A Rainbow in the Sky

Hmm ... . I had a great day today ... yesterday ... although it didn't start out that way. But ... so ... I dared watching some YouTube again ... and ... well. Initially I wasn't a huge fan of Veritasium. He was like a knock-off V-Sauce try-hard way too concerned with ... stuff I didn't care much about. Like ... the Virality of a video or what kind of shenanigans one can resort to to boost exposure or what. The kind of stuff a grifter would be concerned about. Or so - in my mind. And yea, that actually does tie into what I actually want to write about ... but more on that ... then.
Then Thunderf00t came out exposing him as such as he was caught shilling for some half-arsed ... I don't know what it was ... something something Self-Driving ... promo. But since recently ... or ... hmm ... what's recently? I haven't watched a lot of him and it was only 6 month back during my surgery that I've seen some of his stuff ... and I'm digging it. He's taking on more advanced topics that so would just happen to have "good" information density to make really interesting videos on. Like ... that Rainbow video. It reminds me a little of the stuff Thunderf00t would do at occasion - like ... "science by video". Like, Veritasium's video on Thermite ... where ... Science basically happens ... "live" - stuff ... 'never seen before'. Possibly because nobody bothered. Also ... something that reminds me of Thunderf00t. But polished.


Anyhow. Watching that Rainbow Video somehow had me remember a guy I met in L.A.. For a while I used to visit the Central Library - and there was a guy doing the same. An elder guy who introduced himself to me as "Leo" or something. But ... we got around to have conversations, hung out a bit; And he was overall a very chill guy. But there were two things ... or two instances ... where he got mad. Or was it just one?
The thing is ... he was a chill guy. And I was young and yet naive but full of ambition - and so I had a drive towards conclusions that he ... got very upset about at one point. Though my recollection is fuzzy, what I remember quite clearly - well ... relatively - is him asking me "Why?" - like - Why can't I just ... let things be? I think of two situations because I connect two locations ... possibly separate days ... to this experience. The one we had something to eat and he did get upset. The other we were sitting there, listening to radio or tape or CD via headphones, and he just didn't want to talk. Maybe he was exhausted by me. But so he basically asked me to just chill and ... let things sink in.

The reason I bring this up ... is because that Rainbow video made me think of it. I mean it's wonderful. How the rainbow works. It's fantastic, it's amazing ... and actually miraculous in how ... logical and not actually miraculous it is. And that's where the issues begin. Obviously. Like ... religious people coming in with the demand that it ... has to be magical. There can not be any dispelling of it. And yea. That's also ... an issue. Me thinking of something that I think is fascinating - but then I internally stop because I figure that ... it's probably going to be difficult to maintain a point or how to put it when this and that many "alternative opinions" there are. And so it was here - except that I remembered Leo ... and figured that I could use this story as an excuse to slip this by.


The message ... isn't there. It is meant as a vibe - as I move on to process ... things. F.D. Signifiers analysis of why Harris lost the election was ... very interesting, and ... unlocked another little mystery in my headbox. Little because ... overall it's part of a bigger topic that I've come to expand upon on and off. The thing is that what he concludes matches my impression. Though, I wouldn't know how to put it into words. Other than "disappointment".
And that's not the first time this happened. But right now it's the only example I have.

So, I personally would then take another one of my occasional dips into conspiracy theories - while emotionally ... I find myself in a difficult spot. As it stands - my hopes depend on this ... let's call it 'wishful thinking' ... depend on a very large turnout on believing in the best of humanity. And because it's a war, victories matter. Which adds a whole ... different? dynamic into the mix ... dragging ego, pride and dignity into the equation. And that's ... not actually good I think. So I try to ... temper that. But then having actual information to sort things out around ... adds like a sense of finality and closure to the whole. Like ... the puff of speculation no longer needs to sustain itself - as by belief - but can rest on the facts.


And how all this comes together ... well. Advertisement!


Sure, it's a stretch - literally - as we also have to take a dive into history ... entirely independent from the concept of Advertisement.
Well - this is also where I get to my ongoing quest ... the part where I have to ... figure out ... stuff ... processing things ... - and that involves things such as 'cool' and social dynamics, cultural evolution - which yea, is all sort of the same thing - but so in the here and now for us looking into the future.
On the one side we could spin the narrative around ... how we have to help ourselves. How we've been abandoned and such - and around that we get back to advertisement ... and cool ... and social dynamics. But ... it is - I'd say - held together by a more or less simple question. Hmm ... . No ... let's start with an assumption, or ... axiom as per a thought experiment. Or ... hmm ... anyhow ...

From the Gnostic perspective - looking at it as an entity that is virtually birthed into this world - looking to grow up, evolve and all that - there is no history. We're - 'us' in this case being "the Gnostics" - virtually just crawling out of the ancestral soup. Everything that came before did in fact come before - and may not be entirely irrelevant but for the sake of argument it is. That so as a filter. And that filter may eventually take one to one version of that question. Something along the lines of "who are we?" or "what do we do?" - or: what the fuck is our Civilization? So, this soup we're crawling out of.

The idea ... or impression that should unfold here is, that our culture right now is really just a vastly disorganized expression of the archaic chaos that we've inherited through the roots that tie us to this material plane. Like, we live - as in: We exist - and how we came into existence isn't really ... clearly answered anywhere. Some point to the Bible, others to Darwin ... and those two are certainly not the only "origin stories" that exist. But so we'd just survive - and over generations, more and more would ... consolidate.
So, eventually we'd start domesticating animals, develop agricultural know-how, discover steel, learn how to make glass ... things like that. And while we - in this day and age - may easily convince ourselves that we're at the peak of it all - I'd argue that this impression of modern prosperity is intrinsically linked to the predominance of democratic values. That's like ... the cherry on top. Like, the point where we can convince ourselves that we've left savagery behind.
But then we recognize that our democracies ... there's ... something amiss. And that ... should work like an indicator that we're not quite 'there' yet. And evidently there was still savagery hiding. But ... and that's that part of today's thing ... that shall not be our concern.
I mean ... it is what it is.

So, the civilization we live in today is ... similar to abiogenesis. Or so: the inception of life. Or in the proper terms: Traces of Order in a vast ocean of Chaos. And often enough ... those traces ... are backed by violence. I mean ... thinking of railroads that would plow to perhaps sacred grounds - or tribes getting displaced for some oil-pipe to be plowed accross some "empty landscape". Yea, colonization, slavery, exploitation, capitalism - all that ... is part of the chaos. Like, opportunists that would see the advancements that are being made as ... as the inspirational story would go ... ways to get out of their misery and venture into a more promising tomorrow. And so - it's not that all the "civilization" and "culture" that would emerge from a railroad being built actually knew anything about building railroads or trains. Like a University would just sit there, somewhere, for "the elite few" to visit and learn at - while the rest might still think that the earth is flat.

Which it is not! Ever heard of mountains? The curvature is everywhere!


So, it's still just a chaos of like ... 'accidentally complementary interests' somehow coming together, but ... not quite. And while it worked for us so far ... yea. Cool! There are far worse systems that have also worked for us ... "so far" ... up unto a certain point where we moved on to something better.
(Context Drop)

Like ... hmm ... maybe I should go on a little tangent on it?


Well. A year ago I met with an old friend from school and he was surprised to hear that I was learning bookbinding ... because I was never big into the crafts. And I figured that he's right. Back in school we had this subject: "Nature and Tech" - and it took me a while to remember whether or not we had it during those last two years of school. But yea. I just ... didn't pay a lot of attention. We were supposed to present some project that would get graded - and I totally ignored everything about it. Then I presented some QBasic program I had smashed together in an hour or so and got a B for it.
And ... thinking about it made me realize that I have a very peculiar aversion to Tech. Or a specific aspect of it. And yea, it's math related. It's like ... things ... 'never' check out for me. I may have to be really specific about how I spend my money - may keep record of all that I spend - and at the end of the month ... the numbers would still be off. And it's not just there.
Now, in my profession, "Industrial Bookbinder"/Print-Finishing, it's important that things check out at the end - regardless of all the moving parts; Because all the moving parts are supposed to get things there.

And ... the more advanced we get - in terms of machinery - the more ... uhm ... well 'amazing' the machines become. Like, offset printers adjust the flow of color in segments along the breadth of itself. So, if there's a vertical segment with no red in it - the red is dialed down so the color doesn't even go onto the printform. They're equipped with scanners to check for color densities accross the breadth of the print and all sorts of shenanigans for all sorts of stuff that might go onto the paper.
Ontop of that ... temperature and humidity are important. If humidity changes - so does the surface area of the paper. And when it goes through the printer - and the breadth of the paper varies - the print doesn't properly sit on it.
For us, in print-finishing, things are a lot more simpler as it's our job to bring the pieces together in whatever shape. Which is then more complicated as there's also more machines involved. And what seems to be a consistent issue, is that each new format comes with a potential for new things that can go wrong. Let it be a different paper perhaps; And now the machine that processes it behaves slightly different - so the tolerances change and things that used to work don't work so well anymore because of ... some variance. Maybe some adjustment is just off by a bit - in a way that works with the paper you're used to - but now ... something you could ignore ... all of a sudden ... "sits there for a reason".

The thing is ... well, the term that triggered this tangent for me is: Tensions. So, in the material. Perhaps expansion and contraction due to temperature or humidity. The point being that all of that is fine and normal and such - but they yet are 'stressors' that lower the limit of what is possible. Like - if you have a machine with a rotating, assymetrical cylinder, it's probably going to vibrate or even hop around. And that's stress that sets a limit to how fast you can spin it before it falls apart. So, if you want to go faster - you have to figure out ... how to reduce the stresses.

And yea - "duh" - just sayin'.


Reducing stress ... so, in this Chaos, is simply a concept of increasing the productivity - or output. So, very exploitative. Which isn't really what 'reducing stress' is "supposed to be" in the context of living. And so is there this ... inherent stress. That our attempts at improving our quality of life attracts opportunists that use that increased potential to get us back to where we started. Sortof. Now however we have all these things ... and here I have to go onto another tangent. A short one I think.

So ... there's a very particular feeling I have about a few things. Say there's an issue I care about - and say ... I were the singular authority for everything. So, this issue might ... benefit like ... 10 people ... when solved. On the other hand might be an issue I don't care about - but solving it would benefit like ... 60% of the population. And here so a fundamental problem with our concepts of leadership pops up, which is ... we could call it 'relatability'. I could say that my issue is more important still, because the 10 people could do more with it - that would eventually outweigh what good the other thing would do. But what then if these 10 also think the same way? So, what if ... everyone has these 'important' things to take care of - so that at the end of the day nobody comes around to actually solve the high demand problems? Like, perhaps because it costs money.

That feeling I get when I stumble into a headbox scenario like that is ... uncomfortable. Like, I wouldn't want to solve 'my' thing on cost of 'their' thing - but at the same time I'm not sure if I would know or understand what to do.


And so - we can finally talk about advertisement. Sort of.
Judging from how there has recently been a bit of a ... spreading of the word of Gunpla ... like, a lot of "Meanwhile Bandai" "I discovered Gunpla" videos are fairly recent. So, I suspect that Bandai has taken some of its From Soft money to run some promotions - and ... thus I probably find myself "victim" of a successful marketting campaign.

But this isn't about how I discovered that Advertisment can be good - actually. The issue is ... more that I do try to maintain a respectful distance to the workings of this world because I don't trust it and its workings - not that there's no order in the chaos.

To me - advertisment is good in that it is informational. If it is ... informational. Like, I don't need to see computer animated Gundams in front of explosions to buy Gunpla because my monkey brain processes explosions as cool and now needs Gunpla - to be sold on it. I need to see what Gunpla is to see whether I'm interested. And sure - sometimes ... there have to be first adopters that help show what some new thing that is very much designed for social use can do. What we don't need are opportunists that run on the first traces of success and essentially block 'proper' development in as far as the standard was set. But that's a different story.


The main reason why 'advertisement' is like the center piece here ... is because it's representative for the wide range of products that there is today. And those products exist on a range fromm good to bad - such that we need like ... essentially a whole branch of industry to rate any one product worthy of it accordingly.
Then, eventually, you find yourself at a dining table with a hair-dresser ... and she's going to tell you that all of the shampoo you can buy in the mall is actually bad! And that's the pointe of the story where we're basically also done with the topic of advertisement.


Why do we use what we use?
Like ... disposable cups. Or ... I can't believe that in the USA ... using throw-away plates and stuff is like ... normal. Like ... "The more it pollutes the better". In an alternate timeline we could have been raised more eco-conscious ... and ... see the expectation to bring your own re-usable cup as self-understood. And I'm not talking about Starbucks - but McDonalds. And if you forgot ... there'd be stuff there like in a normal restaurant but you so couldn't ... easily get something to drink, but that's on you.

And yea. Advertisement ... can be blamed. We can easily extend the topic and see how there's this huge shadow ... that it casts. But that's neither here nor there anymore.


But so ... this goes back to the "we just crawled forth from the soup" part. There sure is history and reasoning and good and bad and what's established or essential or what not - and maybe it's unfair to continue with a 'but', ... 'but' ... it's still pretty much part of the Chaos.
And ... in this configuration of Chaos and Order, there's no difference in freedom. So, we could make arguments for why Chaos or Order is more 'pro freedom' - but all that is subject to a few things. Like how we define freedom - or whether we talk of Chaos and Order in a philosophical setting versus a practical one with actual context. Or how we define the context.
So ... the 'Chaos versus Order' dichotomy cannot be easily transposed as "good and/versus bad". In as far as Order is about something being definite, regulated, predictable - it is the end all be all of what we 'make' - but with too much of it we get into Tyranny. Which, if you want to die on that hill, you could then again call chaos but at that point we can also randomize the dictionary and call it a day.
I mean - they are loaded terms in as far as different religions have different approaches.

For here - we're interested in neither, but progress.
As we come forth from the soup.


And I think ... I at this point ticked all the boxes I meant to tick - so ... I guess what else I could add wouldn't really add all that much - so, I'll leave this with you ... Peace and ... may the Righteous Prevail!