Saturday, 28 June 2014
Monday, 16 June 2014
transcript of Ella explains what a wookie is
"Hey /Ella."
"[/INAUDIBLE BABY NOISE]"
"Who's the guy from Star Wars on your cup?"
"Chewbacca."
"Chewbacca? (1) What is Chewbacca?"
"A woobkie"
"A what?"
"A wookie."
"A Wookie?"
"nmmmn"
"What does he say?"
"Byah"
"What- How does- What do Wookies say?"
"Blyah."
"Blrlrlrlrl," [the mother laughs] "What do they say?"
"Brryah. Brryah. Brrr. Byah. Byah. Byabyah!"
"Who says that?"
"Chewbacca."
"And what is Chewbacca again?"
"A wookie."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=229NvV0SRHw
This text features two speakers, who I assume to be parent and child but whose exact relationship is not explicitly stated. The main audience is likely casual browsers of video sharing site YouTube, or people who enjoy videos of cute things, which is a very wide demographic. Most people find YouTube videos such as this either through specific search terms, through the website's 'recommendations' feature, or by stumbling across it via related videos (which is how I found it). The purpose is to entertain, as the information presented in the video is not worth anyone's time and effort by itself. The form is a seemingly unedited video.
This conversation is formatted as a series of interrogatives, asked by a parent, and answered by the child. This is likely because it can be difficult to speak with very young children without giving them specific prompts to work from, as the framework of social conventions is still usually very bare bones at such a low age. For example, 'Who's the star wars guy on your cup?' asks the parent. 'Chewbacca.' is the childs response, but then the parent repeats the answer: 'Chewbacca?'. I think the parent does this for a few reasons: to confirm that she heard the child correctly, as children do not always pronounce words as an adult would, to again prompt the child into making further conversation, and also as a low-effort response to the child's correct answer. For the child this probably creates the effect of knowing that the parent heard their answer, as a kind of back-channel agreement, and also draws the child into further conversation, which forwards the parent's agenda of teaching their child English language and conversational technique through immersive learning.
"[/INAUDIBLE BABY NOISE]"
"Who's the guy from Star Wars on your cup?"
"Chewbacca."
"Chewbacca? (1) What is Chewbacca?"
"A woobkie"
"A what?"
"A wookie."
"A Wookie?"
"nmmmn"
"What does he say?"
"Byah"
"What- How does- What do Wookies say?"
"Blyah."
"Blrlrlrlrl," [the mother laughs] "What do they say?"
"Brryah. Brryah. Brrr. Byah. Byah. Byabyah!"
"Who says that?"
"Chewbacca."
"And what is Chewbacca again?"
"A wookie."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=229NvV0SRHw
This text features two speakers, who I assume to be parent and child but whose exact relationship is not explicitly stated. The main audience is likely casual browsers of video sharing site YouTube, or people who enjoy videos of cute things, which is a very wide demographic. Most people find YouTube videos such as this either through specific search terms, through the website's 'recommendations' feature, or by stumbling across it via related videos (which is how I found it). The purpose is to entertain, as the information presented in the video is not worth anyone's time and effort by itself. The form is a seemingly unedited video.
This conversation is formatted as a series of interrogatives, asked by a parent, and answered by the child. This is likely because it can be difficult to speak with very young children without giving them specific prompts to work from, as the framework of social conventions is still usually very bare bones at such a low age. For example, 'Who's the star wars guy on your cup?' asks the parent. 'Chewbacca.' is the childs response, but then the parent repeats the answer: 'Chewbacca?'. I think the parent does this for a few reasons: to confirm that she heard the child correctly, as children do not always pronounce words as an adult would, to again prompt the child into making further conversation, and also as a low-effort response to the child's correct answer. For the child this probably creates the effect of knowing that the parent heard their answer, as a kind of back-channel agreement, and also draws the child into further conversation, which forwards the parent's agenda of teaching their child English language and conversational technique through immersive learning.
Transcript of Star Wars according to three year old
Well... (3) Well... (3) OK (.) The sand people capture robots (.) and drive (.) and (.) sell 'em (2) in garage sale (.) kinda like garage sale except they're selling robots (1) and no-ones gonna buy R2 and the shiny guy (.) the shiny guy always worries. (.) Luke's gonna buy those. (2) And Obi Kenobis kind of a teacher (.) He's (.) teaching Luke (0.5) how to (.) learn how to do his little (1) light up sword he has to try to block the little pokey ball (Pokeball?) He tried to do it with out seeing. Obi Kenobi sometimes move things around sometimes he's disappears. Princess Leia got out of jail and out of the spacesip (.) And they got (1) the big thing that blowed up stuff they (.) we blowed it up together (1) it blowed up princess leias planet. But don't talk back to (.) Darth Vader he'll get ya! It's an exciting movie...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0
This text is a transcript of an edited monologue spoken by a young girl into the camera which focuses on presenting the key plot points of Star Wars: A New Hope. The audience for the YouTube video is likely people who have seen Star Wars and enjoy cutesy or short videos. The purpose is to entertain, as the main focus of the video is on showing the authors opinions and observations about a fictional movie. The form is a live-action video recording on YouTube. The fact that the text has been edited may mean that the video was staged, or perhaps irrelevant or inappropriate scenes were cut, or perhaps it was clipped to a 'highlights reel' of sorts.
The speaker in this text is a young toddler, which creates the gimmick that this video relies on: That a young person has strange, cute and funny ideas about movies they have seen. For example, "don't talk back to Darth Vader" is cute because it makes use of children's language as they understand the world, and is somewhat funny, possibly because of the implication that such a young child can not think of many more antagonistic actions than 'talking back' to someone. In fact, a large aspect of the entertainment on display in this text stems from the fact that, to a person well-versed in the English language, this child speaks very childishly, often stumbling over words or using non-standard forms of grammar, as well as novice level phonetic pronunciation (See: "Spacesip). This creates a sense of endearment in the reader to the young child, perhaps the reader is nostalgic about when they or someone else spoke a similar way, or they enjoy to witness the often care-free attitude of a child when using English Language.
This text links to today's other text both in subject (Star Wars) and in form: A young child talking about Star Wars. The child from this text is seemingly older, indicated by a greater grasp of linguistic techniques. One might say that the child from the above text is a toddler, whereas the child in the second text is more of an infant. In this text, which is edited, it does not seem as if there is anyone playing the part of an interviewer or interrogator, whereas in the second text, a voice who I assume to be an older female relative is prompting the child to speak. However, such sections could have been edited out in this text in order to make the child's insights seem more original, or perhaps not. Other similarities arise in that both texts feature non-standard english, as expected from such young children, though the first text merely contains simple non-standard errors, whereas the second text features heavy use of nonsensical language, particularly when imitating the bestial cry of a 'Wookie'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0
This text is a transcript of an edited monologue spoken by a young girl into the camera which focuses on presenting the key plot points of Star Wars: A New Hope. The audience for the YouTube video is likely people who have seen Star Wars and enjoy cutesy or short videos. The purpose is to entertain, as the main focus of the video is on showing the authors opinions and observations about a fictional movie. The form is a live-action video recording on YouTube. The fact that the text has been edited may mean that the video was staged, or perhaps irrelevant or inappropriate scenes were cut, or perhaps it was clipped to a 'highlights reel' of sorts.
The speaker in this text is a young toddler, which creates the gimmick that this video relies on: That a young person has strange, cute and funny ideas about movies they have seen. For example, "don't talk back to Darth Vader" is cute because it makes use of children's language as they understand the world, and is somewhat funny, possibly because of the implication that such a young child can not think of many more antagonistic actions than 'talking back' to someone. In fact, a large aspect of the entertainment on display in this text stems from the fact that, to a person well-versed in the English language, this child speaks very childishly, often stumbling over words or using non-standard forms of grammar, as well as novice level phonetic pronunciation (See: "Spacesip). This creates a sense of endearment in the reader to the young child, perhaps the reader is nostalgic about when they or someone else spoke a similar way, or they enjoy to witness the often care-free attitude of a child when using English Language.
This text links to today's other text both in subject (Star Wars) and in form: A young child talking about Star Wars. The child from this text is seemingly older, indicated by a greater grasp of linguistic techniques. One might say that the child from the above text is a toddler, whereas the child in the second text is more of an infant. In this text, which is edited, it does not seem as if there is anyone playing the part of an interviewer or interrogator, whereas in the second text, a voice who I assume to be an older female relative is prompting the child to speak. However, such sections could have been edited out in this text in order to make the child's insights seem more original, or perhaps not. Other similarities arise in that both texts feature non-standard english, as expected from such young children, though the first text merely contains simple non-standard errors, whereas the second text features heavy use of nonsensical language, particularly when imitating the bestial cry of a 'Wookie'.
Our Quote discussions
The quote was simply a twitter post (tweet) 'Sssshh! Game of thrones!'
We discussed the affordances and constraints of a medium that has features such as the 140 character limit, but also affordances such as hashtags, hyperlinks, real time updating and easily accessible archives.
We talked about how shorter quotes are often quite catchy which helps them stick in the brain.
We looked at the fact that the user uses an imperative, and why this might be. It may have been said in jest, or perhaps he was being straightforward. Perhaps he was conveying that Game of Thrones is sacred, and must not be talked over, or that he simply wishes to hear what happens on the show, or that he does not want people to tell him about what happens in the episode, or that he cannot spare the attention to read other user's tweets while the episode is on.
He may have been using a very weak form of influential power, however if the post was played for laughs than it is likely he was not trying to exert any kind of power.
Finally we discussed the context of the post. I think that the post was made on the day of the recent episode of game of thrones that aired a couple of weeks ago, as he makes another reference to a character called 'The Mountain', whose most notable appearance was in a recent episode of the show. There was also another user who tweeted about giving lessons for fictional language 'Dothraki'. There are a few other reasons why people might be talking about game of thrones, but I feel the above are most likely.
We discussed the affordances and constraints of a medium that has features such as the 140 character limit, but also affordances such as hashtags, hyperlinks, real time updating and easily accessible archives.
We talked about how shorter quotes are often quite catchy which helps them stick in the brain.
We looked at the fact that the user uses an imperative, and why this might be. It may have been said in jest, or perhaps he was being straightforward. Perhaps he was conveying that Game of Thrones is sacred, and must not be talked over, or that he simply wishes to hear what happens on the show, or that he does not want people to tell him about what happens in the episode, or that he cannot spare the attention to read other user's tweets while the episode is on.
He may have been using a very weak form of influential power, however if the post was played for laughs than it is likely he was not trying to exert any kind of power.
Finally we discussed the context of the post. I think that the post was made on the day of the recent episode of game of thrones that aired a couple of weeks ago, as he makes another reference to a character called 'The Mountain', whose most notable appearance was in a recent episode of the show. There was also another user who tweeted about giving lessons for fictional language 'Dothraki'. There are a few other reasons why people might be talking about game of thrones, but I feel the above are most likely.
Friday, 9 May 2014
A bit of revision
FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM
Determinists believe that it is possible to predict the future with certainty, even where human action is concerned. They believe that free will is merely an illusion, and that whenever we as humans think we have a choice, our answer is actually fully determined by conditions and causes.
Libertarians believe that free will does exist, that in any given situation we could have chosen otherwise. Some Libertarians consider the mind to be outside the chain of causality, which is why our thoughts cannot be caused: after all, it's not like our mind can be affected by any physical means, as the mind is as intangible as a ghost or a god. Famously, Ayn Rand opposes Libertarian idealism, calling it a threat to capitalism. She even created her own philosophy in response: Objectivism.
Compatibilists believe that Determinism and Libertarianism are not opposite, and that it is possible to believe in both determinism and free will. 'A man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.' This statement means that people do what they have a motive to do, nothing more and nothing less. You cannot choose your motives, so you cannot choose your actions because they are decided by your motives which are decided by your experiences why are determined. Compatibilism is an extremely weak conception of free will, I would not even call that free will. Incompatibilism's most common argument is that Compatibilism is merely Determinism under the guise of 'rejuggled' words.
TOLERANCE
Lord Devlin argues against tolerance by saying that it is the duty of the government to impose one shared moral system on their subjects. He argues that morality should be social, not private. He is not opposed to the quashing of conflicting beliefs, as he thinks that a single shared moral system would benefit society more than any other alternative.Some say this philosophy would cause conflict and strife from people who disagree with this system. Devlin counter argues by stating that if his recommendations were followed properly, everyone would be sharing one moral code and conflict would not arise.
However, Devlin's argument favors moral agreement over moral truth. Though his system would be, in a sense, 'fair', it would not be conducive to finding the absolute moral truth. Another criticism is that once a single moral code had been imposed, it may stifle individual and social welfare. For instance, Devlin believed that homesexuality was morally wrong. Now that laws have been passed effectively legalizing homosexuality, we have not experience a disintegration of society or moral values. This suggests that Devlin's argument was flawed.
A philosopher named Rawls believed that the only universally imposed moral rule should be one of tolerance: that we all must tolerate each other, though perhaps this should be taken more as a criticism of Devlin's argument rather than it's own argument for tolerance.
Devlin's argument also infringes on autonomy. By encouraging one particular system of beliefs, it is removing a persons ability to choose for themselves. However, autonomy is not necessarily beneficial to the masses. Some people make choices that may not benefit them as much as if things were chosen for them. This is one argument against tolerance: Why tolerate beliefs that are sup-optimal, or even negative?
John Stewart Mill argues for tolerance. In a nutshell, his argument boils down to the fact that in order to learn, we must discuss, and in order to properly discuss, there must be opposition of views. Someone to play devil's advocate as it were. He argues, for instance, that we should tolerate racists because they have unique perspectives on the subject of racism, and so they are an important member in the debates on racism.
However, Mill's argument is also flawed. Is it more beneficial to allow racists continued existence just so that we can have a varied debate? Would it not be more beneficial to discourage racism entirely, so that others do not fall into the trap of thinking it is right? Mill assumes that a racist holds such values because they have rationalized and arrived at that conclusion, but they could be entirely irrational. This would make their contributions to any debate worthless, as the underlying though processes are mangled.
Determinists believe that it is possible to predict the future with certainty, even where human action is concerned. They believe that free will is merely an illusion, and that whenever we as humans think we have a choice, our answer is actually fully determined by conditions and causes.
Libertarians believe that free will does exist, that in any given situation we could have chosen otherwise. Some Libertarians consider the mind to be outside the chain of causality, which is why our thoughts cannot be caused: after all, it's not like our mind can be affected by any physical means, as the mind is as intangible as a ghost or a god. Famously, Ayn Rand opposes Libertarian idealism, calling it a threat to capitalism. She even created her own philosophy in response: Objectivism.
Compatibilists believe that Determinism and Libertarianism are not opposite, and that it is possible to believe in both determinism and free will. 'A man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.' This statement means that people do what they have a motive to do, nothing more and nothing less. You cannot choose your motives, so you cannot choose your actions because they are decided by your motives which are decided by your experiences why are determined. Compatibilism is an extremely weak conception of free will, I would not even call that free will. Incompatibilism's most common argument is that Compatibilism is merely Determinism under the guise of 'rejuggled' words.
TOLERANCE
Lord Devlin argues against tolerance by saying that it is the duty of the government to impose one shared moral system on their subjects. He argues that morality should be social, not private. He is not opposed to the quashing of conflicting beliefs, as he thinks that a single shared moral system would benefit society more than any other alternative.Some say this philosophy would cause conflict and strife from people who disagree with this system. Devlin counter argues by stating that if his recommendations were followed properly, everyone would be sharing one moral code and conflict would not arise.
However, Devlin's argument favors moral agreement over moral truth. Though his system would be, in a sense, 'fair', it would not be conducive to finding the absolute moral truth. Another criticism is that once a single moral code had been imposed, it may stifle individual and social welfare. For instance, Devlin believed that homesexuality was morally wrong. Now that laws have been passed effectively legalizing homosexuality, we have not experience a disintegration of society or moral values. This suggests that Devlin's argument was flawed.
A philosopher named Rawls believed that the only universally imposed moral rule should be one of tolerance: that we all must tolerate each other, though perhaps this should be taken more as a criticism of Devlin's argument rather than it's own argument for tolerance.
Devlin's argument also infringes on autonomy. By encouraging one particular system of beliefs, it is removing a persons ability to choose for themselves. However, autonomy is not necessarily beneficial to the masses. Some people make choices that may not benefit them as much as if things were chosen for them. This is one argument against tolerance: Why tolerate beliefs that are sup-optimal, or even negative?
John Stewart Mill argues for tolerance. In a nutshell, his argument boils down to the fact that in order to learn, we must discuss, and in order to properly discuss, there must be opposition of views. Someone to play devil's advocate as it were. He argues, for instance, that we should tolerate racists because they have unique perspectives on the subject of racism, and so they are an important member in the debates on racism.
However, Mill's argument is also flawed. Is it more beneficial to allow racists continued existence just so that we can have a varied debate? Would it not be more beneficial to discourage racism entirely, so that others do not fall into the trap of thinking it is right? Mill assumes that a racist holds such values because they have rationalized and arrived at that conclusion, but they could be entirely irrational. This would make their contributions to any debate worthless, as the underlying though processes are mangled.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Pure genius
Genius is a strange word. It sounds like Djinni, which is a magical creature that grants wishes, and it sounds like genes, which are the blueprints for our body.
It refers to humans who are exceptionally skilled in some way. For instance, Albert Einstein is a genius of science and mathematics. Van Gogh is said to be a genius of art, and Mozart is a musical genius. Alexander the Great was a strategic genius, Genghis Khan was a tactical genius.
However, this seems somewhat controversial. As Einstein famously said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”. It seems that what Einstein meant here was that different people have different inherent talents, so to judge a professional athlete's intelligence by his spelling proficiency is useless, and instead it should be their willpower and motivation you measure them by. But more on this later, first, some anecdotes:
When watching a sci-fi show with two good friends of mine who happen to be twins, there were scenes in which the idea of surrendering the lowest academically achieving 10% of children to an alien race is featured. The twins said to me as they saw this that they thought they would be part of that number, which instantly made me question my own ideas of intelligence as I realized that these two fully sentient, incredibly creative and smart human beings believed themselves unintelligent solely because they are dyslexic, and therefore academically challenged. So here I had realized that intelligence and academic achievement are two entirely separate things, despite often holding strong correlation between the two.
The second anecdote is somewhat different. It happened while I was on a camping/forestry expedition with my BTEC Level 2 classmates. Having spent the better part of a year feeling quite intellectually superior and rather out of place in this group, it still came as quite a surprise when one of my classmates responded to something I said (though not in response to me) with 'Why does Isaac think he's so much smarter than us?'. This was a situation I was definitely not prepared for, and luckily something else grabbed the attention of the group quite handily, leaving me a moment to reflect on those words. The first thing I realised was that he was right, I did think that, which was quite disconcerting for a few reasons: 1) He saw something about me I couldn't see myself, 2) it made me address why I even felt that way, and 3) It made me briefly perceive myself through the eyes of another. After that, I decided not to dwell on it too much, partly because it was like I had been caught in the act, and partly because I doubt I could try to not seem 'smarter' than that lot anyway without causing even greater offence. However, the reason I tell this anecdote is not to complain but to make the point that someone who I had looked at as dull, perhaps dim-witted even, had made a very astute personal observation. Though it should be said, there are multiple times when I have heard someone say similar things along the lines of 'Why does X think they are better at Y than me?' and I have to say usually that question is rhetorical, the reason being that the only answer can be 'Because they have reason to believe that is the case.'
The over-arching point of these stories, however, is that it is pointless for a human to look at a human and decide their approximate worth. As a creature of biology and a gently brainwashed mind, it is irrational to assume I know anything about anyone. I would claim that I am smarter than most people, but then I would say that, wouldn't I? It's very convenient for me to be able to look at people and think I am better than them, because otherwise I would likely have crippling self-esteem issues, as would anyone if they though everyone in the world was better than them at everything. Heck, I'd even go so far as to say I'm a genius, I'm just not sure what it is I'm good at yet.
And now, here comes my original point: There is no such thing as a genius. While Einstein's idea was that anyone can be a genius by their own criteria, my argument is that the very idea of a genius is just an excuse us normal people make when we realise we're not good at anything. I don't think Usain Bolt is a genius of running. I think he is a man who works almost every day of his life and shows the results. I think Albert Einstein paid a lot of attention. I think Van Gogh was simply a man whose story and passion spoke to people. Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, considered the two greatest military leaders in history are both men who were simply told that one day they would rule, and made the decision that when that day came, they wanted to be not just people, but Great People. Heck, think of anyone in your life who you personally believe to be a genius. For me, I think of people such as Bruce Lee and Terry Pratchett. Bruce Lee, who was an actor/action hero, was in his lifetime considered even by his enemies to be the greatest martial artist of our era. Bruce Lee did not come out the womb with a black belt. Bruce Lee didn't even know what Kung Fu was before he was born. The only reason he got good was that he wanted to. If Stephen Hawking had never picked up a textbook, he would just be a sad story.
I believe it was Tiger Woods who said this: 'It's funny how the more I practice, the more often I get lucky'. For me, this rings truer than any elitist, breeding program propaganda. While I recognize that humans are animals, and there's no reason why you couldn't breed humans for specific traits in the same way we do cats and dogs, I do not believe that on a day to day basis some people are born far superior or deficient than others. I very much agree that both nature and nurture play a role in human development. I cannot agree with people attributing Einsteins prowess to his mother and father simply for birthing him, and I cannot agree with people who say Einstein (or a person of identical achievement) would have existed had even one of his parents been a different person.
When it comes to creating genius, talent is silver but practice is golden.
EDIT: I like to write about my thoughts, and most of my thoughts concern me, but I do sometimes worry if sometimes I write about information too personal for the reader. I've had people say to me a couple times I should take more care when making personal statements and things such as this but in those situations I mostly just felt as if it was more of a problem for those people then it was for me. For instance, I recently told a group of 14 people that I thought they were all just taking part in a massive 'circle jerk', essentially massaging each others egos. While I did find it embarrassing to use a somewhat vulgar metaphor, and it was on my part a 'face threatening act' in that I literally stood up and told 14 people I thought they were out of line, afterwards I was approached by some others who witnessed the event from the outside and cautioned me to be more careful in what I say to people and how I treat people. I did see their point, I definitely should have handled my emotions better and I could understand they were more worried I was going to drop myself in it one day somehow, but at the same time, I very much knew the consequences of what I was about to say, and was prepared for (and maybe even trying to achieve) a negative reaction, but felt I needed to say it anyway. However, I suppose my point is, I wish people would stop worrying about what I say, because I already do that anyway. On the other hand though, feedback from other people is the most useful resource for a developing human being, and it's good to know how other people want you to act, so that you can both consciously and subconsciously accommodate them.
It refers to humans who are exceptionally skilled in some way. For instance, Albert Einstein is a genius of science and mathematics. Van Gogh is said to be a genius of art, and Mozart is a musical genius. Alexander the Great was a strategic genius, Genghis Khan was a tactical genius.
However, this seems somewhat controversial. As Einstein famously said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”. It seems that what Einstein meant here was that different people have different inherent talents, so to judge a professional athlete's intelligence by his spelling proficiency is useless, and instead it should be their willpower and motivation you measure them by. But more on this later, first, some anecdotes:
When watching a sci-fi show with two good friends of mine who happen to be twins, there were scenes in which the idea of surrendering the lowest academically achieving 10% of children to an alien race is featured. The twins said to me as they saw this that they thought they would be part of that number, which instantly made me question my own ideas of intelligence as I realized that these two fully sentient, incredibly creative and smart human beings believed themselves unintelligent solely because they are dyslexic, and therefore academically challenged. So here I had realized that intelligence and academic achievement are two entirely separate things, despite often holding strong correlation between the two.
The second anecdote is somewhat different. It happened while I was on a camping/forestry expedition with my BTEC Level 2 classmates. Having spent the better part of a year feeling quite intellectually superior and rather out of place in this group, it still came as quite a surprise when one of my classmates responded to something I said (though not in response to me) with 'Why does Isaac think he's so much smarter than us?'. This was a situation I was definitely not prepared for, and luckily something else grabbed the attention of the group quite handily, leaving me a moment to reflect on those words. The first thing I realised was that he was right, I did think that, which was quite disconcerting for a few reasons: 1) He saw something about me I couldn't see myself, 2) it made me address why I even felt that way, and 3) It made me briefly perceive myself through the eyes of another. After that, I decided not to dwell on it too much, partly because it was like I had been caught in the act, and partly because I doubt I could try to not seem 'smarter' than that lot anyway without causing even greater offence. However, the reason I tell this anecdote is not to complain but to make the point that someone who I had looked at as dull, perhaps dim-witted even, had made a very astute personal observation. Though it should be said, there are multiple times when I have heard someone say similar things along the lines of 'Why does X think they are better at Y than me?' and I have to say usually that question is rhetorical, the reason being that the only answer can be 'Because they have reason to believe that is the case.'
The over-arching point of these stories, however, is that it is pointless for a human to look at a human and decide their approximate worth. As a creature of biology and a gently brainwashed mind, it is irrational to assume I know anything about anyone. I would claim that I am smarter than most people, but then I would say that, wouldn't I? It's very convenient for me to be able to look at people and think I am better than them, because otherwise I would likely have crippling self-esteem issues, as would anyone if they though everyone in the world was better than them at everything. Heck, I'd even go so far as to say I'm a genius, I'm just not sure what it is I'm good at yet.
And now, here comes my original point: There is no such thing as a genius. While Einstein's idea was that anyone can be a genius by their own criteria, my argument is that the very idea of a genius is just an excuse us normal people make when we realise we're not good at anything. I don't think Usain Bolt is a genius of running. I think he is a man who works almost every day of his life and shows the results. I think Albert Einstein paid a lot of attention. I think Van Gogh was simply a man whose story and passion spoke to people. Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, considered the two greatest military leaders in history are both men who were simply told that one day they would rule, and made the decision that when that day came, they wanted to be not just people, but Great People. Heck, think of anyone in your life who you personally believe to be a genius. For me, I think of people such as Bruce Lee and Terry Pratchett. Bruce Lee, who was an actor/action hero, was in his lifetime considered even by his enemies to be the greatest martial artist of our era. Bruce Lee did not come out the womb with a black belt. Bruce Lee didn't even know what Kung Fu was before he was born. The only reason he got good was that he wanted to. If Stephen Hawking had never picked up a textbook, he would just be a sad story.
I believe it was Tiger Woods who said this: 'It's funny how the more I practice, the more often I get lucky'. For me, this rings truer than any elitist, breeding program propaganda. While I recognize that humans are animals, and there's no reason why you couldn't breed humans for specific traits in the same way we do cats and dogs, I do not believe that on a day to day basis some people are born far superior or deficient than others. I very much agree that both nature and nurture play a role in human development. I cannot agree with people attributing Einsteins prowess to his mother and father simply for birthing him, and I cannot agree with people who say Einstein (or a person of identical achievement) would have existed had even one of his parents been a different person.
When it comes to creating genius, talent is silver but practice is golden.
EDIT: I like to write about my thoughts, and most of my thoughts concern me, but I do sometimes worry if sometimes I write about information too personal for the reader. I've had people say to me a couple times I should take more care when making personal statements and things such as this but in those situations I mostly just felt as if it was more of a problem for those people then it was for me. For instance, I recently told a group of 14 people that I thought they were all just taking part in a massive 'circle jerk', essentially massaging each others egos. While I did find it embarrassing to use a somewhat vulgar metaphor, and it was on my part a 'face threatening act' in that I literally stood up and told 14 people I thought they were out of line, afterwards I was approached by some others who witnessed the event from the outside and cautioned me to be more careful in what I say to people and how I treat people. I did see their point, I definitely should have handled my emotions better and I could understand they were more worried I was going to drop myself in it one day somehow, but at the same time, I very much knew the consequences of what I was about to say, and was prepared for (and maybe even trying to achieve) a negative reaction, but felt I needed to say it anyway. However, I suppose my point is, I wish people would stop worrying about what I say, because I already do that anyway. On the other hand though, feedback from other people is the most useful resource for a developing human being, and it's good to know how other people want you to act, so that you can both consciously and subconsciously accommodate them.
Friday, 21 March 2014
Gender Theory: Deficit theory and more
Way back in 1922 even the most credible scholars were usually more ignorant than today's average 11 year old, at least when it comes to matters of being fair and equal in your treatment of other human beings. Certainly if a 1920s man saw the state of society now he would cry out and curse the heavens, shocked at how women are no longer just expected to be child bearing servants . However, what we need to understand is that although today it all seems a lot more progressive, in fact we are only really one lifetime removed from the 1920s. My great grandmother was around during those times, and then she had a child who had a child who had me. That it is not a large amount of generations inbetween.
But anyway, today we are discussing language, and gender. As I said before, we are not at all far from the year 1920 even now. Back in 1922, a man named Otto Jespersen wrote a book about language. One part of that book was his evaluation of the differences between 'menspeak' and 'womenspeak'. Due to the times, the language Otto used to talk around this subject is these days rather inflammatory, but it is not his use of 'sexist' language and ideas that we are looking at. It is the points that he made that matter, not his personal opinions on the subject. Roughly speaking, Jespersen argued that the 'male' sociolect is superior to the 'female' sociolect, in that it is more dominant, more commanding, more authoritative, whereas the 'female' sociolect is far more tentative and subordinate. He believed that manguage is akin to vanilla ice cream and that womanguage is mutant vanilla ice cream, an altogether far less pleasant sounding option. The reason the theory is known as the deficit theory is because Otto believed woman's language to be deficient, objectively inferior to male language. Interestingly, I even found a website that attempts to distinguish the gender of a texts producer by analyzing the lexical choices: http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php which even correctly identified from a Jespersen quote the man's gender, and quite convincingly so, at that.
http://atp.uclan.ac.uk/buddypress/diffusion/?p=736 for quotes
But anyway, today we are discussing language, and gender. As I said before, we are not at all far from the year 1920 even now. Back in 1922, a man named Otto Jespersen wrote a book about language. One part of that book was his evaluation of the differences between 'menspeak' and 'womenspeak'. Due to the times, the language Otto used to talk around this subject is these days rather inflammatory, but it is not his use of 'sexist' language and ideas that we are looking at. It is the points that he made that matter, not his personal opinions on the subject. Roughly speaking, Jespersen argued that the 'male' sociolect is superior to the 'female' sociolect, in that it is more dominant, more commanding, more authoritative, whereas the 'female' sociolect is far more tentative and subordinate. He believed that manguage is akin to vanilla ice cream and that womanguage is mutant vanilla ice cream, an altogether far less pleasant sounding option. The reason the theory is known as the deficit theory is because Otto believed woman's language to be deficient, objectively inferior to male language. Interestingly, I even found a website that attempts to distinguish the gender of a texts producer by analyzing the lexical choices: http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php which even correctly identified from a Jespersen quote the man's gender, and quite convincingly so, at that.
Having researched Jespersen in some depth now I feel as if I can understand why he thinks this way. Firstly there is the societal norms of 1922 as mentioned above, but I also uncovered some more little tidbits of relavance. Firstly, is that Otto Jespersen seems to have spent very, very little time in the company of real human beings, as many of his examples are merely anecdotal. Sometimes he seems to just toss in statements of opinion and presents them as fact most apologetically: ‘She thought in blanks, as girls do, and some women’. However, Jespersen makes good points, and at the end of the day this is what should be remembered: not the somewhat embarrassing ignorance and chauvinism, but instead the language theories that remain relevant even after almost 100 years since it was written.
By looking at some examples perhaps we can clarify some of the features and techniques Jespersen identified by looking for them ourselves. In Japan, there are certain differences between men's spoken language and women's spoken language as well, but the Japanese made the effort to give this a name. Twice: onna kotoba (女言葉, "women's words") or joseigo (女性語, "women's language").
Even this is an example of the deficit/dominance/difference theories, for example there is no phrase in japanese for 'mens words'...
http://atp.uclan.ac.uk/buddypress/diffusion/?p=736 for quotes
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