Like / Opposite

(Obscure christian issue follows.)
My problem with a lot of complementarian / 'equal but different' language is that it ends up being what Hegel would deride as 'one-sided': complementarian means there's men, and then women complement them. It's bush-league.  And then it gets backed up by a lot of generalisations about what men and women on average are like, which helps no one, because even granting they are true, who wants to be in a community where averages are enforced*? There should rather be a mutually interpreting dialectic of male and female to give the whole, but since even I felt my eyes roll back in my head at the word dialectic, we may never get there.  What follows is a speculative attempt. It is probably just me talking words, just a whole stream of words, right out of my mouth**.  But on the off-chance that its true, I have got up at 4 o'clock in the morning to jot it down, because I want to see some progress.

I heard a wedding sermon once, where the text of the creation of Eve in Genesis was preached.  The speaker drew out the exact Hebrew translated 'counter-part' or 'one suitable for'.  Hebrew did not use a large vocabulary and little words would often be joined to express a more jointed concept.  The original word is literally 'like-opposite'.  Now you can't have a single like-opposite - the man is like-opposite the woman, the woman is like-opposite the man. Last bit of Bible to draw out, is the summary statement 'In the beginning God created Man, male and female he created them.  The word 'man' here is made the inclusive language, defining both male and female.

As I've previously noted (almost exactly a year ago), there is something funny going on in research on men and women - some people find substantial differences, other people minimise them.  It often seems that women will stress Like-ness when male researchers stress Opposite-ness. As I noted a year ago, the blog wife responded to this by suggesting that probably a proper study would show no difference on how difference-conscious men and women are.

So I'm suggesting we take individual humans as like-opposites, defined by the other***, and find expressed in human male-female-ness a larger like-oppositeness, in which women (the image and glory of man****) express Like, and men (a bunch of jerks*****) express Opposite.  I think this faculty of being Opposite is tied to the relationship of men to violence, to force. ('Your desire will be for your husband but he will dominate you'). The Opposite says No, sets boundaries, governs, and is Love expressed.  The Like is life and union and community, Love accomplished.  While every individual human being is  a complete like-opposite, when in community these emphases allow the whole to express ourselves more truly.

Now that I've written it, it still seems essentialist stereotyping, but I think keeping the stereotypes close to violence and community will limit the romancing of this.

The next thing I would like to do is get away from the legalism that causes large groups of evangelical men to go huddle together, fondling their masculinity, so that they feel better about the legalism of walking out if a woman speaking from the front of the congregation strays into 'teaching'. I think the like-opposite articulation explains the stereotypes we live with.  Being challenged (nagged) by your partner is an affront because you thought you had like, but got opposite.  Similarly, a woman speaking to me (maybe not to all men, but certainly to me) sets up some hackles so that I have to consciously force myself not to retreat into Opposite-ing, just going 'Nuh-uh' resentfully in my pew.

* I/ESTJs.
**Peep Show reference.
*** Hegel says your Essence is the Other.
**** Fragment of actual bible verse
*****More just the vibe.

Future Movies

This weekend has been an SF film extravaganza (by my standards) in the Fool household.

We re-watched Moon - an impeccable contained thriller that makes explicit the hidden agenda that motivates cloning - to have a person be equipment.  Brilliant film from front to back - don't miss it.

We watched 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' - probably the best Planet of the Apes, a rich homage to the others, but a strong film in its own right.  In a world where you can hardly get a film made with a black male lead, the screenwriters sold a concept where the central character is a CGI chimpanzee.

Finally, District 9. Somehow, like Moon, it just flows so effortlessly that it is a first rate film, full of surprises.

When will we see an SF best picture Oscar, I wonder, instead of nostalgic pap?

Coda on the Nord G2 Engine

Interesting result on the G2 engine - listed on ebay.comau at $599, with a buy-it-now at $999, the auction was won at $1167. How does this happen?

I guess two or more people wanted it very badly, but worried they would overpay buying it now, and also worried they might not win it without bids well over that price. Effectively, they priced the saving if the auction settled below $999 against their unhappiness missing out, and both bid over $1150. Even the winner can't be happy at wasting $170.

The disappointed runner-up might find relief at musicswopshop.com.au, where an identical item is $1100. Or in the UK, where gumtree.co.uk lists two identical items for £650. Or using the free mono software version from Nord.

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Real, Symbolic, Imaginary

Further to my terrible Lumpish 'theory' of mind, 'Resolution, or This is That', I just realised that I could lump Lacan's Real, Symbolic and Imaginary into this diagram - the Imaginary being the play space between the Real (handled in Perception and Recognition), and the Symbolic (where reflecting abstraction analyses, orders and relates handles), presents unrecognized monsters and gives new judgements or resolutions to the recognizer. The Imaginary is the space of rising unrecognized monster and the descending symbol-laden image (metaphor), or judgement of resolution.

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Curious coincidence

On Jan 7, a clavia nord modular keyboard and a rack unit went up on melbourne.gumtree. I'm inclined to think they may actually be the same unit accidentally listed twice, but they do seem quite different.

Today a g2 factory went on melbourne music swop shop $1100, and the same day one in brisbane listed at $600 with a buy it now of $999.

The timing is so tight, for items of which there are maybe a few hundred in Australia that I am wondering what the hidden cause is. Collusion in a secret owners club? Terminal frustration with the pc / mac -based support programs? Software upgrade to Lion ceases support? Acquisition of a software modular synth that's easier and better? All of the above?

I think if you pay attention to anything, you find this sort of mystery.

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Conjunction

Slate (slate.com) has two headlines side by side that make a good pair:
Michael Bay to Continue Assaulting Your Senses with Another Transformers Film.
Germans select 'Shitstorm' as Anglicism of the year.

I guess the Germans will be ready.

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Gratuitous Gene Wolfe

From 'Citadel of the Autarch', p283.  Severian has attained the Autarchy, and is exploring the accumulated treasure of the  Autarch's rooms in Nessus.

... the most interesting of which was a mandragora in spirits.
The curcurbit in which it floated was about seven spans in height and half as wide; the homoncule itself no more than two spans tall.  When I tapped the glass it turned eyes like clouded beads toward me, eyes blinder far in appearance than Master Palaemon's.  I heard no sound when its lips twitched, yet I knew at once what words they shaped - and in some inexorable sense I felt the pale fluid in which the mandragora was immersed had become my own blood-tinged urine.
    'Why have you called me Autarch, from the contemplation of your world?'
   I asked 'Is it truly mine? I know now that there are seven continents, and none but a part of this are obedient to the hallowed phrases.'
  'You are the heir' the wizened thing said and turned, I could not tell if by accident or design, until it no longer faced me.
  I tapped the curcurbit again. 'And who are you?'
  'A being without parents, whose life is passed immersed in blood.'
  'Why such have I been!  We should be friends then, you and I, as two of similar backgrounds usually are.'
 'You jest.'
 'Not at all.  I feel a real sympathy for you, and I think we are more alike than you believe.'
  The tiny figure turned again until its little face looked up into my own. 'I wish that I might credit you, Autarch.'
 'I mean it. No one has ever accused me of being an honest man, and I've told lies enough when I thought they would serve my turn, but I'm quite sincere. If I can do anything for you, tell me what it is.'
 'Break the glass.'
 I hesitated. 'Won't you die?'
 'I have never lived. I will cease thinking. Break the glass.'
 'You do live.'
 'I neither grow, nor move, nor respond to any stimulus save thought, which is counted no response. I am incapable of propagating my kind, or any other. Break the glass.'
 'If you are indeed unliving, I would rather find some way to stir you to life.'
 'So much for brotherhood. When you were imprisoned here, Thecla, and that boy brought you the knife, why did you not look for more life then?'
 The blood burned in my cheek, and I lifted the ebony baculus, but I did not strike. 'Alive or dead, you have a penetrating intelligence. Thecla is the part of me most prone to anger.'
 'If you had inherited her glands with her memories, I would have succeeded.'
 'And you know that. How can you know so much, who are blind?'
 'The acts of coarse minds create minute vibrations that stir the waters of this bottle. I hear your thoughts.'
 'I notice that I hear yours. How is it that I hear them, and not others?'
 Looking now directly at the pinched face, which was lit by the sun's last shaft penetrating a dusty port, I could not be sure the lips moved at all. 'You hear yourself, as ever. You cannot hear others because your mind shrieks always, like an infant crying in a basket. Ah, I see you remember that.'
 'I remember a time long ago, when I was cold and hungry.  I lay upon my back, encircled by brown walls, and heard the sound of my own screams. Yes, I must have been an infant. Not old enough to crawl, I think. What am I thinking now?'
 'That I am but an unconscious exercise of your own power, as the Claw was. It is true, of course.  I was deformed, and died before birth, and have been kept here since in white brandy. Break the glass.'

Worldviews

I noticed in my facebook feed an atheist page quoting 1 Timothy 2, one of several new testament passages giving different instructions to the different sexes - in particular the troubling? counter-cultural? obnoxious? 'a woman should learn in quietness and full submission.  I do not permit a woman to teach or assume authority over a man - she must keep silent.'  It appears to be growing at a geometric rate, so it may soon be in your feed too.  Christians are naively trying to explain something from their worldview to those outside it which they have plenty of trouble digesting inside the worldview.  Atheists are making rules like 'we only allow rational statements on this site', which is so close to 'we only allow what we agree with or what makes us feel more secure' as makes no mind.

I guess atheism is always going to be parasitic on theism, just a very narrow nihilism with no positive content; but this sort of baiting makes the parasitism so naked that I would have thought atheists would feel embarrassed.

Love

Socrates asked whether good acts are good because the Gods love them, or whether the Gods love them because they are good. I think the truth is that they are Gods because they love them; and they are lovely because they lead to Gods.

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Identification

I think my favourite comedy moments probably tell a lot about me.

1.  I believe a lot of things that I find it impossible to convince people of: Heidegger, Christianity, my potential as a screenwriter, recording musician, philosopher, athlete, blogger...
The corresponding comedy favourite is from South Park, where little Kyle tries to introduce his friends to Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo, but all he has is a turd in a shoe-box. About 40 seconds into this clip, he's yelling  Dance, Damn You!  Dance!

2.  I am a very lazy man.  My favourite moment is The Dude explaining why there is so little progress in finding Bunny Lebowski - 'This is a, complicated case, man. Lot of ins, lot of outs.'

3.  I value learning, but I value foolishness even more.  Favourite moment: Walter Sobchack's shock at learning the Germans who attacked The Dude were Nihilists, not Nazis.  "Well you can say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism - at least its Ethos!"  I also love xkcd.com (like everyone else) and Kate Beaton's web comics.

4.  I'm broadly sympathetic to feminism but somehow it goes awry all too easily.  FM: The Dude: "Jackie Treehorn - he treats Objects like they're Women, man!"

What's the difference?

Another Something trod on a mine by criticizing some quotes from John Piper, a leading light in some evangelical circles. A christian pastor called the post 'dumb' in the comments - in love, one must assume. Talking to a conference of pastors about JC Ryle, Piper was affirming a certain definition of masculinity (things he likes), assuming it was interchangeable with male nature, and led off with:

God has revealed himself to us in the Bible pervasively as King, not Queen, and as Father, not Mother. The second person of the Trinity is revealed as the eternal Son. The Father and the Son created man and woman in his image, and gave them together the name of the man, Adam (Genesis 5:2). God appoints all the priests in Israel to be men. The Son of God comes into the world as a man, not a woman. He chooses twelve men to be his apostles. The apostles tell the churches that all the overseers—the pastor/elders who teach and have authority (1 Timothy 2:12)—should be men; and that in the home, the head who bears special responsibility to lead, protect, and provide should be the husband (Ephesians 5:22–33).
Masculine Christianity
From all of this, I conclude that God has given Christianity a masculine feel. And, being a God of love, he has done it for the maximum flourishing of men and women. He did not create women to languish, or be frustrated, or in any way to suffer or fall short of full and lasting joy, in a masculine Christianity. She is a fellow heir of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7). From which I infer that the fullest flourishing of women and men takes place in churches and families where Christianity has this God-ordained, masculine feel. For the sake of the glory of women, and for the sake of the security and joy of children, God has made Christianity to have a masculine feel. He has ordained for the church a masculine ministry.

Simone's post gave a very reasonable statement of the use of 'feminine' models for church, not least that the church, and individual Christians, are pictured as the Bride of Christ.

I have a lot of problems with the poor job the John Piper's of the world do in explicating their position. Simone is broadly sympathetic, but was naturally offended by Piper saying 'Christianity has a masculine feel.'  You can't say things that sloppily if you're supposed to be speaking for everyone.

I shall just point out some of them:

• First, if you are going to do all your justificatory work in the ideals of masculine and feminine, you create some work for yourself when you come back to male and female with a thud, and find that the ideal qualities are distributed and while there may be some validity in our culture at the moment for the generalisation, there's probably more that doesn't fit than does.
• Second, the nature of that generalisation is that men are equipped for violence (Physical resources of strength, psychological competitiveness, just plain obtuseness - Force, harshness, criticism, robustness etc are the euphemisms for it) and women are generally much so, and since violence is the supreme authority from which all other authority derives*, men are the bosses and need to show leadership.  (There's some confusion of this with courage, which is an independent quality necessary for all people.)  I think there is some validity to this specific tie that is diluted when we talk about men & leadership, men & wisdom, men & harder doctrine etc.
• Third, the offence is saying 'the church has a masculine feel' is that it asserts domination, and driving femininity to the periphery.  If men are going to speak for both sexes, your speech had better be ample, illuminating, and truth that sets free.  Masculinity is one pole, and the point is that the better expressed the masculinity, the more the other pole of Femininity can be raised up.
• Christianity is not a good descriptor - Christianity is something every Christian owns, and it feels like being yourself, only absolved and at peace with God.  If you mean church, say church go back to point three.
• There is a prioritisation of institutional forms - jobs and decisions in this definition of Christianity.  It seems like the clergy justifying themselves.
• The final point I would make is that this dialogue does very little for anyone's masculinity. There is a stink of ressentiment about this.  One of the things about masculinity is that it doesn't spend a lot of time in huddles reassuring itself.

And 'What's the Difference?' - it was a slender volume by Piper and a woman in his congregation, of terrible empty gender-defining pablum.  He scammed me $10 for it.

* Starship Troopers reference.

Gear Junkie

Have I told you about my home studio in detail, and how I acquired it? It's a sad tale, and dull.

When i was 22, i took up a little music production. I spent, over a few years, probably $3,600, on:
A roland xp-10 starter keyboard (disposed of)
A kawai k5000w 'advanced additive' digital synth (now wish i had bought the s variant, but never mind close enough)
a roland jv-1010 sound module
And a Guillemot ISIS maxistudio soundcard, bundled with a version of logic audiopro 3.6.
And evidence of how stupid I was - I never got out of the general midi soundbanks on any of them.

In the mid 2000s I bought a microphone and a preamp ($400).

Since completing the desktertainment unit, I've added (in order of importance):
An e-mu 1212m sound card (great card, great bundled software, great price)
Two korg nanokontrols and a nanopad
An m-audio 2x2 usb-midi interface.

There are a number of sad parts. The main one is that i am a very poor musician: my hands and ears are joined by nervous tissue that has about a second of jitter, and i lose the beat on the third repetition of it.

The other one is that I have now called in every conceivable birthday and christmas present but can't stop shopping. I see a Nord Modular G1 ($700) on gumtree and begin to fantasise forlornly about the email I could send to its current owner, about how much I would care for it, and how its value is significantly reduced by software instruments, doesn't he know. Sheesh.

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That's all that's left

I won't draw your attention to Gawker, where there is a story of sisters asked to complete a disgusting task for reality TV. Aaron Sorkin, ranting on Studio 60 through the outgoing head writer, said that human degradation for reality TV was already 'played out' as a vein of entertainment and next it would have to be snuff, because that's all that's left.

I think this industry is leading the future of work where mass replication is so easy, and a very few people can control all the money and do most ofthe actual work. The only thing left to sell, as Nietzsche saw, is suffering. The only way left for money to be money and bend people to its will, as Orwell says through O'brien, is making them suffer.

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