Y'know, like, how some people you meet, like, you notice they, like, say "like" like every other word?
I have a theory that this actually stems from Postmodernism.
See, part of Postmodernism is this idea that noone can really know what is real and unreal outside of their own mind. You know your mind is real because you are your mind. "I think, therefore I am." But beyond that, all your sense impressions, all your interactions with other people, could be your own imagination or someone else's. I'm told the Matrix is essentially based on the idea that half the world is living in a computer-generated world and doesn't realize it. (I haven't actually seen it, so correct me if I'm wrong.) It also reminds me of The Truman Show. I've even entertained the idea myself that everyone around me is in this vast conspiracy and places like London or New York or India or Alaska don't really exist, I'm just made to believe they do. Postcards are all CGI. I mean, if movies look real, reality could be fake! But I'm waxing loquacious.
If everything could just be an appearance of reality, for all we know, we can't make any definitive statements at all about what we see happening around us. We can only say it was "like" it happened.
So, I'm, like, sitting at my computer. And, like, I've got these blog friends that, like, comment on stuff I say. But I don't know if any of it is really there or not.
The Two Kinds of Moderate
1 year ago
21 comments:
I knew I must like you for a reason.
you relate things to movies. that's very good. I speak in movieish. just about anything that happens in life can be related to or made better by a movie.
love the truman show.
oh yes and good post btw.....interesting thoughts. I like it.
Thank you Crystal! I am not the only one that contemplates these important matters of life.
Its like this. . .
"Are you my mother??"
GAH!!!!! I just saw a typo in my post!! Forgive me, people, for bringing such an awful object into your sight. It shall be rectified immediately.
I'm confuzzled, Lucy. What's like this? Is who whose mother?
"But I don't know if any of it is really there or not."
Like that.
Oh, not anybody particular. Have you ever read Are You My Mother? Excellent book BTW.
Love the book. it's so cute.
Hmmm. Welll, I don't known about you, but I'm real. But I think my friends are in an alternate demension.
OOOOOoooohhhhh.
I wondered these things once....
then I pinched myself. decided then and there that I was definitely real.
you are not my mother. you are a snort.
*sigh* I am crashing...need sugar or real food or something made for blood sugars that need to be kept high....
Yes, but am I real, Verya? You can pinch me, but even if I scream, I could still be a figment of your imagination.
you need sleep, maybe? or just downtime?
No, I haven't read Are You My Mother?. (Gah, punctuation issues.) Who is it by and what's it about?
*GASP* You HAVEN"T read Are You My Mother?!?!?!?!?!? It has to be the most classic of classic books!!!!! Every little one has read it!! Let me illuminate things for you. . .
Are You My Mother is the most cherished book by any child. Written by, truly truly, Doctor Seuss. It is about this poor little birdie who falls out of his nest and not knowing who his mommy is. So he goes on a quest to find out who she really is. Hence the snort.
You MUST go to the library immediately, find this book and read it on the spot!!!!!! *raises eyebrow*
Oh, and, if you have an imagination, it would require something real to make something up. Soo, if everything s just a figment of the imagination what exactly makes the imagination real??
Is anybody following me here???????
noooo.....
well, except on the Are you my Mother part.
(bad punctuation there too)
OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH THAT book. Of COURSE I've read it, I just forgot the name! EVERYBODY'S read that! Rofl.
And that is one of the arguments against Postmodernism. Which, if I didn't make things clear, I do not believe, it's just a current theory running around.
The counter-argument would be, I suppose, that your imagination is real, and you are real, so you posited the existence of other thinking beings like yourself. Kind of like an extension of those sorts of people who think everyone thinks exactly the way they do.
And the other option - that it's all in someone or something else's imagination (not necessarily a human being, but a thinking being) actually has a grain of truth, because we're kind of all in God's imagination. We can never be as really real as He is.
but really now...
is it that important?
those of us who think we're really here or not (and some people aren't all there, let me tell you), we all go on living our lives. how much does it matter?
though it is a fascinating discussion.
Because, if nobody else and nothing else exists except me, than I have license to essentially do whatever I want to do to them and be a horrid selfish pig, because I'm the only living being in the universe. I can also commit suicide with a freer conscience, because it doesn't affect my family. Once I no longer exist, they no longer exist, because I dreamed them up.
Which is a big deal.
Hmmm. . . if everything is a figment of the imagination, than with just one thought that person could disappear as if he never really existed. Because he never really DID exist. But no matter how much or how hard you believe somebody doesn't exist (talking about a real person here), that person really DOES exist because you cannot just think him away.
Unless. . . we are all imagining creatures in our own imagination. We are not essentially real as in physically real. Our minds could all be linked to have this discussion thinking we are real but in reality are not. But the problem with that is, if one realizes that they are not essentially real, than they could think there "imagination bodies" anywhere they want because they are not truly existent. Only in mind does it exist.
Then there are those people who could argue that there are rules and laws within the imagination. If a person is made up, then they MUST be real in their own mind and CANNOT be thought away. Even if you believe they are not real, because everything is an illusion, you cannot THINK them away. But the problem with that is you would be arguing with yourself.
Anyways. . .
Yeah, the thing is that even if you really want them to be unreal, you still, deep down, think he is real, so he doesn't disappear. You can't control your subconscious, which is, supposedly, the part of your brain that makes up all this stuff.
Don't you find it interesting that all of our minds imagine the same thing?? Supposing our imagination is real in the first place....
But the whole point is that if I'm the only extant being, then you don't exist and your mind is part of my mind. Or, from your point of view, you're the only extant being and I don't really exist. But the moment you assume that other points of view really exist, the whole thing falls apart, which is why I'm not being consistent, because I don't really believe this theory, I'm just explaining it.
Have you read 1984?
Then if you only existed, then all knowledge would be in your brain already. It would depend on how open you are to use. Anyways. . .
I always find these sort of things fascinating and tend to ramble. No I haven't read that book. Whats it about?
rotLf :-)
Well, I can tell you firmly and accurately (as your distant, sensible part of your imagination, Lireal Dianne) that Alaska is quite real, and a lot prettier than the part of your imaginary world that you're living in. It's colder too. Did you do that on purpose??? Now that's just mean.....
:-)
Great discussion. Thanks for explaining post modernism Crystal. I didn't have a grasp on it before, mostly cause I wasn't all that interested. *hints* You are interesting. Lol
I'm sounding weird this morning.
You should make a new post. I did! :-) Wait, did I invite you to my blog?
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