In America we say “it is what it is” or “good enough for government work” to communicate a similar vibe. Sounds sophisticated when you say it in Japanese tho
Did it, though? My 90 year old mother used it in the same way since her childhood. I think it’s always been sarcastic, probably from use by lowly soldiers. In the phrase, she pronounces and spells it as “gummint work” even though she would normally say “government.”
This is vaguely a thing in Japan, but let’s not fall into the eastern mysticism trap, where Asian things are completely divorced from what goes on in the West. It’s sort of like saying America has the “fuck it, good enough” aesthetic worldview of accepting the imperfect things about the world.
The real trap is assuming anything from a culture applies to everyone, or even the majority, of the culture.
America definitely has a “fuck it, good enough” worldview for a lot of things and institutions. It isn’t universal, but it does apply where you see a bunch of half assed infrastructure or shelves upon shelves of cheap low quality products that a ton of people spend money on knowing it is poor quality.
It’s more than acceptance, its saying its the little imperfections that make something even more endearing than if they were perfect. A bit of wabi-sabi gives character, or makes things feel less sterile, or more natural. Perfection can be less pleasant than imperfection. Not always, I want my airplane engines made perfectly. But something like handmade clay plates and bowls with wabi-sabi are great.
Huh, it’s got some similarities to the Persian flaw, thinking about it. The intentional inclusion of an error in Persian rugs as perfection is for God alone. Imperfection is human.
FYI, one could also interpret Cindy Crawfords’ nævus as wabi-sabi. Also we find slight asymmetry more pleasing for the eye. E.g. pictures of faces which are built up by mirroring one half appear as artificial. The scroll of a violin is also slightly asymmetrical.
These all sound like the same kind of aesthetic as ‘hand crafted’ where you can tell someone put on the finishing touches or details in a way that matched the materials or is a tiny bit uneven.
That’s sounds like the intro scene from The Fight Club, where the narrator talks about paying extra for handmade cups because they have little imperfections that make them unique.
I’ve had conversations with people about “how can you love the news so much? It’s so negative and depressing!”
The best I’ve explained it is first and foremost you need to understand and appreciate we are a deeply flawed creature and there’s a beauty in that. How could someone not love life for that? I am in a dingy alley having a tea right now I can smell garbage, I can hear the drone of the city around me, everything is stained. But if I look up the sky is beautiful and blue, cute girls are walking by, someone is smoking a flavoured cigar.
If you’re unwilling to appreciate it all, you will struggle on appreciating any of it. Happiness is what you make of the world around you and if you are not willing to be happy inside no external event will change that.
I’ve walked most of it (though I couldn’t find Saturn for some reason … I suspect it was stolen).
And yea … it’s a ridiculously effective demonstration of how hard it is to comprehend big numbers. I knew these numbers, or had read them before hand, and thought about them … but seeing it all to scale was kinda devastating … like the distances between the outer planets are huuuge … you get tired walking them even though the planets are 5cms wide.
And yea, the proxima centauri thing is a very nice touch!
There’s going to be a military or intelligence agency behind them both. Possibly corporate, but who knows? Maybe Glasgow is the big name in internet marketing.
Scotland had a notable community but not that notable regardless.
No, it’s because that’s where they counter the <insert enemy of the state department>'s propaganda with truth and facts.
Same reason Reddit’s director of policy comes from The Council on Foreign Relations and worked for Madelin Albright. They certainly wouldn’t be using Reddit to influence the perceptions of Americans, the primary users of Reddit.
What I have learned is that if you have a simple explaination, but it’s really really stupid, that’s still probably what happened. Because people are stupid.
Fair enough, and if all the outgoing traffic to Reddit is innocuous, then there’s nothing to hide. Not great if it is some kind of hub of an operation to influence Reddit.
There was a trend when I was a little kid of people sending you mail that said something to the effect of “You have been cursed by reading this letter. If you don’t mail a copy to ten other people, you will die in thirty days.”
Roko’s Basilisk is a modern manifestation of human paranoia and superstition. It exists to exploit and extort the gullible.
til
Newest
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.