homo escapeons

TO HEGEL AND BACK

Which part of LIFE do you find more disturbing..

that random acts of suffering can strike you at any time, the tragic finite certainty that we will die, or that e-gadfly Perez Hilton is still on the radar?

I've been rediscovering my appreciation for the Philosophers..those who boldly stuck out their necks on the chopping block betwixt Science and Religion searching for Reality and Truth..if either really exist?

Have any of you seen Ape Genius on PBS? One question that intrigues me is why Chimpanzees, our nearest lifeform (98% of our DNA) never made the next step to what we term creative thought. Chimps can organise information and solve problems but their "brains never left the launch pad".

Humans are learning animals..we thrive on acquiring and exchanging information. The problem is that now we are concentrating on INFORMATION instead of KNOWLEDGE.

The Internet offers us an unimaginable opportunity to share knowledge but we opt for viewing Perez Hilton whinging about being popped by the manager of the Black Eyed Peas.

To my way of thinking this is the nadir of Modern Culture..a no talent hack who weasled his way into celebrity by being a bitchy little gossip. I think that his Warholian installment of Fame is way past the 15 minute mark and about to be cancelled. It's about f*cking time! Read it HERE


Last night on Frontline there was a doc on how e-garbage (old computers) are being dumped illegally in Africa, India, Vietnam and China. There in primitive garbage strewn ghettos criminals gather personal/financial information on discarded hard drives...credit card numbers, wedding photos..you name it. Information can live forever :)

So here we are at the start of the 21st Century. On one hand the internet is working by informing the world about the cultural revolution in Iran. Like the Dark Ages in Europe, the Middle East has been ruled by theocracies for generations but many of those countries, like Egypt and Iran, have huge populations of young people under the age of 30.

This gives me hope because if they can avoid getting caught up in the frivolous addiction to Entertainment those young people can lead a neo-renaissance and end the Dark Ages.

Which is ironic because during the European Dark Ages the Muslim world flourished under the influence of the rediscovered Philosophers of Antiquity...which of course the Popes had banned. When Spain was reclaimed from the Moors the Westerners re-discovered the forbidden Libraries of the Philosophers and this kick started the Renaissance.

Hegel's immortal line the "History teaches us that people have never learnt anything from history" may not be entirely true.

It certainly is mostly true but somehow Humans have managed to evolve and build on the advances of the previous generation. Then they make the same mistakes (War) and the next generation moves forward. Chimpanzees have never been able to do that. As frustrating as our progress is there is the knowledge that some people will live in a better world than their parents did.