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Weblog comments and your sensible future

Who would have thought that something as casual as the comment section of a weblog would provide an entré into recognizing core issues as important to you as how you choose to think and how you recognize and respond to the actions of others.

As each of us tries to negotiate our way through life with a minimum of pain, we come into contact with some people who contribute to pain and others who reduce it. Weblog lurkers who have witnessed someone bitchslapped for their comments realize that the comment section of a weblog is a mini-culture that acts like a cross-section of the world.

Blog comment conversation is as slippery as its on-the-spot, face-to-face counterpart -- probably because the skills to carry on conversations are not key components of school curricula. We teach English, not how to use the tools of thought. Teaching the tools of thought has been squeezed out of the curriculum.

Example one

An observer goes into a room. He points his flashlight into one corner and sees light. He points it towards another corner and it, too, is lit. Everywhere he points his flashlight he observes the light. On exiting the room, he mistakenly concludes that that the room is lit.

Example two

In Physics, you cannot observe an atomic particle without affecting it. In conversation, you cannot participate in a transaction without affecting it. Just like when you pass a magnifying glass across a map the image is perturbed to seem drawn toward you, what you see is affected by how you look at it.

Both examples illustrate a problem I've been examining over the last quarter century. Grossly and humorously stated, are 80 percent of the people asses 100 percent of the time or are 100 percent of the people asses 80 percent of the time? Whose job is it to recognize when someone else is acting like an ass and how should you defend against it? Whose job is it to tell us when WE are acting like asses? And how should we respond?

Why is this important? We are engaged in a race towards civilization in which there is no guarantee that the good guys -- whoever they may be -- will win. This is pivotally important today since, as Jacob Bronowski pointed out in 1980, the tools of science have placed so much knowledge in the hands of humanity that no longer is a strong box enough to protect our wealth and an iron door sufficient to protect our families. Our job, should we choose to accept this "Mission Impossible", is to fashion a lifeboat that will carry us safely through storm-tossed seas, to create a protective umbrella under which those who agree to peaceful problem resolution can deal with each other in relative safety, and where we can defend ourselves against those who don't.

Not that you'd know it from philosophy books, but great thinkers across history -- Confucius, Seneca, Montaigne, and others -- have turned their considerable talents to addressing such questions. And since technology has us ready to embark on an internet-driven technological/cultural roller coaster ride with weak brakes, doesn't it make sense to do a little prep work beforehand?

People have different noses, hair, skeletal structure, body fat, motor and muscular skills. They also have different mental skills. Some may be more or less adept at spatial relations, mathematics, memory recall, or deduction. People judge others on the basis of physical or mechanical skills, on their ability to test well or poorly, on their popularity or wit. They will make estimates of their own skill in these areas. But, as Seneca pointed out, they will never concede to another better judgment. Yet, in schools, churches, families, there is no curriculum, no catechism, no Dr. Spock book by which to train the next generation, much less hone the skills of the current one.

In days of yore, people students studied the Seven Liberal Arts. Today you'd be hard-pressed to find an educated person who knows what they are. The first three are Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. They are known as the Trivium.[See The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric] It is in your best interest to know why they are important:

• Grammar teaches people to structure thoughts so they make sense.
• Logic is a method to test those thoughts for consistency.
• Rhetoric is how to present those thoughts to others clearly for their own examination and how to test the thoughts others convey to you.

The comment section of a weblog provides feedback to the author and feedback to others who comment. That, incidentally, is the fundamental characteristic of a computer -- the output of a calculation can be directed back to be some of the input for further computation. Computer jocks call this "recursion".

The concept of recursion is useful to understand because people think recursively. You can think about thinking about thinking about thinking... and so on. That idea is more accessible to people today because feedback systems have become part of everyday life. When a microphone gets placed too close to a speaker, the ear-piercing squeal is an unpleasant occurrence of recursion. Recursion is illustrated by Dutch artist M.C. Escher's Print Gallery 1956 that shows a gallery window in which one sees a visitor looking at a landscape painting in which are painted buildings, one of which is an art gallery and in one window of that gallery can be seen a visitor looking at a landscape painting.... [http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/recogn-bmp/LW410.jpg]

Examples of recursion help people understand several sometimes slippery things:

1. That how they think can be constructive or destructive,
2. How they communicate with others (i.e. in weblogs) can be constructive or destructive, and
3. How to create a useful framework for dealing with the rest of the world.

Hints like these are Simple Wisdoms [first pass of a draft at Simple Wisdoms Overview]. They are accessible across cultures, religions and ages and allow people to understand their shared self-interest. While schools, churches and families may overlook key points, its still possible for each of us to discover them for ourselves. People across history thought enough about those of us in the future to write about their experiences. We can use this technology to continue the process. Why is it important? It is only that civilization depends on it.

Discuss

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