Random Thoughts, Part 12: Our Random Pandemic--Now with Memes!

 

Made at: https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/

My long running Random Thoughts series continues with Part 12! We recently had a big election here in the US that, much like the pandemic, has gone on longer than it needs to, so I've had a lot of random thoughts on politics and democracy. I also have things to say about academia, space, books, absurdity, lunch, religion, bibliophilia, and my 2020 hangover.

Just like my pandemic journal posts, my Random Thoughts now come with bonus random memes! Enjoy!

245. I realize this puts me totally against the zeitgeist, but I do not at all understand the appeal of the genre of YouTube-video-of-person-talking-into-the-camera-in-their-bedroom-or-car.

 

246. Some people who worry excessively about things like “social justice warriors” and “cancel culture” probably do so because they’re so jaded and cynical that they can’t even imagine that someone might legitimately care a lot about other people. If I’m right about this, that’s pretty sad.

 

247. The very idea of the discipline of philosophy as it exists in many philosophy departments in Western countries is built on racist assumptions. Okay. Let’s recognize this, and start working on dismantling these racist assumptions.

 

248. Prepping my class on Camus and Lovecraft in the fall of 2020 convinced me that Lovecraftian absurdity is the perfect genre of horror and philosophy for our times. The universe makes no sense, old plans are ruined, and doom lurks in the oceans and forests of the world threatening to consume us all while we fight an eldritch racist and his cultists.

 

249. Writing the wrong answers to multiple choice questions is an exercise in creative fiction writing.

 

250. A shower thought: I live in a happy liberal bubble (okay, it’s not so happy these days, but you get the idea). But occasionally I dip into comments sections, social media, etc. that reveals a whole different world where mainstream Democrats are dangerous Marxists, Black Lives Matter and Antifa are seeking the violent destruction of the United States, and people will vote for Trump to make liberals cry. I’ve always disagreed with the right, but I’m not sure I’ve ever felt as much like we live in different worlds than I have in recent years. So, for example, from my bubble tens of millions of Americans are voting in this election to move our country in a more progressive direction, but there seem to also be tens of millions of Americans voting to keep our country from descending into “socialism” and “anarchy.” To paraphrase MLK: where do we go from here?

 

250. Most undergrads have never had to respond to Reviewer 2’s comments, and it shows.

 

251. One fun/difficult thing about teaching philosophy is that you’re trying to get students out of the habit—deeply entrenched in us all—to use their background assumptions to criticize other points of view, and instead to turn their critical capacities back on their own background assumptions.

 

252. If I have cereal for lunch, am I contractually obligated as a nerd to refer to it as “second breakfast”?

 

253. Reading student papers comparing contemporary politics to Plato’s account of the transformation of democracy into tyranny the week before the 2020 US Presidential election… a special kind of grading doom/anxiety.

 

254. I’ve lost a lot of faith in Socratic inquiry in the last five years, but not so much in the process itself. I still think there’s nothing better for real education as opposed to information absorption or indoctrination. The failure is deeper: the conditions in which Socratic inquiry works are simply much more difficult to achieve —patience, time, a willingness to be wrong, a tolerance for ambiguity, indifference to obvious economic applications, but above all trust in oneself and ones interlocutors. This is sadder than any sort of finger waving moralizing about how people are stupid these days, because it’s much more difficult to see how anything gets better from here.

255. Maybe this is a by-product of being a philosopher or maybe it’s due to being the type of person who became a philosopher, but I’m much better at figuring out why someone might think the way they do than I am at motivating anyone to do anything.

 

256. Is overthinking a bad thing in a world plagued by so much underthinking?

 

257. I have fewer opinions the longer I do philosophy. Does this mean I’m doing it right? Or am I doing it wrong? I’m not sure I have an opinion.

 

258. One problem (not the biggest problem, but one of them) with online discourse is how smug it is. Like any claim a person is saying something mind-blowing that nobody else has ever thought of and simply felt differently about—or at least less smug about. Often I agree with the statement being made, but resent the implication that I was incapable of thinking of it on my own.

 

259. One can be happy about partial victories while recognizing they are partial.

 

260. The pandemic and the need to end the Trump administration slightly quelled the American left’s circular firing squad in 2020, but it looks like the rifles are being cleaned and loaded already. Healthy debate is fine, but sometimes solidarity is more important (and yes, from all sides: moderates need to hear this, too).

 

261. Unpopular (?) opinion: I’m not thrilled about private space exploration. Space is cool, which is why we shouldn’t leave it to the whims and profit-motives of billionaires. We’ve already privatized and militarized the Earth. Can’t we leave space alone?

 

262. Hypothesis: Nobody actually understands elections.

 

263. Having been in philosophy for over 20 years now, I’ve long been baffled/saddened by the discipline’s reluctance to become less Eurocentric, but in recent years I’ve been saddened to discover that some students are just as reluctant. White supremacy, while inscribed in the structure of the discipline, runs deeper than the discipline.

 

264. Just when I thought the word “academia” was overly pretentious, someone started using “academe.”

 

265. I love philosophy, but I don’t care much about theory-building.

 

266. I love philosophy, but I don’t particularly enjoy arguing with people.

 

267. Some things I can’t personally imagine but I don’t judge others for experiencing.

• Not having a book to read or movie/TV show to watch (as opposed to being paralyzed with indecision at having too many).
• Being comfortable initiating conversations with strangers without some specific reason for doing so.
• Being deeply religious, especially when it comes to theistic religions.
• Thinking that after thousands of years we (scientists, philosophers, creators, etc.) finally got things right in the early 21^st century.
• Not occasionally envying people who do experience some of the things on this list even if I’m fine with who I am.
• Being bored when we live in this mind-boggling universe and are able to experience so little of it.
• Not being sad about all the books I’ve never read because life is short.

 

 268. Living through 2020 makes me feel like I have a hangover all the time.