Modern Malaise

Abhiyan Humane truly sad..

Nadia Smith Is it really sad? "Sad" in a sentimental sense, perhaps, but not in an evolutionary sense, no?
7 hours ago

Nadia Smith Not everything is worth preserving. I think it is OK if some things die out or get lost.
7 hours ago

Abhiyan Humane yes, but sometimes it is our indifference
7 hours ago

Nadia Smith Well, our indifference is mostly a result of information overload. It's not possible to know and care about everything. Modern life is so overwhelming sometimes . Indifference is perfectly justified, in my opinion.
7 hours ago

Rich Cleland I think it's important to draw a distinction between a loss of the information and the loss of experiential connection. The language of Bo is gone. Who cares. If there was only one person left who spoke it, it was already dead from a practical sense anyway.

The lamentable part is the loss of the last person who had a real connection with all the people who came before her and learned that language. It is the end of something that perpetuated for centuries. It might justifiably deserve a single link and expression on facebook among the thousands of doppleganger posts and (urbane)dictionary.com ego tripping.

In my opinion, if I felt jaded into indifference by the information overload of modern life, I might try to reset my priorities to skip the information altogether and appreciate the richness of the connections. Stuff like this isn't the poison, it's the antidote.
6 hours ago ·

Nadia Smith RIch, that's a nice way to put it. I agree with you. My point is just that the link Abhiyan posted is not necessarily sad. I can note it, and I can appreciate the connection and significance of the loss of a language/culture, but I can do all that without having to feel an emotion. In that sense I used the word "indifference". It is simply not possible to *feel* for everything, and short of cheapening the human experience, it it of utmost importance to be able to prioritize.
5 hours ago

Abhiyan Humane I agree with Rich, that is exactly what i meat by "sad", loss of history (oral and ritual), her social artifacts (ex; cooking), etc...
5 hours ago

Abhiyan Humane what we need is better information filtering systems....
5 hours ago

Abhiyan Humane rather efficient and are sensitive...
5 hours ago

Porismita Borah Absolutely agree with Rich. Thanks Abhiyan for sharing.. Prof. Abbi does some great work and is in JNU. I remember meeting her in Delhi.
5 hours ago

Rich Cleland Well, presumably setting aside the fact that Abhiyan may dispense his emotional capital where he wishes on his own page and/or the use of "sad" as a shorthand, categorical marker connoting a type of undesirable occurrence, I think I still might respectfully disagree.

I understand your point. There is a lot of information out there and attaching emotional significance to everything may not be healthy, proper, or even possible. Though, I'm not suggesting that we should rend our clothing or stab out our eyes.

But I think your response may support my statement about the malaise of modernity. You tell me you've intellectually processed the information with cross-references to the connections and significance, filed under language/culture.

Sure you *can* file it away without the emotional context of the event, but then it just becomes one more factoid under a mountain of factoids. Information overload is what happens when you save facts simply from habit or some disconnected rational sense that you are supposed to note things like this.

The emotional context is the reason to save the information in the first place. When you add this layer to fact collecting, it's no longer a burden to maintain. It establishes your place in relation to the data and enriches your own context. And information outside of your emotional connection can be eschewed to reference libraries and google searches.

Modernity doesn't need to be a burden. One beautiful thing doesn't need to be diminished by 999 other beautiful things.
4 hours ago ·