Hesiod’s theology

Contemporary belief in science and reason (which should supposedly be deflationary ways of thinking, more common sense, less arcane) fails to tell us why shouldn’t barbarians be more scientific, since they didn’t have a big corpus of literature to make exegesis on. Of course, this blindness is a willing blindness, since part of the myth-of-science is this mockery that it is no myth at all.

One of the inventors of this silliness was Hesiod.

false freedom of folly, or against against insensible reason

I do change my passwords fairly often. I do have a defence doctrine of sorts and, albeit i can not claim it to be sophisticated or safe, at least i gave some thought to the whole issue of information security. My belief is that it will become more and more important to do so as time goes by, and that if you don’t do it pre-emptively you are begging to learn the hard way, that is, by being a victim of an attack.

Whatever. That is not what i come to tell you today.

I want to tell you about the impression that discipline, like for example the discipline of changing passwords every n or m days, is a form of prison. From that feeling, that notion, that idea, from that comes a host of weird untenable prejudices that leave us at yet another dichotomy. Meh. Capital Meh.

dominion over the land

Supposedly, one of the key ideas of modern/enlightenment thinking is the belief in that the human being has the power to create it’s own destiny. Hubris, they say! Ultimate hubris that lead to ultimate doom, e.g. the Atom Bomb. Oh, and also that Reason is the means to such freedom.

But i would say that in a way this whole shebang is not very different from the post-modernist attitude of making your own meaning as you go along. Or from the Christian faith that god is expressed in human form. To me it all means: Maybe i’m wrong, but i’ll just try to have things my way if i can.

Deep down, in our bowels, that’s what we are. This pull. Not perfect, but good enough. Good enough can be spelled hubris, but it is still the same thing.

reason and discipline

In more than one way, Greeks invented thought. Greek ways to talk and discuss and think are in the roots of our contemporary mindset.

Problem is: Greece developed this doctrine of thought amidst a process of disciplining thought. Not only enhancing it, but structuring it and making it conform to rules and criteria.

And most of the anti-rationality rage (anti-Cartesian, post-modern, all that) in fact rebel against this doctrine and misses the thought that underlies it.

But there is a lot more to thinking than applying Greek doctrine!