Derr̶i̶d̶aisory
(Clueless People Saying Clueless Things)
“If any idiot ever tells you that Life would be meaningless without death, Hyperion recommends killing them” — Borderlands 2.
I don’t know what it is, but recently there seem to be an unusually large number of people with all the literary sensitivities of eleven-year-olds critiquing Post Modernist theory for some reason. It’s probably just the inevitably ongoing backlash by slow learners late to the party, but it does seem to be politically motivated too — they do seem to like to talk about ‘the Left’ in conjunction with it.
The ̶a̶u̶t̶h̶o̶r̶s’ wingnuts’ complaint, at its core, is that it leads to relativism and that relativism leads to a rejection of objective reality and embracing of ‘alternative facts’ (and either moral degeneracy or, conversely, religiosity as a result).
*sigh*
I think, therefore I am.
Quite apart from the fact that, philosophically, until another position is proffered that is more logically unassailable, I have no choice but to be a solipsist … as a psychologist, I know that, if Descartes was wrong and it is all externally real … really real, so to speak … then, by the time I become consciously aware of anything, it has been so mediated by my brain that I’ll never know to what extent my neurocognitive model tallies with the external stimulus — and Descartes was, therefore, right even though he was wrong.
Furthermore, I have in my life experienced things that I knew not to be real even as I experienced them. I still really experienced them, however.
So … given that our experience of something is itself real … that what we experience is as real as ‘real’ is ever going to be for you, me or anyone else that might exist … that we’ll never know any different … the debate is bunk — because, whether I’m ‘really’ real or a figment of your imagination is irrelevant if it feels real and really hurts, when I punch you in the mouth, isn’t it?
Reality is relative … quite literally what you think it is. Anyone who says otherwise is a clueless simpleton but, whilst philosophers are bad enough, ‘Literature’ majors are, seemingly, even worse: they know nothing about Physics, Neuroscience or even Philosophy (for what little that latter is worth ¹ ) — the cognitive dissonance of rejecting the reality of it by arguing that a relativist position prevents a universal application is astounding (universal relativity is the whole point of Einstein’s theory of Relativity ²).
*sigh*
It used to be that cranks had to buy a domain in the outermost reaches of the Internet to host their spittle-flecked ravings and … unless they were spectacularly nutty (like Otis Eugene Ray ³ ) … the chances of their reaching more than a handful of people (who needed to spend less time in the basement/attic ⁴, storing their urine in jars, and more time taking their meds) were exceedingly slim.
These days, social media have given them all a platform.
*sigh*
Just ignore anyone who starts ranting on about Post Modernism either way around — apologists for it are all too frequently just navel-gazing pseuds who don’t realise Descartes said it all already (without the obscurantism either) … and those who are opposed (even those complaining about Trumpian alternative reality) are politically motivated to establish facts to be what they want them to be (oh, the irony).
</rant about First World Problems ⁵>
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¹ All credit to Descartes, however … who didn’t need to know anything about neurobiology/neurochemistry to figure out the blindingly obvious — (ironically) he just used his brain.
² You know … the one favoured by the hardcore scientists investigating the physical realities of our externally real universe.
³ His Time Cube has been described as “the number one nutty site”.
⁴ Not you, SouthpawPoet … you should stay there — it’s better for everyone that way (less shameful for you and them).
⁵ See what I did there? (Yes, I am a smartarse, but you love it really 😉)
