The Twilight of the Thunder God

 

Do me a favor and try to spot the snake in the grass here: 

In Networked: The New Operating System, a community is defined as “fluid personal networks rather than a static neighborhood or family group” (p.122).

                             Communities....are...fluid...."people"....on your phone.......

When I hear things like this being passed as education, I seriously question my sanity and intelligence. Thank god for all those IQ tests growing up. Hard evidence is always refreshing. 

No. Communities are not fluid people on your phone. Communities are a group of people, usually the family, that allow for the impartation of a tradition that interprets the one and only objective truth through a shared epistemic artifact mediated by experiences with the environment. The East has ALWAYS been collectivist, not fluid, and just now, and the West has always been individualist since Columbus. This comes from traditional interpretations of reality and their view on basic human concepts such as autonomy, ego, and the shadow. 

Even a casual reading of giants like Jung, Socrates, and EVEN Neitchzche leads to the idea that a dogma that interprets the symbols of our minds is static. Moreover, communities are places for intimacy and collective learning. The family unit used to be the core of these communities, where it would take years of intimacy and interactions to mold personalities and socialize children. Jung says that the sole reason for human life is the integration of the Anima and Animus through intimacy and trust (marriage) and the integration of the shadow (social foil). 

OR we can take the easy way out and follow the brass snake that tells you that meeting people offline is the same as having "friends." 

Look around: does it look like we are not bitten and perishing? Will you be taking a selfie when Moses raises the defeated brass serpent? Will you be in the Coliseum when Apollo comes to slaughter the Python? 

The Brass Snake in the Desert.

 

      Nahashton: The Bronze Snake in the Desert 

The Israelites grew weary from their lengthy journey around the land of Edom. They spoke with dissatisfaction about what God had done for them and doubted what He would do in the future. They cursed the mana that was provided for them. As a punishment, He sent fiery serpents among them, which bit many, causing a painful death. They likely would not have acknowledged their sin without experiencing its painful consequences, but they repented under punishment. God then provided a miraculous remedy for their relief. They were to forge a brass serpent and put it on a poll. Once all looked upon it, they would be healed.  This brass serpent is called the Nahashton, a secondary snake in rabbinical lore. 

The Nahashton is the Judaism equivalent of the Demiurge, the son of Sophia, in Greek Hermeticism. The Demiurge is the source of the veil that blinds us, the source of the sin of the world. It is the source of the material world that is disconnected from perennial truth. Instead of focusing on the transcendent and objective truth of the universe, we focus on the impetus of our base desires, the snakes, as we fulfill our inherent drive to anthropogeny and generativity, as Sophia, the soul, desires to create without her consort and precociously. Sophia is the original Web, and the Demiurge is Web 2.0. The internet was created so that universities could share scientific papers faster. Then, it became a way of sharing media faster. But our human nature could not be satiated. We had to create a feeling of being fully actualized out of our basic instincts. So, Web 2.0 was born. At first, it was a cute baby with huge eyes that allowed you to see puppy videos and send pictures to Grandma. But the baby grew into a devouring snake that has taken many with its fiery fiberoptic jaws. 

As fools in the desert, we look to social media to immediately fulfill our desires with empty and insipid content creation. One may only look at the number of followers meaningless dances get on TikTok vs. the audience for the presentations of Loriattes. The Bread and Circus strategy is not new, but it has become a plague of fiery snakes in our society as we look to the immediate and pleasurable over the dense truth and painful discipline. 

The genius of the Romans still rings true as their Colleseus migrated from a stone building in a faraway land to a square of plastic on your hands. Intellectual and moral degeneration usually precedes the fall of societies. I hope somebody takes a selfie with it. 

Your Mind is a Snake Pit

 

                                                 SNAKE PIT: THIS IS YOUR MIND NOW. 

   Snake Mating – Sometimes It's an Orgy

Photographs of snake mating support the notion that reproduction among some snake species happens in an orgy. In the spring, the garter snake males emerge from their dens in large numbers, writhing and slithering in a frenzy when females awaken. They will gather in specific places, such as snake pits, where several males mate with a single female until she gets pregnant. And people wonder why snakes get a bad rep...

This week's readings pointed at the convoluted nature of social media, where the line between consumer and creator is blurred. For example, a creator may post a video on TikTok about their thoughts on puppies, and hundreds of other lower-tier creators will slither and writhe to the fertile video and attach themselves to it and try to "remix" or "comment" on it, making their own content babies. This ruminated contend will do its rounds on the collective mind until it falls out of vogue. 

The base of social media is the impetus to spread information without the formalization of discrete definitions. It all becomes a hivemind, a snake pit, where it is impossible to extrapolate meaning further than mere self-expression. 

Week 1 Reflection.

What Happens When the Virtue Becomes Vice? 

I found the slides of the VoicThread interesting, especially the part about drinking from the hydrant (isn't that about Med School?) and Fake News. I think that social media has a good and an evil side. The good side is that it can connect people from all over the planet into communities that help them grow and feel fulfilled. However, it may also serve as a spying tool. More grievously, it can serve as a tool to spread the worst about us. But what happens when we think we are being educated but serve to spread vice? 

Fake News and Deception. 

We have all seen this over the last few years. The number of social media posts spreading lies about public figures and important events is staggering. While I think Hilary would actually eat babies, I don't think she is an actual witch like some Christians like to post about. Through fake news, we fall prey to social and psychological processes that cause us to spread or seek out news that confirms our biases and mindsets. Without any concern for the truth, we fall into intellectually lazyness and seek what feels right. 

We should treat social media like any other tool and use it for anthropogeny rather than be ruled by it. We must be its master rather than have it dominate our time and our minds. 

Let's Simply Walk into Mordor.

 

      So, what can social media be healthily used for, despite its many landmines? 

The significant advantage of social media is that it can create a community. I love Lord of the Rings. I can not get enough of it. I only found it through a social media post on my old Instagram. I will forever be grateful for it. Even though, I am not sure why, I have a hard time considering YouTube to be social media, I use it constantly to find educational videos. Under those videos, to a very low level of word application, a "community" organizes itself around that subject matter. Sometimes, the community can even be cohesive. I found awesome YT channels that explain obscure Tolkien lore. Some creators are from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Japan, etc. Here, social media has shone its highest idea: to connect like-minded individuals globally to grow together. It also connects Hamas terrorists through Telegram, but let`s focus on the terrorism hobbits wreak upon second breakfasts. 

I think social media can be used for good when we focus on building each other up rather than tearing each other down. It may lead us like sweet Gollum to our destiny through paths only it knows. It is key to not let our inner Smeagol come out when unfavorable interactions and temptations arise. 

One Does Not Simply Walk into Mordor.

                   

The Great Eye Wreathed in Flame  

Is social media good or evil? We have all heard horror stories about doing, stalking and harassment. We also have seen the worst of humanity being presented online. When considering if social media is harmful, the usual suspects of privacy and degeneracy come to mind. 

We all know social media is not private. It is a marketing tool to be sold to Coca-Cola or the highest bidder. Mentions of safety nets and privacy policies are laughable when we all can see how much Facebook betrayed our trust. Sure, the burden of proof would be on the positive statement, but commonsense and wisdom would inform us that that would be the rule rather than the exception. With TikTok going bye-bye, we can now rely on Threads to "protect" the easily offended and keep its eye on possible "threats." Maybe they misspelled their own name... 

Argument ad populum is a logical fallacy. Basing the truth on the opinion of the masses is, although quite democratic, a horrible fallacy. The danger of social media is that epistemology may become corrupted. The truth may become what most people think, a mere emergent epistemic artifact based on the masses' baseline will rather than exclusive virtue. For example, a subscription website that rewards creators for their artifacts is a great idea. But human degeneracy turned into OnlyFans. 

Like everything else, social media galvanizes social processes. If a society is virtuous, it will increase and spread its merit. And if a society is vile, it will also increase its sins. Perhaps the infamous problems with social media are a reflection of ourselves rather than an endogenous part of Web 2.0.