Stephen A. Smith is an Objectivist?


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that was pretty good. Bill Cosby has some nice ones as well.... comments on the ridiculous racism excuses I mean

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Derek,

I don't know if you know of my past, but I lived for 32 years in Brazil.

My views on racism are so different than what I see around me, I just can't put them into any frame I can resonate with.

I even grew up around hillbilly racists. (One of the reasons I left the USA.) But I also fell in love with a black woman and we lived together for about a year (she was an ex-Playboy Bunny at that. :) )

When I came back to the States, in my mind, this racism stuff was no longer an issue--it was something that had happened "over there and way back then." Yet here it is in my present in the news--with people yelling out hatred on all sides--every single day.

The reason I'm saying this is to frame what I'm going to say next.

I literally forgot that video was about racism when I posted it. Oh... conceptually I knew. But inside, when I said "defends Mark Cuban from the charge of racism," it could have been "defends Mark Cuban from the charge of sexism" or homophobia or bestiality or eating small babies for breakfast, or fill in the blank.

It's all the same crap in my head.

Just cattle-people trying to nail someone because they feel rotten inside and they're following the herd.

The part that inspired me was Smith's rejection of that posture. Instead he touted his individualism and drive to succeed as opposed to wanting a handout and the easy path to fame and fortune. And he said, with pride, that he is well paid because he earned it.

Man that felt good!

I was expecting another bag of trash thrown into the unending cultural landfill I normally associate with rants involving gotcha politics.

It's odd to feel the way I do in the social churn around me, but this is sincerely how I feel inside. I don't know if that is clear or if you even believe it, much less detect any resonance. But from what I have read that you have written so far, I bet you get me.

Michael

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Derek,

Since I do oddball thinking, I have another perspective I want to share here.

(Don't ask me why I am writing this stuff on a thread about Stephen Smith, Mark Cuban and media bullying--it comes to mind on its own and here seems to be the appropriate place. :smile: )

I am going through a masterclass on screenwriting by John Truby called Masterpiece (you can get it here--not an affiliate link, I got it at a HUGE discount a few months ago during a sale). Here is a teaser video he put out on YouTube about this class:



Granted, he is talking about screenwriting, but I believe his ideas reflect the way life is to some extent. As you can tell from the video, each person lives within a "system." (Actually, several systems, but that is another point.) And he suggest a "4 point opposition" for conflict and plot with each character outside the main character representing different elements of that system.

In a nutshell, here are some general notes on what he calls the social stages of a system. A social stage is "a unique combination of land, people and technology."

I don't know where the hell he got this idea from, and he frames it way too negatively for my taste, but I think he is on to something. At the very least, it gives some great food for thought. Obviously, the idea screenwriting-wise is to provide a character that represents each of the three social stages in the 4-point opposition, but when I look around at my life, I actually see people with these different orientations.

Another point is that, although he doesn't specifically say this, he seems to arrive at these stages from a foundational prism of how they reflect on family.

The first social stage is "The Wilderness/Village." He calls this a "shame culture" and the values are "appearance, achievement, physical ability, strength, courage, glory, doing well (as opposed to doing good), pride, honor, ceremony, unspoken emotion, and memory." He says it is a "male-value culture." The reason this is called a shame culture is that the main emotion felt for failure is shame. (Think Westerns. :) )

(He has other observations, but I don't want to extend beyond what I deem is fair use.)

The second social stage is "The Townscape." He calls this a "guilt culture" and the values are "accommodation, getting along, fairness, faithfulness, reliability, self-sacrifice, doing right (as opposed to doing well)." He says it is a "female-value culture." The reason this is called a guilt culture is that the main emotion felt for failure is guilt.

The third social stage is "The Cityscape." He calls this an "amoral culture." This is because the city grows as family ties weaken. The city itself provides many of the responsibilities the family used to take care of. Truby says this creates a feeling of alienation and impersonal everything. The person is on his own. When these feelings go too far, values go out the window and a person gets a false sense of worth and power through destruction.

Like I said, these observations are way too negative for my own optimistic outlook, but I do know people who live like they are lonewolf legends, others who are community-oriented and others who just don't give a fuck. :)

Within these social archetypes (or better, archetypes of social evolution), I think the collective categories of bigotry (racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, etc.) gain completely different perspectives.

Also, I see those people screaming for Mark Cuban's head and bashing Stephen Smith as being motivated by the guilt culture (with some amoral destructive stuff thrown in) whereas both of them come from the lonewolf shame culture.

In other words, saying the wrong thing in public is supposed to cause guilt to the people with townscape mentality--that makes them point their finger and insist on PC language, but actually saying the wrong thing in public would only cause shame to a wilderness/village mentality if he meant it and thought it was wrong.

Each person in this Smith/Cuban thing is acting according to how he/her sees what society is and supposed to be, so to speak.

This is a very loose framework and, if taken too literally, is full of holes.

But it makes me think on paths that bring me pleasure as I ride off into the horizon. :)

Michael

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Man that felt good!

I was expecting another bag of trash thrown into the unending cultural landfill I normally associate with rants involving gotcha politics.

It's odd to feel the way I do in the social churn around me, but this is sincerely how I feel inside. I don't know if that is clear or if you even believe it, much less detect any resonance. But from what I have read that you have written so far, I bet you get me.

Michael

Your life away from the U.S. in a country in which black folk are woven and known to be woven into the warp of the society is a very fortunate turn out for you. For us who have lived in the U.S. all our lives it is a battle.

I have utterly vanquished the dragon of racism based on skin color, hair texture and facial shape. That is down and dead for me, but I still have to apply main force to my attitudes about homosexuality. I am totally a libertarian on the matter of who marries who and who does what with whom (sexually) as long as it is consenting and does not involve the abuse of children.

But I still have to quash by main force the yucch!!!!!!! factor in matters of male-male homosexual contact. I would never interpose in such matters involving people outside my family, but the yucch!!!!!! is still there. I just won't go away. So I can

manage my external reactions to matters of male-male homosexuality but at my advanced age I am likely to retain my internal aversion until I no longer breath.

What a shame. If I lived in ancient Athens I would have a different attitude.

And so it goes...

Ba'al Chatzaf

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