If you are not a fan of Jordan B. Peterson already, this video should do it….
Tag: world view
Informalities and Frivolties
My dad used Old Spice. He also grew up in WW2 Germany and emigrated to Canada alone when he was sixteen. He started up his own business after dropping out of high school, got married, and had kids.
He grew up in a time when the formal and the informal had their proper places. The informal stems from the formal, and the formal is foundational. We don’t always want to live in formal mode — life would be too serious then. We want to be able to lighten things up a bit in our day to day lives. I don’t want to call my dad “father” all the time; I want to call him dad or papa most of the time. However, my ability to call my dad “dad” rests on the fact that first I call him “father”.
These days in the west, informality, and thus frivolity, have taken over. The foundation of the formal is crumbling and no one takes life seriously enough. (No one, that is, except the revolutionaries we see yelling and screaming at the universities. But they too have no formal foundation to build upon.) Even a product like Old Spice has to embrace the shallow video game culture in order to sell….
I suppose the West will have to create a new formal foundation before it can mature to its next stage of development.
Further reading: Fatherlessness and the Rise of the Shaving Industry
Shop Class as Soulcraft (Brief Book Review)
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Don’t mistake this book as a simple read for the next holiday. It’s quite deep. It’s really a philosophical treatise on the subject of work in relation to practical knowledge and craftsmanship.
Matthew Crawford is an electrician turned political philosopher turned motorcycle mechanic. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy, so he’s not just some “grunt.” Not that he would need a Ph.D. to write a thoughtful book on this subject — the experience of working in both the office and on the construction site is really what gave him the fuel to write this book.
In it, he compares working with one’s hands verses “knowledge-based” work. Which is better for the soul? Obviously he sides with the hands on work, and he writes a fine critique of the corporate culture which has developed in the west over the last few decades.
My favourite chapter is called The Contradiction of the Cubicle. Crawford compares the hierarchical structure of the office to that of the construction site. Here’s an excerpt:
In the office…
Through the exercise of charismatic authority, the manager unsettles others, shaking them out of their cramped views and stale habits, thereby unleashing the creativity of all workers. This is a charismatic leader of a new kind, a sort of radical democrat. He does not seek followers; he seeks to make every man a leader of himself…
Workers must identify with the corporate culture, and exhibit a high level of “buy-in” to “the mission.” The division between private life and work life is eroded, and accordingly the whole person is at issue in job performance evaluations.
(pg. 149-150)
On the construction site…
In the trades, a master offers his apprentice good reasons for acting in one way rather than another, the better to realize ends, the goodness of which is readily apparent. The master has no need for a psychology of persuasion that will make the apprentice compliant to whatever purposes the master might dream up; those purposes are given and determinate. He does the same work as the apprentice, only better… For the apprentice there is a progressive revelation of the reasonableness of the master’s actions. He may not know why things have to be done a certain way at first, and have to take it on faith, but the rationale becomes apparent as he gains experience. [Office style] teamwork doesn’t have this progressive character. It depends on group dynamics, which are inherently unstable and subject to manipulation…
[With the master/apprentice relationship] the judgements of the master [toward the apprentice] feel ennobling rather than debasing. There is a sort of friendship or solidarity that becomes possible at work when people are open about differences in rank, and there are clear standards.
(pg. 159-160)
The book is 210 pages long.
Give it a read!
Further reading…
The Case of Working With Your Hands by Matthew B. Crawford
Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford
Atheism is Not a Religion, But…
Atheism is not a religion, but it is a world-view, and as a world-view it takes on many of the attributes of religion.
1) Seeking Converts
Atheists want everyone to believe as they do and are continuously trying to convert people to their world-view. If you don’t agree, think of Bill Maher, the late Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, that guy with the bow-tie who does kid’s shows, and all the guys on Youtube.
2) Controlling Politics
Atheists want their people in office to create policies which favour the atheistic world-view.
3) Punishing the Heretics
If you are not an atheist, you are not welcome in their society.
4) Preaching Salvation
Salvation comes through atheistic/humanistic moralism and science.
Religious people and atheists do all these things alike. This is why people will say that atheism is a religion. Sure, atheists don’t worship a super-natural being, but they do worship something. We all worship something.
