Culture

A Game Of Chicken

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Well, OK, Chick-Fil-A is having some medieval-themed “Date Knight” event. This event encourages sons to take their mothers out to Chick-Fil-A. It appears to be something to encourage family bonding via a kind of knights-and-damsels themed event.

OK, so look I’m not going to bring up Chick-Fil-A’s anti-gay issues, though I can criticize that. I could critique their food, but let’s face it they never claimed to be healthy. Date Knight isn’t a half-bad core idea, encouraging some fun family connections.

Except, as noted in this rant at i09 it’s incredibly creepy.

In fact one of the creepiest things about it is also a prime example of why you need Geeks On Staff to evaluate your cultural impact and choices. You need people who dig deep into culture-focused, technology-enabled culture.  You need people aware of far-flung memes and trends.

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The Great Science Fiction Gap?

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I was talking with a friend who’s a fellow Silicon Valley resident and professional about the various devices and gizmos we’d seen – and that frankly we weren’t sure about what the holidays would bring. Nothing enthused me, the gaming platforms seemed to be headed for weirdness and overstepping. Nothing seemed, well interesting. Or new.  Or meeting a need.

This quickly led to discussions about innovation, where we needed to innovate, and why we innovated. This in turn led to science fiction.

A realization settled: we’re living in the technical worlds that we saw created in the 80’s and 90’s.

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American Politics: Beasts, Ghosts, and Demons

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Awhile ago I posted on how the famous six realms of Tibetian Buddhism could also indicate psychological states, and how that made me rethink my late dog’s life. I’d like to focus more on those six realms, and what they mean for American politics.

To review, the six realms one can be incarnated in (or that one can experience, if your take the psychological viewpoint) are:

  • Gods (Devas) – A realm of pleasure, but the pleasure distances one, and even gods die.  Think of this as pleasurable and peak experiences.
  • Asuras – A realm of ambition and striving godlike beings, who suffer paranoia and envy.  Think of this as a state of “drive.”
  • Humans – Our realm, a real of desire, doubt, and some confusion but also balance so we may achieve Enlightenment, and where we may develop important compassion that lets us do so.
  • Animals – The realm of instinct, ignorance carnality – and fear and opposition to change.  Think of this as functioning in basic fear-response.
  • Hungry Ghosts – The realm of mournful, craving spirits.  Think of this as being in a state of addiction and sheer need.
  • Hell Realm – The realm of anger, hate, and fear.  Think of this as being in a state of terror and rage.

You can see how these realms can easily represent different human sates from peak experiences to unbridled rage, with honest humanity in the middle. Now let’s turn to American politics using this psychological model.

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