Marketing is not easy. That’s why it’s so expensive. Could you write anything on that billboard that would be worth the billboard and the paint? For me, that would be difficult.
If we drop the assumption that the text on the billboard should be able to monetize: could we write something interesting or beautiful? Could we paint a picture up there?
Or would the best solution be to tear the billboard down?
I honestly don’t know.
What’s the meaning of a letter or a number? We are so fixed on the meaning of writing that we tend to forget the lettering over it. Knowing the letters we forget about them. Not knowing them – we see them very clearly, as in this picture. We see the message “loves you”, which doesn’t make any “sense” as such – so we are able to concentrate on the appearance of the letters, on their “gestalt”:
By Detlef.
This photograph of a graffiti on a wall leaves room for the contemplator’s mind to resonate according to its own pattern – not necessarily the pattern of the meaning of letters or numbers:
By Detlef.
The inverse function of this approach would be to try to find meaning in nature. These drops on a blade of grass could signify a punch-card code or a Morse alphabet:
By Detlef.
Rakshith Rao tweets the question wether or not to believe in a supreme being controlling our lives. I wonder whether such a being would know or even need the category “control”? What is there to control if you are a – or even THE – supreme being?
By Detlef.
Ryan writes about us human beings “blending in and standing out”. I like Ryans perspective because it makes me wonder: would we really be standing out regarded from the level of a supreme being? We are the same biological concept as the zebra, the frog, the fly. Do we really act that differently? OK: we have technology, we use artefacts we transform our environment. So do beavers. Homo Sapiens is more successful in the sense that we transform our whole planet – in the brief moment of our blossoming as a species.
Could we even recognize a superior being? Superior regarding what? Intelligence? Knowledge? Those are all human concepts that wouldn’t necessarily apply to a superior being. From the point of view of the chimpanzee Homo Sapiens is an inferior chimp. Man is a very inferior zebra, an inferior dog. No wonder all other life forms seem to be inferior to us – we seem inferior to them, too.
Homo Sapiens stands out in one regard: we can kill all chimpanzees, all zebras, all whales – if it pleases us. But if there would be a virus able to kill our species – would we regard that as a superior being?
So there remains technological superiority, like in the science fiction novels. A species able to travel to earth from their planet would necessarily be superior to Homo Sapiens. A species able to build a noiseless car that’s powered by sunlight.
But “technology” is a very human concept, too. I believe – and I hope – the next level will have to do with the universal concepts of love and kindness.
For everything you learn you loose some skill. You learn language, you leave the world of feeling forever. At least a part of that world. Or isn’t there always language going on in your head? Don’t you try to clothe your feelings in language to explain them? To yourself and to others?
Can you imagine a world without language? You had it once – but most of us have lost it. Perhaps it comes back in old age – but we won’t be able to tell it. We might be able to feel it being with those without language and not treating them as being impaired – but as people commanding skills we lack. As people we can learn from how to to de-learn. The very young, the very old, those not having acquired language for some reason.
By Detlef.
We see the global economy at work everywhere. Our lives are directly affected by events in far away countries. Via the web we exchange views with people on the other side of the globe. We become friends. We live in the global village. I enjoy to live in the global village. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be part of it.
By Detlef
As we live together ever closer – do we need a set of common values to govern our behavior? Is it enough to treat each other with dignity, respect and a sense of humor? Where does humor stop – when moral values are at stake? Which values? Should we actively seek out the points of difference – or should we live together, coexist together as long as it’s possible?
By Detlef
I believe we won’t solve these questions with the power of our heads – but rather with the wisdom of our hearts.
By Detlef. I’ve just been there. In an airplane over the Atlantic. I felt uneasy. The crew was incredibly friendly, some of the crew members actually had grey hair – a matter that inspired trust in me. I thought: “They have obviously done this LOTS of times and still live – so it should be ok this time.”
There had been a storm at night. We had to fasten safety belts and there had been 3 or 4 frightful bumps. Roller coaster bumps. I checked to have the barf bag ready because I started feeling nauseous. But then the weather calmed down and me, too – and then I saw firm ground underneath and then we landed. Everything OK. What did you expect?
But sometimes it happens. Something goes wrong. And those going down with the plane are my brothers and sisters. That could have been me. I feel grief. Not as much as if it really had been one of my loved ones. But I can relate. It occupies me.
But hey, what’s with those other travelers? Travelers traveling in boats. Some of them in rubber boats. Traveling not for business or recreation but to have a better life – or a life at all. No deep sea divers for their bodies. No national mourning for them. Difficult to relate with their fate. Because I have not been there. But a life is a life, isn’t it? Technically yes – but it depends on perspective.
By Detlef.
… and sometimes that hurts.
Sunday afternoon in downtown Houston, Texas. By Detlef.Thinking about this tweet by Richard Reeves about how earth seems to be a peaceful planet - if you look at it from space.
My first impulse was to answer: war and peace are purely human concepts – so if you take a perspective were there are no humans you won’t see any war or peace.
Is the moon a peaceful place? Not much going on there, not even a slight breeze. It’s like a Sunday afternoon in downtown Houston, Texas. Hmm. But is that peace? A dove fluttering here, a tourist meandering there, a polluted river running its course to the gulf of Mexico.
Is the sun a peaceful place? Definitely not. Storms, constant movement, nuclear fusion. No parallel on earth for that. Fortunately. But is that war?
By Detlef.
And is the lion at war with the zebra?
Is the mountain brook at war with the stones it is cutting through?
Is water at war with gravity?
The Geek (thank you, Ryan!) Greek philosopher Heraclitus seems to answer these questions with a dedicated “Yes!” as he maintains: “War is the father to all things“.
I’d answer with a rather less dedicated “probably not”. This is just one of these many pictures that are only existing in the eye of the beholder.
Thank you, Richard, for throwing the stone!
Technology does not always display a trustworthy face:
By Detlef.
Wicked tongues maintain: “We despearately need technology to solve the problems created by technology“. And than we might need technology to solve the problems created by those.
I believe: We humans have no choice but to embrace technology and make the best possible use of it. 6 Billion (and counting) people can’t live on earth without technology.
We pushed that button long ago. Let’s go on pushing it. And while we have to, let’s have some fun pushing it and attacking our keyboards. Let’s see what happens …
Making that connection. By Detlef.Reading “Politik” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Zürich 1998), I found a connection between Franz Kafka and the enigmatic book of Job.
Richard Reeve referred to Job in our discussion about a slogan by Yogi Bhajan about how god is to be seen in all things and all deeds – a statement I reject.
The book of Job exemplifies that “Thou shalt not judge god” – which I try to accept as part of the human condition, although I have my difficulties with the notion of a good, beneficial and almighty God. Okay: Thou shalt not judge. Thou cannot judge.
In his essay “Nachrichten vom Schloss” (News from the Castle), referring to Kafka’s novel “The Castle”, Dürrenmatt depicts Kafka as a religious writer, which never came to my mind before. The utterly absurd, “kafkaesque” world of the castle signifying that God’s actions have to seem senseless to us – as we are not equipped to make that “higher sense”.
Okay: I’m still misunderstanding – not “higher sense”: no sense at all. Since I refuse to see any sense in e.g. the holocaust, let alone a higher one. The presence of evil in a world created by a good, almighty God remains a mystery to me. Yet the connection to Kafka helps to ponder, to meditate on it.
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