...where the passing traveler will purchase a sample, and eat of the same, testing the truth of Homer's description, but probably not losing thereby his desire for home and country."
Denton Snider, Homer's Odyssey: A Commentary
"Lotus is still highly esteemed in Tripolis, Tunis and Algiers; from the last named country it has passed over to France, and is often hawked about the streets of Paris under the name of Jujube...
The more I spend time in the US, the more I realize this is true. Conservatives are just not congenitally predisposed to be artists. But that’s not the biggest problem, as you don’t actually need that many artists.
The biggest issue is that conservatives are also terrible art consumers. The little art American conservatives do produce is barely read by its intended audience. Conservatives also refuse to contend with contemporary art of any kind, whether it be movies, music, etc. They tend to attribute maliciousness to it immediately.
Conservatives have no culture of art criticism. For them, there is no prestige in being involved in current art forms, whether it be through criticism, consumption, or production. Because of this, they produce no economy in which artists can exist as conservatives.
If you ask your average Matt-Walsh-type when was the last time he went to a gallery, read a recently released novel, or took a chance on an indie movie without critical consensus behind it, all you’ll get is a blank stare.
They hide their philistinism as “taste” by claiming they only care for “the good stuff,” which, of course, was always made more than a hundred years ago. These conservatives don’t really like art. They like art history. Liking art history is easier because you can outsource your taste to those who came before you.
Conservatives claim they want art, but when given the opportunity, all they produce is the TPUSA halftime show. At least they should know it’s not their fault.
Artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
@heileivo There isn’t lab proof of it because it isn’t a material principle, and not the same as “consciousness” which is at least observable, and which AI can demonstrate signs of. A soul is a distinct *principle* and source of life, human life being utmost
Happy birthday song is a sadistic social ritual that allows you to disguise a repressed urge to enact violence (public humiliation) as some kind of joyous celebration. Notice: the more embarrassed and ashamed the birthday boy, the greater the elation and glee of the revelers.