The Banality of Mediocrity - Ibrahim Kalin
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-249616-the-banality-of-mediocrity.html
“Anything goes.” This is how Paul Feyerabend, the most famous advocate of epistemic anarchism in the 20th century, described his philosophy of science. Feyerabend and his allies sought to break the epistemic monopoly of the natural sciences and bring out the fragile human dimension in everything we do as humans. But the philosophy of “anything goes” goes beyond science and serves to justify the mediocre ways of late modernity.
Barack Obama used the phrase “the politics of anything goes” in his famous speech at the Democratic Convention in Illinois in 2004 where he endorsed John Kerry as the Democratic candidate for president. He said: “Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of ‘anything goes.' Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America.” Politics, probably more than anything else, is susceptible to the philosophy of anything goes, and to mediocrity.
Mediocrity, the attitude that is accepting of things of low -- that is, mediocre -- quality, reigns in our age. It permeates our lives from education and art to politics and religious life. It finds all sorts of justifications in the name of economic necessities, development and growth. The consumerism that defines our choices adds to the power of mediocrity. It makes us think that we have access to everything we need to be fully human. The entertainment culture that shapes our feelings, desires and wants finds a great ally in mediocrity because it gives us the false pleasure of getting away from the trials of daily life. The market capitalism that increasingly defines our humanity presents mediocrity as a fact of life -- something we cannot run away from. It turns into the stubborn illusion that we can't do better or aim higher with what we have at our disposal. So we recoil at the illusion that “anything goes” as the easy way out.
We most frequently justify mediocrity, if we are aware of its existence at all, on economic grounds. There is some truth to that. High quality has become the exclusive commodity of the rich. You have to spend money to have the best, the most beautiful things around. But here is the catch: It is one thing to own good, beautiful, expensive “things,” and another to pursue a life of simple beauty and dignity.
There is a difference between maintaining dignity in one's daily life and being happy with low quality and doing things in a cheap way. Not being rich is no excuse for mediocrity. Some of the greatest minds in history were neither rich nor had much political power. Valuing ourselves on a mediocre definition of life is a way of turning ourselves into a commodity, surrendering our minds, aspirations and dreams to the flow of free markets.
The great irony is that mediocrity has been given a free ride in our lives at a time when we see a mindboggling increase in the sophistication of modern science, technology, communications, travelling and all the other things we do every day. While the machines and devices we use are the most complex devices humanity has ever seen, we as humans are content with doing things with deafening mediocrity. That is why new educational technologies do not produce better educated kids. Higher Internet speed does not make us more knowledgeable or wiser. Better mobile phones do not give us deeper insight into the reality of things. Complex legal documents do not guarantee justice. The ever-changing nature of global politics does not secure human dignity.
We mistakenly think that mediocrity is the opposite of being “sophisticated.” One can do things in a simple, non-expensive manner but still with depth, grace, insight and dignity. We operate with sophisticated gadgets and machines but we live our lives in a mediocre way, refusing to admit that we can always do better with our lives and aim for higher moral standards.
The philosophy of “anything goes,” while its main target was different, has come to give an unfortunate voice to accepting anything that comes our way as it is. But human freedom is fully exercised when we reject such banality and demand what is fitting for our humanity, our dignity. The difference between guarding your freedom and maintaining a degree of discipline is clear enough. But we ridicule discipline and order in the name of freedom and mistake mediocrity for individual freedom.
The banality of mediocrity imprisons our minds and turns us into mediocre beings. But our humanity demands of us to be more than just mediocre, consuming entities.
Posted via m.livejournal.com.
“Anything goes.” This is how Paul Feyerabend, the most famous advocate of epistemic anarchism in the 20th century, described his philosophy of science. Feyerabend and his allies sought to break the epistemic monopoly of the natural sciences and bring out the fragile human dimension in everything we do as humans. But the philosophy of “anything goes” goes beyond science and serves to justify the mediocre ways of late modernity.
Barack Obama used the phrase “the politics of anything goes” in his famous speech at the Democratic Convention in Illinois in 2004 where he endorsed John Kerry as the Democratic candidate for president. He said: “Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of ‘anything goes.' Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America.” Politics, probably more than anything else, is susceptible to the philosophy of anything goes, and to mediocrity.
Mediocrity, the attitude that is accepting of things of low -- that is, mediocre -- quality, reigns in our age. It permeates our lives from education and art to politics and religious life. It finds all sorts of justifications in the name of economic necessities, development and growth. The consumerism that defines our choices adds to the power of mediocrity. It makes us think that we have access to everything we need to be fully human. The entertainment culture that shapes our feelings, desires and wants finds a great ally in mediocrity because it gives us the false pleasure of getting away from the trials of daily life. The market capitalism that increasingly defines our humanity presents mediocrity as a fact of life -- something we cannot run away from. It turns into the stubborn illusion that we can't do better or aim higher with what we have at our disposal. So we recoil at the illusion that “anything goes” as the easy way out.
We most frequently justify mediocrity, if we are aware of its existence at all, on economic grounds. There is some truth to that. High quality has become the exclusive commodity of the rich. You have to spend money to have the best, the most beautiful things around. But here is the catch: It is one thing to own good, beautiful, expensive “things,” and another to pursue a life of simple beauty and dignity.
There is a difference between maintaining dignity in one's daily life and being happy with low quality and doing things in a cheap way. Not being rich is no excuse for mediocrity. Some of the greatest minds in history were neither rich nor had much political power. Valuing ourselves on a mediocre definition of life is a way of turning ourselves into a commodity, surrendering our minds, aspirations and dreams to the flow of free markets.
The great irony is that mediocrity has been given a free ride in our lives at a time when we see a mindboggling increase in the sophistication of modern science, technology, communications, travelling and all the other things we do every day. While the machines and devices we use are the most complex devices humanity has ever seen, we as humans are content with doing things with deafening mediocrity. That is why new educational technologies do not produce better educated kids. Higher Internet speed does not make us more knowledgeable or wiser. Better mobile phones do not give us deeper insight into the reality of things. Complex legal documents do not guarantee justice. The ever-changing nature of global politics does not secure human dignity.
We mistakenly think that mediocrity is the opposite of being “sophisticated.” One can do things in a simple, non-expensive manner but still with depth, grace, insight and dignity. We operate with sophisticated gadgets and machines but we live our lives in a mediocre way, refusing to admit that we can always do better with our lives and aim for higher moral standards.
The philosophy of “anything goes,” while its main target was different, has come to give an unfortunate voice to accepting anything that comes our way as it is. But human freedom is fully exercised when we reject such banality and demand what is fitting for our humanity, our dignity. The difference between guarding your freedom and maintaining a degree of discipline is clear enough. But we ridicule discipline and order in the name of freedom and mistake mediocrity for individual freedom.
The banality of mediocrity imprisons our minds and turns us into mediocre beings. But our humanity demands of us to be more than just mediocre, consuming entities.
Posted via m.livejournal.com.