Sic Semper Tyrannis

Where Ideas Go to Die

So I was thinking about my filing system that I use for stuff on my computer at work. Documents go to one of three places: the desktop, the recycle bin, or onto my personal share on a network drive. A document’s ultimate location is obviously determined by its’ importance, i.e. how often I use it.

I was kept up a couple nights ago with the idea that I order my world in a similar way, particularly when it comes to the world of ideas. You know, in this life, we’re constantly inundated by ideas. If you read anything or listen to people with any kind of attention, you will receive all kinds of differing ideas-some dramatically opposed to each other, some with nuanced differences, some completely compatible with each other.

And I was thinking about how we (I) process these ideas. Some are just ludicrous horseshit from the get-go. They go in my subconscious Recycle Bin, (Trash, if you’re a Mac user.) This is the final resting place for hate-fueled rhetoric from the religious ultra-right and all manner of emotional tripe from overly-sensitive pop artists.

And then every now and then, you get exposed to a thought that is just so “right.” (I wanted to say “seems so right,” but I don’t know about all that. I’m in the throes of an epistemological crisis right now.) These “true”-(ish?) ideas go into the personal share for safe-keeping, where they join the lives and deaths of Jesus, Socrates, and the odd quote of a philosopher here and there.

And then, there are a whole slew of ideas that stay on the desktop, where you can mess around with them and try to figure out where you stand on them, accept them or reject them. For me, this is where the bulk of ideas stay. But that’s the way I am.

I’m indecisive.

posted by Mike @ 12:31 PM