Observer-Reporter forum

ellipses · Mod Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 9218 Location: WashPa!

There are facets of our little group here that have basically become real-life reference points for various things... For example, here's a quick story...

I am friends with this guy on facebook that Ondi recommended... conservative columnist (Demitri Vassileros [sp?])... Anyway, in my live feed, I see that he adds two people as friends and one of their names is familiar. I add the familiar guy only to find out that it isn't the guy that I thought it was. Well, no big deal... the more the merrier... right?

I go on facebook a minute ago and see a recent post from the guy that I added who I thought was someone else... I click his name to see his profile just out of curiosity. There's a picture of him and all the stuff that he has put in about himself... written ALL IN CAPS.

Now here's the thing... The ABSOLUTE FIRST thought that I had was:

Holy cow! This guy looks like Gene Simmons and types like Blackballed!

And I realized that what I just thought in my head... would only make sense to like 10 other people on earth. That is significant... A lot of what I studied in college was based on Jacques Derrida and one of the more interesting little bits within the more grand, unifying theories was that communication only works within shared contexts... Signs and signifiers... The only reason you and I can have a conversation with each other is because the abstractions I use (words, references) mean the same thing to you as they do to me... If you say "It's like winter in Vermont" to someone who doesn't know what vermont is... There isn't the type of communication there that would exist if you were talking to someone who has the same referential index as you...

The thing that amazed me, though... was that this was a "natural" thought. I didn't "compose" a joke or contrive a simile... it was literally the first thing that popped into my brain. And it is something that very few people would be capable of relating to.
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Cylinsier · Master Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-

Jacques Lacan was very into signifiers as well. He said that words are like islands attached by ropes, and that to understand one word, you would have to follow those ropes to others which define it. I believe he was also one of the ones who said language was the key to self-awareness and that you could not understand something if there wasn't a word for it.
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ellipses · Mod Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 9218 Location: WashPa!

Yeah... we did a lot with Lacan, but via ropes from the island of Derrida Smile

If Lacan was Socrates, Derrida was Plato...

Wow, that works on so many levels... I am impressed with myself
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Cylinsier · Master Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-

Lacan was more of a psychoanalyst than a philosopher anyway. He tends to be grouped with the likes of Jung and Freud.
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amom · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:38 pm Post subject:

I learn something new here every day. You guys are my prophylactic against Altzheimers. Laughing

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-amom

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"

- Will Rogers

SSSS · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:39 pm Post subject:

did amom justy call you guys condoms??? Laughing

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ellipses · Mod Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 9218 Location: WashPa!

Hey Cy... I think Amom just called us geriatric condoms...
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Cylinsier · Master Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-

Ribbed for you pleasure.
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amom · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:43 pm Post subject:

You know, as soon as I hit "submit" I cringed. I knew it was coming. Embarassed

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-amom

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"

- Will Rogers

ellipses · Mod Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 9218 Location: WashPa!

Cylinsier · Master Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-

amom · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:52 pm Post subject:

JIMINEY CRICKETS! I can't keep up with you all.

....

....

*thinking about if there is anything obscene with this....

Laughing

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-amom

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"

- Will Rogers

ellipses · Mod Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 9218 Location: WashPa!

SSSS · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:37 pm Post subject:

got to be on your toes today amom!
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