Path Dependent Man

I was looking for a term to describe the weight of history that I feel influences the shape of the world I experience and realized that a more suitable technical term already exists.

Path-dependence is a phrase used to mean one of two things. Some authors use path-dependence to mean simply "history matters" - a broad conception - whilst others use it to mean that institutions are self reinforcing - a narrow conception. It is this narrow conception which has the most explanatory force ...
The history of humanity is almost by definition path-dependent. Accidental events such as the death at an early age of major historical figures like Napoleon or Hitler would surely have altered the political geography of Europe and even the languages spoken in different countries today. Recent methodological work in comparative politics and sociology has adapted the concept of path dependence into analyses of political and social phenomenon. Path dependence has primarily been used in comparative-historical analyses to analyze the development and persistence of institutions, whether they be social, political, or cultural. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence)


If I am interpreting this concept correctly, then it seems our actions (assuming there is free will) has an effect that can contribute to the future structure of how things come to be in cultural, political, and social dimensions. We can't know with certainty how our actions will result in "tipping" any system of agents (such as a society) towards any specific outcome, but we can through looking at history uncover the past events or phenomenon that has initiated the "positive feedback" that results in the shape of our world today. This "positive feedback" is like the one seen in Global Warming, where the early changes in the melting polar ice caps encourage and enhance further melting, which ultimately results in sharp and rapid changes in the overall global climate.

It's very difficult to apply this to looking at issues such as racial representation and cultural values. It's easy to become offended by analytical stances, and is difficult to maintain objectivity when trying to understand the actions of individuals, and the individual as an agent in a group. We believe a thing called culture exists, yet any potential discussion is fraught with the struggle between accurate descriptions about the properties and behaviour of a culture, with the risks of unfairly or unknowingly attributing certain values (of the assessor) on the identities of the people in question. It is far easier to discuss the path dependent nature of Global Warming phenomena than it is to spell out the subtle challenges and changes people are facing in a world of tightening integration.

My mom is a funny person. Everytime the discussion comes around to fashion or how one presents themself, she will point out (usually after seeing my dad pop out of the closet donning one of his many dapper outfits): "You know, fashion doesn't say anything about the person. Anyone with substance need not worry about how they dress. Their true talents will come out in their actions."

I can already hear the laugh track in this family sitcom. Dapper dad fighting with the righteous Maoist mom on what it takes to "make it". There is a kind of naivete in the suggestion that fashion doesn't matter because humans are afterall visual creatures, and the entire industries of image-making still continue to entertain and append our own imaginations of reality.

When I was young I used to think this was her way of trying to save money and avoid having to buy us kids new fashions for each school term. But now I don't think of it so much. It's just as well. I feel my cleanest when I'm unadorned with the possibilities of visually expressing with my body. I look at myself in the mirror, exploring the nooks and crannies, posing sometimes, making faces, check out my own buttocks: "I'm not so bad."

The ability to create and recognize symbolism and metaphor is one of the gifts of cognition and sentience. Perhaps it's an illusion that we live in a meritocratic society. Image is about difference; it exists to be ingested. But it's comforting to know the family is still one refuge where the dynamics of image-making has not affected the ability to fit in and feel loved. It almost seems to go without saying that a family's unconditional structure of love and acceptance rings true for most everyone. Then what is it that makes us not extend that idea to other people? I know my consciousness is always wavering between this contradiction, a gap between the compassion and contempt. Hmm.. I'm still trying to figure out what to write on this post.. but for the time being...

In the words of the absurdly ironic and hilarious Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me!"



(images: James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins, Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer)

No Luck Club - head tax mix

"The Yellow Terror In All His Glory", 1899 editorial cartoon

http://www.dogmaradio.com/audio/download/67

Notice

My perception filters and processes as is necessary to function, to invent thoughts and to inspire a sense of direction. But what if the default filters are all wrong? What if the machinery is faulty, the software of my perception full of bugs that create a whole bunch of unexpected perceptual errors? Then what? How can the code be rewritten? Who can rewrite my code? Can it be rewritten? How can it be read?













(image: Mobius strip)

Reminding myself to post; economy of body

My girlfriend deftly reminded me that I haven't been posting. So here I am again. It's very important the part of brain that translates ideas and crafts them into sentences, limbers up now and again.

As I approach the end of the day, I start to think about food. Not just any food mind you, but the wet soppy stuff, the kind of food you know someone's mom sweated over in the kitchen all day. Stew, soup, gravy, something really meaty and substantial. This is what I want now. This is living in the present is it not? Hahaha well eating food makes me think about the economy of body.

One of the most amazing things about my own machine - this mass that clings to my bones of a body - is that it seems to function quite flexibly. I can starve it, fatten it up, inject smoke, and/or do any such thing that will invoke an extreme reaction and quite obediently, it brings me back to a kind of general equilibrium. The analogy is like a trading system of agents, like the global economy we live in from day to day. Each major organ operates like a country, it takes its critical inputs, produces outputs, and trades with other organs in order to continue its life. Sometimes organs die. Sometimes economies collapse. But the self-regulatory manner in which a human body can restore itself back to health, or adapt to some kind of biological happenstance is rather amazing. It's hard to say how far one can take the analogy, but as an economy of body, for the most part it does a fairly consistent job. The sad thing though is that bodies do age and die, and surely, this is where the analogy with our global economy should stop. If I can.