PINEWIND

filling random things with meaning

The world is full with different worldviews, philosophies, and mindsets. Some, of course, are bigger and more influential than others. Over the course of my life, I've been exposed to quite a lot of them - some of them I've actively chosen to subscribe to, others I've internalized subconsciously. There are some that I took interest in and played around with for a while, and others that I've merely acknowledged, but mostly ignored.

In general, I've noticed two dominant patterns that those "modes of seeing the world" follow.1

  1. Building (or "Deductive"): Starting with abstract things like values and concepts and then moving "upward" in a chain of thought that ends in symbols, imagery, or concrete actions
  2. Drilling (or "Inductive"): Starting with superficial symbols, images or other pre-existing elements and using them as a starting point in a chain of association that leads "downward" to wider concepts or values

Examples of Building:

Examples of Drilling:

Of course, a lot of the times, the two approaches are mixed. For example, even though many religions ostensibly are built on abstract values, their concrete expressions become so powerful over time that they start influencing people "backwards." The same can be seen in traditional subcultures. In those cases, people are not necessarily following their mode of thinking as a concequence of the values they hold, but because of societal labels (Christian, Punk, etc) or excessive identification with externalisms that mode of thinking has produced (the Bible and its text, specific bands/albums, etc).

Similarly, because most human values and beliefs are pretty universal, you'll end up hitting them sooner or later if you drill deep enough. For example, the mental route from a superficial appreciation of the Goblincore aesthetic to broad values like "appreciation of all life" or "interconnectedness" is shorter than you'd probably think. Once they're "discovered", these values or ideas backfill the initial symbols and externalisms with meaning, influencing and changing their expression (sometimes subtly, sometimes drastically).

As far as I can tell, modes of thinking based on the drilling approach tend to get a bad rap. They're often depicted or talked about as being superficial, or mere fads that get picked up and abandoned over the span of a few weeks or months. Of course, that criticism is valid. Often, they're nothing more than an assortment of images and words that capture a nebulous "vibe."

However, if it goes beyond just collecting pictures that evoke a general mood and uses imagery or symbols as starting points for introspection, drilling is quite interesting to me. I find it fascinating how you can take the most random thing and, with enough imagination, persistence and sometimes some mental gymnastics, can turn it into something that holds meaning. At some point, it starts to feel like any thing can mean anything, if you just try hard enough.2

I've made a few self-experiments. For example, last year, I took the names of the Japanese weekdays and tried to make "something" out of them.

Ignoring the actual etymology of these words, I started associating freely, drilling down further based upon what I found, and ended up with the bones for some kind of mindfulness meditation routine. For example:

Monday -> day of the moon. The moon is far away, removed from earth, orbiting, lifeless, silent. What could these things mean when apply to humans? Maybe: Taking a step back. Putting aside your emotions for a moment. Looking at the big picture. Trying to be objective about things. Making plans. Becoming aware of your trajectory, etc.

I stopped at "meditation routine," because going further felt a bit silly. But if you really wanted, you could do it. Build an entire worldview, complete with a religion and/or a philosophy and rituals/practices, just based off of the Japanese names for the days of the week. Sure, maybe it's contrived, but then again ... isn't every worldview, somehow?

While I think it's easy for systems built with this approach to end up needlessly limited by their "points of entry", I think it can serve as an interesting exercise for remixing ideas that I've picked up over the course of my life and creating something new that holds strong meaning for specifically me.3 And sometimes, the results might even work or be useful, at least within certain limits. If it gets me to reflect about my life and serve as a jumping-off point for making observations and decisions, it doesn't really matter if I started with age-old philosophical principles or some pictures that I liked. In that way, I think "drilling down" is more accessible to the average person, as it's just an extension of stuff we already naturally do.

One always has to keep in mind, though, that constructing something out of externalisms that happen to appeal to one's preferences doesn't necessarily mean the results good, effective, or appropriate in every setting. An unreflected approach that equates desired aesthetics / externalisms with goodness can potentially lead to quite ugly results, where one ignores or denies the worldviews. Drilling may enable more personalized or outwardly appealing modes of thinking, but it's not complete until it reaches the layer of universal values that connect us with others.

---FOOTNOTES---

  1. I don't have an educational background in philosophy, and I have no doubt that other people have talked about this in a more professional and comprehensive manner. These are just my thoughts, based on my own layman's observations.↩

  2. The podcast "OH NO Ross and Carrie" (now discontinued, sadly) probably was a big influence on me in this respect. Hearing about all these fringe groups and their belief systems really puts into perspective how much of our worldviews rely on various forms of conjecture.↩

  3. Maybe this is why aesthetic-based subcultures seem to be on the rise: They are a reflection of the very individualist mindset that people in "developed countries" have come to adapt.↩

#philosophy #standalone