There are very few things that I have found to be universally loved by humankind. While we have disagreements about things we fundamentally disagree on, we also have enjoy having fundamental disagreements about things we agree on simply for the sake of argument. We even gave this a fun name: Trolling.
Anyone that has taken philosophy (read that in a snobbish voice) knows that there are some fundamentals that we have clung to for dear life through historical de-culturalizations, renaissances, and dark ages. As individuals we have disagreed on so much that in the past twenty years especially we have had to bring to the forefront some mutual human feeling so that we don't lose our kinship with one another. In the 1930s and 40s it was Nationalism, in the 60s it was free "love", etc.
In spite of (and more to the point because of) this ramification of human identification, and in deference to the careful "tolerant" and "morally neutral" culture we've painstakingly built as a culture, we have cleverly manipulated the idea of the transcendentals to fit our vacuum of identity. The easiest example is beauty, something everyone can truly see and know deep down applies only superficially to physical metrics. To acknowledge beauty as anything other than either "sexual attraction" or :"acting in a way that conforms to the interests of the state (TOLERANCE)" would be scoffed at by the average millennial.
Hmm I started out talking about what was loved by mankind, didn't I. Assuredly you want to know if we might be able to reach common ground on that after my digression...Young people love two things universally: Irony and Nostalgia.
One of the thing that keeps my flame of hope for the future of the youth is recognition of irony. This might seem a pretty base qualifier, but to put it into no uncertain terms realizing that something carries an inherent uniqueness or apparent contradiction is vital to the future. Someone that recognizes irony is using their brain to connect terms in syllogisms and concepts to phantasms. The most important things are often the things we take for granted until their absence shows us their importance.
Irony is the currency of cleverness between the millennials. People puff up with expectant pride after knowingly saying some ironic statement with a twinkle in their eye as they impart esoteric knowledge they hope you will glean. It's like an inside joke between the upper echelon of come-uppers.
If irony is how we show how smart we are to impress each other, nostalgia is how we as a society show how sensitive and altruistic we are. Because we have lost all sense of what true charity is, we fill that natural yearning of the deepest hold with a cheap emotion of times gone by. People mistake the form of man, that which makes him be what he is, with a feeling. I won't lament this surprisingly widespread practice of mistaking emotion for a movement of the human intellect for fear of boring you, but think about it for a few minutes.
There is one phrase which perfectly captures these two "virtues" of our society. One phrase that actually can change your life: "If I only knew then what I know now..." In most instances of modernity this phrase is used with a pairing of stoically looking off into the distance and a significant pause for dramatic effect. Trust me, as one of the most dramatic people I know I've used this one. It is likely the most nostalgia-heaviest phrase ever.
The irony of the phrase lies in the method, not the methodology. We lament the fact that time does not move backwards. We curse missed "pastortunities" that could have made us rich or helped us avoid mistakes, and then we shrug and make similar mistakes in the future. The funny thing is that time is just a measure of change; remaining unchanged means your life has stood still.
One of the first things we learn as a child is that life is cyclical: every day the sun rises and sets. I remember as a kid once it dawned on me all at once that I would die every day was so new and fresh and full of change. Not to be nostalgic, wink, but as a very happy childhood I look fondly on much of those days and the little joys they contained. The greatest irony of the human life is that we are nostalgic; sighing after future lessons that could have increased our present wealth or "happiness" blocks our consideration of what does make us happy both now and in the future.
Be nostalgic for the future; that is what you can control.
~Worley
Anyone that has taken philosophy (read that in a snobbish voice) knows that there are some fundamentals that we have clung to for dear life through historical de-culturalizations, renaissances, and dark ages. As individuals we have disagreed on so much that in the past twenty years especially we have had to bring to the forefront some mutual human feeling so that we don't lose our kinship with one another. In the 1930s and 40s it was Nationalism, in the 60s it was free "love", etc.
In spite of (and more to the point because of) this ramification of human identification, and in deference to the careful "tolerant" and "morally neutral" culture we've painstakingly built as a culture, we have cleverly manipulated the idea of the transcendentals to fit our vacuum of identity. The easiest example is beauty, something everyone can truly see and know deep down applies only superficially to physical metrics. To acknowledge beauty as anything other than either "sexual attraction" or :"acting in a way that conforms to the interests of the state (TOLERANCE)" would be scoffed at by the average millennial.
Hmm I started out talking about what was loved by mankind, didn't I. Assuredly you want to know if we might be able to reach common ground on that after my digression...Young people love two things universally: Irony and Nostalgia.
One of the thing that keeps my flame of hope for the future of the youth is recognition of irony. This might seem a pretty base qualifier, but to put it into no uncertain terms realizing that something carries an inherent uniqueness or apparent contradiction is vital to the future. Someone that recognizes irony is using their brain to connect terms in syllogisms and concepts to phantasms. The most important things are often the things we take for granted until their absence shows us their importance.
Irony is the currency of cleverness between the millennials. People puff up with expectant pride after knowingly saying some ironic statement with a twinkle in their eye as they impart esoteric knowledge they hope you will glean. It's like an inside joke between the upper echelon of come-uppers.
If irony is how we show how smart we are to impress each other, nostalgia is how we as a society show how sensitive and altruistic we are. Because we have lost all sense of what true charity is, we fill that natural yearning of the deepest hold with a cheap emotion of times gone by. People mistake the form of man, that which makes him be what he is, with a feeling. I won't lament this surprisingly widespread practice of mistaking emotion for a movement of the human intellect for fear of boring you, but think about it for a few minutes.
There is one phrase which perfectly captures these two "virtues" of our society. One phrase that actually can change your life: "If I only knew then what I know now..." In most instances of modernity this phrase is used with a pairing of stoically looking off into the distance and a significant pause for dramatic effect. Trust me, as one of the most dramatic people I know I've used this one. It is likely the most nostalgia-heaviest phrase ever.
The irony of the phrase lies in the method, not the methodology. We lament the fact that time does not move backwards. We curse missed "pastortunities" that could have made us rich or helped us avoid mistakes, and then we shrug and make similar mistakes in the future. The funny thing is that time is just a measure of change; remaining unchanged means your life has stood still.
One of the first things we learn as a child is that life is cyclical: every day the sun rises and sets. I remember as a kid once it dawned on me all at once that I would die every day was so new and fresh and full of change. Not to be nostalgic, wink, but as a very happy childhood I look fondly on much of those days and the little joys they contained. The greatest irony of the human life is that we are nostalgic; sighing after future lessons that could have increased our present wealth or "happiness" blocks our consideration of what does make us happy both now and in the future.
Be nostalgic for the future; that is what you can control.
~Worley
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