Change the scene, vote Third Party!
The Purpose of Writing has been challenged long ago by Plato. Plato's critique of writing, written as a conversation between Socrates and Phaedrus, rests on a presumed ignorance which follows from practicing the written word.
"Those who acqire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of on their own internal resources. What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not for memory. And as for wisdom, your pupils will have the reputation for it without the reality: they will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant. And because they are filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom they will be a burden to society." (Plato, Phaedrus, lived 427- 347 B.C.)
There is an irony to making the claim that writing is bad in writing. What does it say about the process other than writing is something we need to do? Write something down and get someone to read it. It is natural. It is unavoidable. Writing is something we do in order to marvel in mundane ways.
When we read we bring our prejudice with us. When we write that prejudice is still there. It isn't necessarily directed at race, but it can be. It isn't limited to points of view on financial hardships or last minute field goal kicks in crucial games. Prejudice is carried throughout the process of reading and writing as a necessary crutch to get us somewhere different.
Writing is a heavy drug, man! There's a beauty and power in writing that rivals: God, Allah, Brahma, The Great Spirit, Buddha or Christ. Writing didn't create them, but it is part of the same spirit. The irrational spirit which doesn't respond to demands for easy answers. It's a prejudice we carry deep down inside of us and when we write or read it's there often forgotten in the background.
The written polls and challenges take place between Democrats and Republicans while Greens and Libertarians aren't even being invited to the party. They've got their own sparsely attended often overlooked shin digs.
Television is a form of writing. If what Plato wrote about writing on paper is accurate, then creating television programs must be a move further away from exercising memory. Our increasing forgetfulness can be attributed to sheer amounts of information given by the writers of Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
I say, in our society today, if you're really sick of what's going on in Washington you have to change the prejudices of what's being said about Washington. If you watch any television show about politics, what is being said is simply Democrat and Republican. There is no concept that there are any other players in the game.
If you're tired of the tied down business aspect of arguing then hold your nose and vote for a Third Party candidate. If nothing else, a significant percentage of Third Party votes might create an interesting story for a week's worth of coverage on McNeil and Lehrer.
Politics in America today is a series of conversation starters supplied by media moguls. They control conversation through the process of selection, but they don't make the news. The news is written, to some extent, by what is happening in the world among people being. Being who they are as a collection of prejudices. The prejudices won't go away if third party candidates win office, but we would have different conversations.
After a while, conversations get stale.
Change the scene, vote Third Party!
"Those who acqire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of on their own internal resources. What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not for memory. And as for wisdom, your pupils will have the reputation for it without the reality: they will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant. And because they are filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom they will be a burden to society." (Plato, Phaedrus, lived 427- 347 B.C.)
There is an irony to making the claim that writing is bad in writing. What does it say about the process other than writing is something we need to do? Write something down and get someone to read it. It is natural. It is unavoidable. Writing is something we do in order to marvel in mundane ways.
When we read we bring our prejudice with us. When we write that prejudice is still there. It isn't necessarily directed at race, but it can be. It isn't limited to points of view on financial hardships or last minute field goal kicks in crucial games. Prejudice is carried throughout the process of reading and writing as a necessary crutch to get us somewhere different.
Writing is a heavy drug, man! There's a beauty and power in writing that rivals: God, Allah, Brahma, The Great Spirit, Buddha or Christ. Writing didn't create them, but it is part of the same spirit. The irrational spirit which doesn't respond to demands for easy answers. It's a prejudice we carry deep down inside of us and when we write or read it's there often forgotten in the background.
The written polls and challenges take place between Democrats and Republicans while Greens and Libertarians aren't even being invited to the party. They've got their own sparsely attended often overlooked shin digs.
Television is a form of writing. If what Plato wrote about writing on paper is accurate, then creating television programs must be a move further away from exercising memory. Our increasing forgetfulness can be attributed to sheer amounts of information given by the writers of Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
I say, in our society today, if you're really sick of what's going on in Washington you have to change the prejudices of what's being said about Washington. If you watch any television show about politics, what is being said is simply Democrat and Republican. There is no concept that there are any other players in the game.
If you're tired of the tied down business aspect of arguing then hold your nose and vote for a Third Party candidate. If nothing else, a significant percentage of Third Party votes might create an interesting story for a week's worth of coverage on McNeil and Lehrer.
Politics in America today is a series of conversation starters supplied by media moguls. They control conversation through the process of selection, but they don't make the news. The news is written, to some extent, by what is happening in the world among people being. Being who they are as a collection of prejudices. The prejudices won't go away if third party candidates win office, but we would have different conversations.
After a while, conversations get stale.
Change the scene, vote Third Party!
Posted by Wyll D Sarge at 10/23/2010 2:45 PM 
Categories: Taboo Plaza
Tags: tired of politics; third party candidates; Plato; Phaedrus
Categories: Taboo Plaza
Tags: tired of politics; third party candidates; Plato; Phaedrus
great share
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