(no subject)
Aloha. This is Joe live from Sarasota, Florida. So the "aloha" was probably not very appropriate based on geographical connotations, but it's climatological connotations justify my salutation.
Today I went on a postmodern journey. I walked two blocks (very large blocks) through urban sprawl to a plaza that spanned the length of an entire block (and it went on across the main road past that length) and the width of approximately a McDonald's and a Walmart with a parking lot in between.
This plaza, named University Walk after the nearby South(ern?) Florida University, was by no means pedestrian friendly. I grabbed dinner at Panera and a coffee at the neighboring Starbucks on my swing back around after exploring Walmart. Besides the already mentioned commercial establishments, this enormous super plaza contained two gas stations, at least two banks, a Checkers (fast food restaurant), a Taco Bell, two large grocery stores, a Blockbuster and an Albertsons (I think a movie rental place), at least two Chinese restaurants, a fancy Italian restaurant, at least two small Italian restaurants, a Japanese restaurant, a German restaurant (!), an H & R Block, a Fashion Bug, a shoe store, a fancy Mexican restaurant, a Quizno's, a Dollar Tree, and several other general and specialty stores that could not remain within the confines of my overwhelmed brain. Besides their geography, (and very slight differences in climate) what is the difference betwen suburban California, suburban Arizona, and suburban Florida. Ah! Nothing.
The modern architecture of these ever expanding suburbs is becoming a paradigm for alienation in the Marxian sense. The sense of walking or driving and apparently getting nowhere is one possibly experienced while trekking through undeveloped Florida (or California or Arizona) gradeless terrain that perhaps the city planners in the area seem to be aiming to recreate. This can be compared possibly to the gloom of rapid development of large cities such as London and New York in industrial times, minus the social aspect of forced interaction. Perhaps the modern criticism could have been countered by the positivity of the fulfillment of the instinctual human desire of social contact. Or perhaps people purchase their nondescript homes with the knoledge of the culture of isolation that they are helping to spread. Perhaps it is possible that humans' necessity for social interaction completely disappears after reproduction occurs (though the renewal of social desires in some older adults seems to hint that perhaps this just isn't so and the isolation that occurs in the middle of life is an unnecessary detriment to overall well-being).
The concept of postmodernism has intrigued me lately. Seemingly the only logical step (though self-contradictory) beyond the monotony of modernism, I see in these McDonaldized and Walmartesque times a parallel to past reactions to periods of uniformity or oversimplified economy, such as the renaissance in response to the dark ages and the Romantic era following the enlightenment. Though, in this case (moreso compared to the others, though certainly the others to some degree), we have an opposition of viewpoints which has grown increasingly evident as we Americans become known as global cowboys with our leader, Belligerent (or Bellicose) Bush.
It is too early to tell, though, to what extent this is a global (or at least, Western) epoch. Until I spend some amount of time in Europe, I will withhold convictions about the sorry state of the States, though at this point, it sure seems that we're doing something wrong when we don't value intelligence enough to even have a top ten ranking in math among high school students. Our death of great thinkers is evident when you compare the populaion and per capita income of the US with that of other countries producing brilliant minds. All this beside the ever-nagging reality that a very large percentage of this country's yearly income flows increasingly to the top 10% of the populaion because greed is the unsaid successor to the morals on which this country was supposedly founded on over 230 years ago. Where is the freedom? Oh, it belongs to the CEO's of the oil companies that jack up their prices far past an ethical bound that will remain unenforced because that analysts and politicians would prefer a payoff to the satisfaction of preserving the basic elements of a sound economic structure, and only when our economy collapses upon itself and those greedy assholes are roasting on a spit will they grudgingly utter, "oops."
I didn't mean for this entry to be so long. I've been relaxed for the most part this week. I've already read five chapters out of my philosophy textbook. Maybe I am most relaxed when I am left on my own to discover what it is that I have before me to discover. It is past 2:30, so I should certainly go to bed so that I do not perpetuate my failure identity and end this vacation with a sense of incomplete relaxation. Perhaps the same antilogical subjectivity that exists in the accepted meaning of happiness can be expresed when attempting to measure relaxation. Maybe relaxation occurs at one instant. As long as we are spoonfed some idealistic commercialized bullshit about what should make us happy, relaxed, secure, or whatever, we should remember that everything is an advertisement. If it costs something for relaxation, consequently, that bought relaxation becomes meaningless and nullified by the departure of funds (unless your money grows on trees). I suppose if the marginal amount of relaxation per day can somehow be rationally proved to outweigh the marginal price of said relaxation, without forgetting to take into account every little expense and every second of any feeling experienced not matching an operationally defined feeling of relaxation, then maybe when all is said and done, one can calculate the relaxational value of his or her vacation. Of course, you would also have to factor in the time taken to complete this calculation, which would seem to be reminiscent of doing your taxes.
Just some more philosophical babble that I will be able to look back upon at a later date and laugh at its utter practical implausibility. But at least I'm thinking.
Today I went on a postmodern journey. I walked two blocks (very large blocks) through urban sprawl to a plaza that spanned the length of an entire block (and it went on across the main road past that length) and the width of approximately a McDonald's and a Walmart with a parking lot in between.
This plaza, named University Walk after the nearby South(ern?) Florida University, was by no means pedestrian friendly. I grabbed dinner at Panera and a coffee at the neighboring Starbucks on my swing back around after exploring Walmart. Besides the already mentioned commercial establishments, this enormous super plaza contained two gas stations, at least two banks, a Checkers (fast food restaurant), a Taco Bell, two large grocery stores, a Blockbuster and an Albertsons (I think a movie rental place), at least two Chinese restaurants, a fancy Italian restaurant, at least two small Italian restaurants, a Japanese restaurant, a German restaurant (!), an H & R Block, a Fashion Bug, a shoe store, a fancy Mexican restaurant, a Quizno's, a Dollar Tree, and several other general and specialty stores that could not remain within the confines of my overwhelmed brain. Besides their geography, (and very slight differences in climate) what is the difference betwen suburban California, suburban Arizona, and suburban Florida. Ah! Nothing.
The modern architecture of these ever expanding suburbs is becoming a paradigm for alienation in the Marxian sense. The sense of walking or driving and apparently getting nowhere is one possibly experienced while trekking through undeveloped Florida (or California or Arizona) gradeless terrain that perhaps the city planners in the area seem to be aiming to recreate. This can be compared possibly to the gloom of rapid development of large cities such as London and New York in industrial times, minus the social aspect of forced interaction. Perhaps the modern criticism could have been countered by the positivity of the fulfillment of the instinctual human desire of social contact. Or perhaps people purchase their nondescript homes with the knoledge of the culture of isolation that they are helping to spread. Perhaps it is possible that humans' necessity for social interaction completely disappears after reproduction occurs (though the renewal of social desires in some older adults seems to hint that perhaps this just isn't so and the isolation that occurs in the middle of life is an unnecessary detriment to overall well-being).
The concept of postmodernism has intrigued me lately. Seemingly the only logical step (though self-contradictory) beyond the monotony of modernism, I see in these McDonaldized and Walmartesque times a parallel to past reactions to periods of uniformity or oversimplified economy, such as the renaissance in response to the dark ages and the Romantic era following the enlightenment. Though, in this case (moreso compared to the others, though certainly the others to some degree), we have an opposition of viewpoints which has grown increasingly evident as we Americans become known as global cowboys with our leader, Belligerent (or Bellicose) Bush.
It is too early to tell, though, to what extent this is a global (or at least, Western) epoch. Until I spend some amount of time in Europe, I will withhold convictions about the sorry state of the States, though at this point, it sure seems that we're doing something wrong when we don't value intelligence enough to even have a top ten ranking in math among high school students. Our death of great thinkers is evident when you compare the populaion and per capita income of the US with that of other countries producing brilliant minds. All this beside the ever-nagging reality that a very large percentage of this country's yearly income flows increasingly to the top 10% of the populaion because greed is the unsaid successor to the morals on which this country was supposedly founded on over 230 years ago. Where is the freedom? Oh, it belongs to the CEO's of the oil companies that jack up their prices far past an ethical bound that will remain unenforced because that analysts and politicians would prefer a payoff to the satisfaction of preserving the basic elements of a sound economic structure, and only when our economy collapses upon itself and those greedy assholes are roasting on a spit will they grudgingly utter, "oops."
I didn't mean for this entry to be so long. I've been relaxed for the most part this week. I've already read five chapters out of my philosophy textbook. Maybe I am most relaxed when I am left on my own to discover what it is that I have before me to discover. It is past 2:30, so I should certainly go to bed so that I do not perpetuate my failure identity and end this vacation with a sense of incomplete relaxation. Perhaps the same antilogical subjectivity that exists in the accepted meaning of happiness can be expresed when attempting to measure relaxation. Maybe relaxation occurs at one instant. As long as we are spoonfed some idealistic commercialized bullshit about what should make us happy, relaxed, secure, or whatever, we should remember that everything is an advertisement. If it costs something for relaxation, consequently, that bought relaxation becomes meaningless and nullified by the departure of funds (unless your money grows on trees). I suppose if the marginal amount of relaxation per day can somehow be rationally proved to outweigh the marginal price of said relaxation, without forgetting to take into account every little expense and every second of any feeling experienced not matching an operationally defined feeling of relaxation, then maybe when all is said and done, one can calculate the relaxational value of his or her vacation. Of course, you would also have to factor in the time taken to complete this calculation, which would seem to be reminiscent of doing your taxes.
Just some more philosophical babble that I will be able to look back upon at a later date and laugh at its utter practical implausibility. But at least I'm thinking.