A question brought forth from my recent post, “Do you Jangle in Vain?” To what degree do the structure of democracy and the culture of capitalism combine to encourage vain jangling? Do they inherently tend towards the degradation of individual and cultural language?
Shared on a Dr. Who Facebook page. What jumps out to me is the silliness of the quote itself. If my wife orders pizza periodically and I notice she always orders sausage and mushroom, I can say “I see a pattern.” If I’m working with numbers and I see “1,2,3,5,8,13,21” I can say, “I see a pattern” (I could even name that pattern after an Italian guy). But in neither case am I seeing something “really there.
As a Digital Media student my eyes are open for explorations of the capacity of media to give us different ways of telling stories. Here it is used masterfully, in the unlikely form of a gif animation. Gifs are almost quaint for all but video-snippets now, but this one powerfully captures a suprising cautionary tale. Good job, Honda. For more information on the history of this one, read Business Insider’s article.
On the heels of the Brendan Eich resignation, where mob-fueled persecution recalled a man’s previous support of the Proposition 8 controversy in California marriage-rights history, this weekend we’ve seen a trending “#DropDropbox” tag on Twitter. The issue is with the decision of Dropbox, the most popular provider of cloud data storage, to elect Condoleeza Rice to their board of directors despite her involvement during the Bush administration in extensive wiretapping. Forbes has written a perceptive article on the topic here.
Examples like the Brendan Eich fiasco show us how poorly we exhibit real tolerance–the LGBT community, happily rising from years of intolerance, dramatically reciprocated in a not-quite Ghandi-esque witch hunt. For more on Eich this is a good read. While there was more at play here than simple issues of tolerance, we are too eager to polarize ourselves into completely partisan positions, in any realm. We could all do with a little more understanding of Emerson’s wise words.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
What can I say? These are good days to be a geek. This actually takes a place right beside The Piano Guys for my favorite Star Wars-themed music piece. Just the music would be captivating and quite good; if you watch the video, your captivation may be broken up by outright laughter. Enjoy! (And don’t forget to follow Lindsey Sterling; your happiness-quotient will go up)