Thursday, July 24, 2014

Sick of Arguing, Desiring to Work on Art

I am plagued by knowing too much.

For example, the way I feel right now, I just want to read and write plays. Nothing else. I don't want to work on scholarship. I don't want to do book reviews. I don't want to do anything but write plays. I don't want to argue politics or economics or anything of that sort. Just plays.

Now, is this because I have just gotten sick of all that stuff? Or is this because I tend to go through cycles because of the neural structure of my brain, which likely has positive feedback dominating it, resulting in cycles of interests and behaviors? I go through periods of wanting to work on creative work and periods of wanting to do scholarly work. So it may just be that. But at the same time, I have dealt with such utter nonsense and idiocy of late, from logical fallacies to misstatement of facts, that I'm beginning to see just how futile it is to argue with anyone. When you cannot persuade someone that they have their facts wrong -- and when you get accused of "name-calling" for correctly pointing out that someone is demonstrating their ignorance when they get facts wrong -- there's no point in arguing anymore.

More, I am not persuaded that direct argumentation ever really changes anyone's mind. It is a colossal waste of time to try to change anyone's mind in a direct fashion. I am, rather, persuaded, that it is only through literature and the arts that one can change others' morals and, thus, change the foundation on which they act and judge. However, this raises yet another problem. If I post a poem, who reads it? I have to get my plays performed or at least get someone somewhere to read my artistic writings. Who will do so? In my experience, not many.

Is everything, then, a waste of time? Perhaps not. Sometimes you just have to reach the right one or two, and that makes all the difference in the future. Who knows who that person will be, or when you will reach that person? You just keep writing and you keep hoping.

Monday, July 07, 2014

Spontaneous Orders' Opponents - A Listing

Each spontaneous order has its detractors.

The free market has socialists and others who hate markets.

The technological order has Luddites.

The monetary order has those opposed to usury.

The scientific order has creationists and intelligent designers.

The religious order has the anti-religion atheists (not all atheists are anti-religion).

The philosophical order has various anti-philosophers, from some religious thinkers to sophists of all sorts.

The artistic and literary orders have censors.

The social sciences have anti-economists, anti-sociologists, and those opposed to psychology.

The political order has anarchists.

The philanthropic order has any number of groups who use their opposition to out-groups as an excuse to be selfish. Racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. groups that engage in group-think are anti-philanthropy (love of humans).

In making this list, I note two things. The opposition to the newest social orders come from some of our oldest drives and beliefs -- various xenophobias and religion in particular. However, two of our oldest orders -- religious and political -- have more recent enemies.