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I Wish I Could Live in a World Made of Rarified Ideas.

Posted by John on December 29th, 2006 at 4:40 pm · 4 Comments

In a lot of ways, I already do. I earn my living manipulating data flow as a database and web developer. I spend many of my evenings reading social sciences and cultural theory, critically analyzing it all and critiquing them with professors and grad students. Many of my interactions with my spouse, my children, my meatspace acquaintances, my friends and complete strangers in cyberspace involve playing with or seriously dissecting ideas.

I suspect there’s a sliding scale of life experience, that many people spend their whole lives doing mostly the concrete, perhaps building things or feeding or healing people, accepting their dominant worldviews without question. Others mold our methods for making sense of the world the way sculptors squeeze, smooth and shape moist clay. I suppose we need them all, or else we’d trudge through a life without vision or theorize ourselves into starvation. Where do you fall?

Tags: Reason

4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Elise // Dec 29, 2006 at 8:51 pm

    My current profession involves taking a company’s financial statements (supposedly concrete) and then critically analyzing and critiquing the numbers and information reported within.

    I love being one of the MindOnFire online friends that is playing with and seriously dissecting ideas!

    The most interesting part of critiquing and analyzing to me is that – if a person is reasonably talented in debating – one can get from the concrete “point A” to any less-concrete “point B” in a reasonable and rational way. I’ve conversed with as many as 3-4 different people, and each of us starting from the exact same concrete “point A” have ended up in 3-4 different places. The path from concrete “point A” to each of the different places is rational and makes sense, yet we’re all convinced that *our* “point B” is right. Frustrating. (This is usually how I feel about politics and religion…..)

  • 2 nee // Dec 30, 2006 at 2:55 pm

    I think the key is to not be too much of one or the other. Leaning is fine, immersion is precarious. When I was in high school, I had a lot of idyllic ideas about how the world should be. I went to school downtown. Whenever I skipped school or meandered downtown after classes, I used to view the “corporate types” with complete disdain. As I got older and had to work and pay the bills I found myself starting to view people who were not working as hard with disdain. It gets easy to categorize and pull further out which leads to polarization. One of the joys of growing older (meaning for me now well into my 30s) is finding a middle ground of recognizing the value and necessity of the simple compassion of youth as well as the importance being realistic about supply and demand.

    That is not directly related to what you’re talking about, other than to say we need the balance of both types and ultimately, we make the most progress when we pull both into ourselves.

    “Reality” can get boring. But on the other hand, living exclusively in a world of “what ifs” and playing devil’s advocate isn’t any better and somewhat more annoying. lol

  • 3 Watt Mahoun // Jan 3, 2007 at 6:34 pm

    John, have you read Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series? There’s this thing called the Subtle Knife with an edge so fine that its holder can cut doorways through the fabric that divides all possible worlds. This knife is what I think of when considering the world of rarified ideas.

    I like the knife analogy because it’s rare and personal and dangerous. I typically consume the results of other knife-bearers but covet the knife for myself. The only question is…can I be trusted with it?

  • 4 John // Jan 3, 2007 at 10:01 pm

    I loved Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. I stalled between the second and third books and just picked up The Amber Spyglass. I clicked on the second Wikipedia link but decided not to read the spoilers. Patience, John, patience! But I do know what you’re talking about.

    Pullman is one of my inspirations as a writer. This is a total aside, but I’m on a bit of a steampunk kick right now (reading The Difference Engine and Perdido Street Station as well–I’m actually in the middle of all three…)

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