is the exchange of MP3 music files on the internet: the use of these files by any one person does not restrict the use by anyone else and there is little effective control over the exchange of these music files.”
I am still working on this argument and transit to alternative, a different perspective of public good – cool could not be share in that way (lost the feeling of significant).
Alternatives (Working on it)
Significance (Working on it)
Conclusion
If we realized that coolness is something that we can all shared, like public good, then we won't try so hard to be different. (The example that I read online about it doesn't matter where you live right next to the river or far away, everybody receive the same amount of water) If we accept the fact that everything is connected and we are all the same after all, then we will live a more meaningful life than being a fool competes over something that is meaningless, and worsen our lives or the situation. (There is nothing wrong to be cool, but we went to the wrong directions - I am still thinking about the solution to the question what is the right direction, how to not compete over cool but still feel special?)
祝您好运 :)
ReplyDeleteUmmmm....yea. For some reason i cannot post my comments onto your page so please go into my blog to view what i have written for you. Thanks
ReplyDeleteTo Richard,
ReplyDeleteDidn't you just posted a comment in this post? (perhaps not your comments)
Thanks for the notice.