Congeries of cross connected concepts
Sarah Hoyt discovers Logo-Realism and gets a link from Instapundit. I only get you guys.
I would point out that Logo-Realism has a basis in reality, in that the nomenklatura live almost entirely in a world where it works. They have jobs, money, power, purely from symbolic manipulation. The problem, as others have noted, is that they have lost the thread that connects all of that back to the underlying physical reality, who think food comes from grocery stores. It’s the same sort of thing that thinks jobs come from someone saying “you’re hired!” without dependency on some lower layer of reality.
| Bret Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 10:00 |  |
I really like Hoyt’s novels (and so apparently does Instapundit), but she’s not particularly coherent (IMO) when writing about current events and politics. Your posts are much better on the analytic front, but she’s a story teller and people like following narratives like they like following the Pied Piper. I’d much rather Instapundit link here than to Hoyt, but what can ya do?
As far as Logo-Realism goes, it is flabbergasting that civilization has produced so much wealth beyond basic necessity that huge swaths of the population, including the leadership, can be totally insulated from reality.
But then I realize (and I’m attempting to write a post on this but it gets ever longer and more complicated) that actually nearly every American is nearly totally insulated from reality. If the grocery stores stopped having food tomorrow, we’d all die. Even if there was food for months, very few of us could figure out how to plant and/or hunt and/or gather enough to survive beyond when the food ran out.
And this is different than every other major civilization. In all other civilizations, most people were still involved with making food. If our civilization collapses, we’re screwed, screwed, screwed as in dead, dead, dead!
| erp Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 10:34 | |
Yep and Bret, it’s not only food. People put up with all kinds of inconveniences that we wouldn’t have tolerated in bygone days when we expected services in exchange for paying our taxes. Speaking out only causes others embarrassment.
I’m not sure what the words, Logo and Realism, mean when put together like this, but I sure understand it when there’s no there, there. My husband, a lowly bean-counter, warned our son who was making a fortune during the dot com era, the modern version of a ponzi scheme, about that and he got out with minimal damage.
| erp Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 10:40 | |
Yep and Bret, it’s not only food. People put up with all kinds of inconveniences that we wouldn’t have tolerated in bygone days when we expected services in exchange for paying our taxes. Speaking out only causes others embarrassment.
aog,
I’m not sure what the words, logo and realism, mean when put together like this, but I sure understand it when there’s no there, there. My husband, a lowly bean-counter, warned our son who was making a fortune during the dot com, the modern version of a ponzi scheme, about that and he got out with minimal damage … and be grateful you only have us. If you had Instapundit’s traffic, you’d have to join PJMedia, make tons of money, write for the WSJ …
It would seriously cut into your day.
| Annoying Old Guy Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 10:54 | |
erp;
“Logo Realism” is a play on Magic Realism, “Logo” from “Logos”, The Word. It’s a variant of magic realism in that “incantations” or just words can shape reality. For instance, that Obama’s projects outlined in his State of the Union speech won’t increase the deficit because he said it would not and for a Logo Realist, that’s sufficient.
I’m probably better off with lower traffic — there is absolutely no way writing for PJ Media or even the WSJ could pay the hourly rates I currently charge my clients for my mad programming skillz.
Bret;
Heh. I married smart - my wife is a land heiress with close kin who still farm. I have some other friends who do animal husbandry (in fact, we just picked up half a cow from them yesterday). So I’m good. The rest of you are all gonna die when the Gods of the Copybook Headings return.
it is flabbergasting that civilization has produced so much wealth beyond basic necessity that huge swaths of the population, including the leadership, can be totally insulated from reality
Perhaps it’s the other way around, that it is precisely because we have produced such wealth that so many are insulated from reality. Fermi Paradox resolution, as has been suggested? In Ian Banks The Culture ficton, this is a problem with their super AI’s. Simulated reality is so cool, so addictive, that sometimes they just don’t come back from it. A species becomes a Sufficiently Advanced Alien when it can cut that thread for real.
| erp Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 13:36 | |
Thanks aog.
So Logo Realism is kinda like cargo cultism.
Advocates of both are deluded, but those who believe saying something makes it so should know better and the cargo cult folks can’t possibly know why their replicas can’t fly.
Will all life be simulation in the future? I wouldn’t bet against it.
You have no idea how I impress my peers with the cool stuff learn from you guys.
| Annoying Old Guy Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 14:02 | |
erp;
Yes. There’s frequently overlap as well. One of Instapundit’s themes that I think is very insightful is how our nomenklatura have a cargo cult mentality about the hallmarks of the bourgeoisie. They see the things the bourgeoisie have and think “if we give that stuff the proletariat, then they will become bourgeoisie”. It’s a view that mistakes the map for the territory.
