After reading Descartes and being told that we are all Cartesian, like it or not, I realize how Western civilization relying on the capacity of rationality of the human mind to be used as the trump card in most of the social and political rifts of this time. Sure there are those that have possibly used this notion of thinking to expand great scientific theories and progress the human race as a whole. I’m sure Descartes would adore Mandelbrot’s fractals as proof of what the thinking mind was able to describe of the separate natural/bodily world. But if we are all under the assumption that we are Cartesians and our minds our defining feature of human existence then we have let our thoughts become our defining features. We use our thoughts to create the niche for our selves and also to continue to separate those who do not think like us. Enter Glen Beck. The “semantic contagion” that Cartesian thought has established has also created duality of thinking worlds politically and socially. If we all are under the assumption that we are entitled to our own thoughts and able to convey them through constitutional rights, then we are all subjected to the vast range of what people are capable of creating in their thought processes. Now give them a cable news show and others (read general public) assume that other rational thinkers have approved these thoughts as viable and the people go on align their thoughts with those of others. The Descartes couldn’t comprehend the means of what mass media would be able to essentially implant ideas and supply information from other thinking men into the general public. Even if we are all Cartesian’s by way of socialization, I highly doubt that the Cartesian way of thinking of all is being deployed to everyone. We are taught that everyone is capable of being the next Einstein but are socialized in ways that infiltrate individual though processes politically and socially that have the vast majority of people relying on other peoples thought processes and not ever being challenged to think on their own. Mandelbrot was discouraged by his mathematician peers just think of the social implications of airing irrational thinkers to the general public who are under the assumption that they can create there own thoughts only when it comes from a cable news source? The implications of dumbing down these thoughts even further by having to demonstrate with a chalk board also taps into the Cartesian notion that were are all cable of learning and thinking and these messages too must be worthy of the viewers knowledge base.
I think that Descartes would be so amazed by contemporary society--and I think he would also be amazed by the fact that people get angry when their smartphones aren't fast enough.
ReplyDeleteI think that Glenn Beck is appealing to other things though--he's sort of an anti-Cartesian Cartesian in that he certainly believes we can know things with absolute certainty based on observation while simultaneously appealing to the emotions that Descartes sought to cut out of the equation entirely.
Glenn Beck and his peers are men that cry on television. This is astounding because ten years ago it would have been unthinkable. The rise in emotions in public discourse and the social demarcation of which people produce emotions that matter is fascinating. I think there is a way in which the emotions of someone like Glenn Beck or Boehner are taken to be more serious indictments of current policy than the tears of someone like Hilary Clinton (who got her ass reamed for crying ONCE during her presidential bid).
I think there is a gendered component to this because I think that when men in the public sphere cry, it signals severity of situation to certain parts of our population. Contrarily, when women cry, it signals woman-ness, which is not good. For instance, has Michele Bachmann been crying in public recently?
This is a really interesting example of the Cartesian split. Beck is difficult character, with his cries for facts and reason, but his on-air emotional reactions, taking a page from Howard Beale in the 1976 movie "Network." He goes for charisma but still tries to present everything rationally and logically - sort of appealing to both halves of the split.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Heather that there is a gendered component to all of this. Women's bodies are viewed differently than men's - if they cry on TV, they're weak. But if men cry, they are considered emotionally honest and truthful. And if they're Beck, it certainly helps their ratings.