In a good absurdist comedy all the characters are typically awful people. Examples: Alice in Wonderland, Hitchhikers Guide. There are no admirable people. But it’s funny because they’re all usually powerless as well in the face of the arbitrariness of the universe.
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The tragedy of human life is that it plays out on a small enough canvas that sometimes some of the awful people have meaningful power for a while. Long enough to do real damage to the whole known world.
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Imagine Alice in Wonderland but with the Queen of Hearts having actual “off with their heads” power. Or even Alice herself, the viewpoint character but a pretty awful character, with full power. Or HHG with Zaphod or Arthur in charge of the galaxy. Comedies —> tragedies.
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In HHG, the Vogons have earth-destroying power and do destroy Earth, but it’s a comedy because the galaxy is the canvas and the earth is a rounding error.
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Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao
In a way being an awful honor society person is our default state. It takes facing you to vast arbitrariness of the universe to actually enjoy learning things without feeling like you’re losing face. In a vast, arbitrary universe nobody is looking at you.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1249868311757639681?s=21 …
Venkatesh Rao added,
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This is the opposite of the honor society axiom zero: the universe is small enough that the gods are taking a personal interest in you and the universe is conspiring to promote you to their ranks.
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Replying to @vgr
You've written about the rationality of vendettas in an honor society (under the right conditions)--isn't that a recognition that honor societies are concerned with concrete human interactions? Not individual significance on a cosmic level? That's how I understood it.
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Replying to @kerry62189
It’s both! Huizenga’s Homo Ludens is classic on cosmic aspect. In my bloodcoin talk on YouTube I cover the transactional aspect.
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Replying to @vgr
Thanks--will check it out. I just didn't associate honor culture with insults about ignorance or stupidity so much as cowardice or dishonesty. But that depends on the specific honor culture and how well you can know the other people in it, probably.
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It's in the subtext of *how* ignorance and knowledge are presented or not presented. Ignorance is hidden/denied. Knowledge is presented as "I always already knew everything I know now"
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