Thomas Lord   [09.02.07 06:09 PM]

The Tao Te Ching and the I Ching have in common that one good way to use either as a meditative device is to flip around randomly. They're pattern books, in that sense, and famous quotes generally function similarly. (The Tao Te Ching, though, is certainly not random: it's an extened length poetic contemplation of the psychological phenomenon of polarization and its relation to the complex dynamics of natural phenomenon.)

It seems to me that pretty much everyone in western philosophy since Plato has, in some measure, been "refuting" him. Except that his main point seems to have been, simply, that it's good to have a culture of letters tossing around abstract ideas about human experience for the sake of gaining better understanding through chat. Plato's nickname must have been Pandora.

Laurie Anderson said:

Or are you just practicing
For one of those performances of yours?
Huh?
Language! It's a virus!
Language! It's a virus!
He said: I had to write that letter to your mother
And I had to tell the judge that it was you.
And I had to sell the car and go to Florida.
Becaure that's just my way of saying (It's a charm.)
That I love you. And I (It's a job.)
Had to call you at the crack of dawn (Why?)
And list the times that I've been wrong.
Cause that's just my way of saying
That I'm sorry. (It's a job.)
Language! It's a virus!
Language! It's a virus!
Paradise
Is exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much much (It's a shipwreck)
Better. (It's a job.)
You know? I don't believe there's such
a thing as TV. I mean -
They just keep showing you
The same pictures over ond over.
And when they talk they just make sounds
That more or less synch up
With their lips.
That's what I think!

tagger-ly,
-t

Steve Kaufmann   [09.03.07 02:46 PM]

It is easier to kill a dead king like Plato. A live one, like our educational system, with its army of "stake holders" is more difficult to take on. But the job should be undertaken.

Bly's "leaping" or “the ability to associate fast” has great application to learning in the web 2.0 world. You can jump in the middle of any text,in any language, and with enough links to other resources, efficient storage of information for retrieval and review, and help from community members on the web, you can be on your way to learning what you want to learn, (assuming you want to, otherwise why bother) and acquiring the language(s) it was written in. No beginners, just explorers, or leapers!

nordsieck   [09.03.07 06:49 PM]

Just because something is big doesn't make it a king - the educational system, for example, is about as polar an opposite of a king as I can think of - it is terrible at what it does and there is no one who can credibly take the blame.