Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
so I had to go back to reading Adorno and the first thing I read is "Psychology knows that he who imagines disasters in some way desires them."

If you're talking about a distant, unlikely and basically theoretical threat, like an asteroid impact or alien invasion, then yeah, maybe.

If you're talking about a disaster that is already happening, and has been for decades, not so much.

A better argument there is that he who sticks his fingers in his ears and goes "La la la I can't hear you" is complicit in allowing it to happen.
 

luka

Well-known member
Read the thread. Read some Ballard. Reflect. Think deep and meaningful thoughts.
 

version

Well-known member
Even in the US 72% of the population want action on climate and the environment.

Didn't a similar percentage of people polled also say that they would be unwilling to change any aspect of their lifestyle to do so though? It might have been a different poll but I remember something coming out that said those two things and just thinking we're doomed.
 

version

Well-known member
I remember reading the idea that DeLillo was done once 9/11 actually happened because he'd been writing about it his entire life and was almost willing it into existence.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
we've seen this movie before. every few months on dissensus, the needling starts off entertaining then gets extended and and intensified to it's (il)logical conclusion (borderline nastiness), at which point one party says "fuck off" and the other sulks off, feeling temporarily unappreciated before reemerging a few days later on a different thread as if nothing ever happened.

like a kettle that eventually has to blow off some steam.

The other side of this story is that something fairly innocuous is said, people either get bizarrely offended or disengeniously pretend to be, loads of people needlessly get involved and act all cunty, so the victim of all this undeserved scorn is so disgusted by the forum at large that they go and take a break for a month or more.
 

luka

Well-known member
I think it's fair to say this particular incident is entirely innocuous but I'm happy to say sorry and move on. It's not worth getting upset.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Read the thread. Read some Ballard. Reflect. Think deep and meaningful thoughts.

I tried reading Ballard and it bored the hell out of me. Maybe I chose the wrong Ballard. I wanted to like it, genuinely.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Which Ballard did you read?

Got about 50 pages into Atrocity Exhibition and found it repetitive and pretentious. Possibly not the best one to start with? I dunno. It was a long time ago, maybe I should give it another crack.
 

droid

Well-known member
I think it's fair to say this particular incident is entirely innocuous but I'm happy to say sorry and move on. It's not worth getting upset.

No I dont think that's fair to say at all. I think Ive explained why I have a problem with this reasonably well. You ascribed a sentiment to me in your mind, needlessly personalised a thread based on that, continued to push it after I'd asked you stop, and now your invalidating your apology by essentially saying that you don't see what the issue is. Its not kosher.

But sure, whatever. Fine.
 
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version

Well-known member
Crash and Gravity's Rainbow were published a few months apart and both seem fixated on the sex/death/technology thing, the idea that technology facilitates the "terminal orgasm" and that humans are in love with the idea of their own death. There's that scene toward the end of the latter where the Nixon character fantasises about being suffocated by a plastic bag as he's driving his car like Gottfried is sealed inside the rocket behind the Imipolex shroud and Crash is full of images of people's bodies and bodily fluids merging with the wreckage of crashed cars.
 

droid

Well-known member
so I had to go back to reading Adorno and the first thing I read is "Psychology knows that he who imagines disasters in some way desires them."
So this is hardly some outré idea I've dreamed up. As I said in the opening post it's absolutely fundamental to Ballard. Ditto the boredom with surfeit that permeates the west and the corresponding will to madness.

Adorno's full of shit.

There are people with anxiety disorders, depression, victims of trauma who are afflicted with negative automatic thoughts around the suffering of themselves and their loved ones.

The stoics advocated negative visualisation, or defensive pessimism as an essential coping mechanism to deal with the vicissitudes life. Aurelius tells us that "When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love …” a principle predicated on the possibility of disaster. Seneca says; "Let us place before our eyes in its entirety the nature of man’s lot…not the kind of evil that often happens, but the very greatest evil that can possibly happen. We must reflect upon fortune fully and completely.” Buddha tells us to contemplating the suffering of others to awaken our compassion.

There is a whole world of thought around this outside the shallow interpretation presented here.
 

version

Well-known member
There are people with anxiety disorders, depression, victims of trauma who are afflicted with negative automatic thoughts around the suffering of themselves and their loved ones.

This is true. They're called "intrusive thoughts" and they're fucking awful. The French have a term for it which translates to "Call of the Void", it's that feeling you get when you stand on top of a tall structure and suddenly feel the urge to throw yourself off despite absolutely not wanting to.
 

Leo

Well-known member
apologies for any time when I might have been bizarrely offended or disengeniously pretended to be, or needlessly gotten involved and acted all cunty.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
apologies for any time when I might have been bizarrely offended or disengeniously pretended to be, or needlessly gotten involved and acted all cunty.

^disingenuously pretending not to be probably the nicest and most emotionally functional regular user of this forum
 

Leo

Well-known member
aw, thanks tea. I didn't realize you'd disingenuously pretended to care so much.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
The other side of this story is that something fairly innocuous is said, people either get bizarrely offended or disengeniously pretend to be, loads of people needlessly get involved and act all cunty, so the victim of all this undeserved scorn is so disgusted by the forum at large that they go and take a break for a month or more.

Lol, c'mon, you must see the irony of claiming others are being thin-skinned and then having to take a break from the forum! At the same time as claiming victimhood!

Btw, are we talking about the 'Tea dances on Palestinian children's graves' episode again?
 
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