Posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2013, at 19:55:50
In reply to Re: damn, posted by alexandra_k on December 13, 2013, at 19:39:09
i always wondered 'why am i here'? 'why did i have to have been born'? 'why does it hurt so much / why it is like anything at all to be me'? type questions.
'where did we (us, people or even all the living things or even the natural world more generally or the whole universe) come from'?
never occurred to me.
which makes it harder (perhaps) to connect with science.
but now i'm thinking... different people... how people look after people (or fail to). needs of people. thinking stuff like this.
and neuroscience will only get us so far. what is f*ck*ng strikingly amazing is how people can be born with sort of half a brain or really not very much brain at all... and what is f*ck*ng strikingly amazing is just how f*ck*ng normal they grow up to be.
and genetics will only get us so far. what is f*ck*ng strikingly amazing is how little genetic difference there is between me, say, and a lettuce. or a chimp. and genetic differences between people... anyway you like to group them... well... for a lot of intents and purposes of explanation people are more similar to people than important differences.
but then consider cultural variation. from subsistence fishing communities to IT specialists. from the cistene chapel to cave paintings. from ballet to narrative dances. all the viable different life-ways. if i grew up in that community i'd be... well...
maybe what upsets me about people yapping is how they yap about what brand of clothes they like most or where to get their hair cut... walking around ponsonby the other day... small children and dogs... dressing up and stepping out... feels like an alien lifeway for me. i guess because... it is. my childhood was not like theirs. i... am not like that. something upsets me about the tourist ships. i suspect it is because it brings scavangers (it makes begging on the periphery a viable lifeway). which brings...
maybe what the problem is is thinking that one lifeway is better than another. or losing focus on what is important for people. or... i don't know.
i never thought of nz as being a particularly rich country. but now i see. maybe... all this 'wastage' in the health system. ur... maybe that is required for things to get to leak... i don't know.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1055362
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20131211/msgs/1056088.html