Recently I have been accused of being too serious and of not
being serious enough. Usually both accusations are the same
because what they mean is that I am not serious about what they
want to be serious about.
It is difficult to respond to being called too serious because
if you take it seriously and attempt to answer it then that only
proves that are you are too serious and can't take a joke but if
you ignore it and move on then that means you haven't got any
answer.
I know it's hard to believe but I do have a sense of humour,
obviously, but trying to argue that is only going to look like
pleading so I'll step over the gaslighting that I don't have a
sense of humour and own up to my seriousness.
People who are devoted to a narrow field, to a value, can be
intimidating especially if you don't have such a value, and so
to escape from this intimidation it is easier to dismiss them as
ridiculous.
Of course it would be dishonest if I pretended this was just
about devotion as such, it's mostly about looking down on the
kind of things I am interested in to make their objects of
devotion look greater. I am sometimes guilty of this too,
because it is too convenient not to do.
What's wrong with it? Fundementally it is a levelling down
force. It is a universalism and like every universalism it
assumes that human beings are more or less the same, equal, a
hidden egalitarianism which rejects every jealously guarded
value.
The problem with common values for everyone, is that these
common values become subject to the tragedy
of the commons. Anything which tries to be everything for
everyone will end up being nothing for no one. Do one thing and
do it well, loonix philosophy.
The criticism about what I am interested in amounts to nothing
more than advocation for common values, which of course happen
to be their values. I for one am happy to pursue mine for they
are mine and maybe of a small group, nor would I wish it any
other way, and I can still understand other people's values even
though I may not feel them.
There is a kind of malady of cynicism affecting many bright
minds, whiling away the hours in hollow mockery and in the
shrill laughter of children at those who try to create value
rather than just destroy.
By Otaking, or The Good Student