PANDEMIC DIARY
Part 2 : “THE PROMISE” : MINUTIAE
September 8, 2020
[Sorry, I failed to make my deadline by a mile. Here is Part 2 which took me considerably longer to organize and write. Simply too much going on in my head]
Several days ago, I wrote about a segment of the book, “The Promise” by Chaim Potok, in which a elderly and admired Talmudic scholar attempts to ply his stature and influence on a young student, his father, and his community, by demanding adherence to a strict interpretation of ancient texts. This is not new to us. We see this battle going on today, as an example, in our U.S. Supreme Court, where ardent, so-called ‘Constitutionalists’ (whatever the hell that is) claim constancy and faithfulness to an ‘original’ document written over 250 years ago. It is here where I would like to start today.
“It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor details of life… It does not drive men to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, until they are led to surrender the exercise of their own will.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Rav Kalman poured over texts for the whole of his life believing there is no higher calling than the study of Torah. Studying! Not living Torah. To be fair, I don’t know how many Rebbe ‘live’’ their Torah. What I do know is that a life of parsing words, seeking historical contexts, desiring to discover the ‘true meaning’ of a phrase within the true meaning of the phrase, is like a man with a hand on his genitalia, it feels good in the moment but doesn’t end in relationship.
We are, and approvingly so, being deluged with minutiae, all in the name of ‘information’. Information was going to save us. It was to provide truth, immediacy, and relevance. The internet was to be an ‘information highway”. Except, as is often the case with innovation, the change came too quickly and we didn’t anticipate the highway crashing at the intersections. A pile up of data and noise. A cacophony of pointless drivel and nonsense combined with hateful rants and, of course, pornography which established the internet in the first instance. And, yes, as a concession to you admirers, the internet allows you to buy 13 pairs of shoes, try them on, select the one pair you most like, and ship the rest back. Convenience - a word I am beginning to hate. Convenience at what price?
We have been acculturated to the marketing and advertising industries like an addict who is weaned on small doses of opioids, at first for the legitimate use of pain reduction, only to have its power and allure enslave us. You cannot go to a website without a “pop-up” ad, banner ad, video ad or some other ‘hook’ on the page that forces you to step over or otherwise avoid its imposition. Worse, they are targeting you and your behavior, so if by chance you purchase an anal thermometer, you will receive persistent offers for the latest in anal thermometers for the next 6 months.
There's a saying in Artificial Intelligence that: “most of the time, intelligent agents do what they do most of the time”. That is to say, we only tend to do--and be good at--those things that we systematically practice throughout our lives. I would contend that humans have a powerful tendency toward ‘doing’ minutiae. Furthermore, minutiae has developed into the world’s main industry. That is, aside from armaments, oil, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
Minutiae is always distraction. It is, by definition, the opposite of “the big picture”. It is readily available but removes us from seeing what is important and of value to our society. The sheen of your lip gloss or the kick from a super-caffeinated drink bestow absolutely no insight to race, poverty or war. Its as if the scales have tipped in favor of nonsense having rejected reality. Or, our government has so effectively disregarded the needs of its people and their prevailing suffering that avoidance, denial, and obfuscation allows a population to absolve themselves of any responsibility to act on their own behalf. Minutiae is money. Minutiae is propaganda. Minutiae is a politicians’ “three-card-Monty” scheme. Minutiae is religion’s intermittent reinforcement.
[Caveat: I am not referring to minutiae such as details in scientific research; not to NASA as it seeks to coordinate and execute a precise and safe mission; not to an Olympic competitor whose every performance aspect is viewed by international judges seeking perfection. None of these are picayune. These pursuits are not trivial or trifling. The are exacting efforts demanding diligence, practice, commitment, and dedication to a goal. The big picture.]
Turn on the television any Sunday morning and you will witness the ultimate “sales job” and scam in America. It is the world of “preachers” who, like archeologists, each week dive into the depths of Bible verses with holy hammers, dusting brushes and tweezers plucking fine hair-line distinctions from Biblical verses to find a nugget of a word or verse that they can turn into a fable filled with analogy and philosophy able to turn even the less ardent into blathering ‘salvationists’. And one fellowship member touches another and exaltation spreads virally until a hall of thousands are diving into these dangerous caves of darkness with Bible in hand and a pencil for notations in the margins of the ‘good book’ in the other hand to be saved by the light of the ministering.
“Death looms large for those who seek solace in ‘the word’”.
David Roth
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, its thinking of yourself less.”
C.S. Lewis
Ah, to be saved! “‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d.” The Sunday missionary or cleric has much in common with Rabbi Kalman. It looks different because of the outer garbs. It sounds different because of the distance between Birmingham, Alabama and the shtetl’s of Eastern Europe, the drawl and cadence of the South and the ‘sing-songy’ complaint of the pogroms. But, it is the same. It is the same as Trump filling the airwaves with drivel. Our news is like pellets you buy at the zoo, feeding a starving animal just enough so it keeps on returning for more. This intermittent reinforcement produces the most powerful, habit forming behavior. Just ask the casino owners in Las Vegas, or watch the widow/er sitting at a slot machine pulling that one-arm bandit like a frenzied morphine addict.
“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”
Robert A Heinlein
I found the following analysis of minutiae and the techniques of distraction on the website www.philosophyinaction.com. These are also the tools of authoritarian leaders and Fascists.
See if you can relate these to our current circumstance.
Fallacies of Distraction
...related to personalities
ad hominem: rejecting or dismissing another person's statement by attacking the person rather than by disproving the statement.
creating misgivings: stirring up suspicions about a long-forgotten (and possibly completely unsubstantiated) charge against one's interlocutor.
tu quoque: trying to dismiss or downplay an accusation by demonstrating that the accuser himself is guilty of misconduct.
poisoning the well: (damning the origin) arguing against an idea by showing that one's interlocutor has a non-rational motive for holding the idea.
forestalling disagreement: attempting to make an opponent or audience unwilling to debate an issue.
argument from intimidation: asserting that believing or arguing for a certain idea indicates immorality, in an attempt to intimidate a person into renouncing the idea without discussion.
self-righteousness: confusing good intentions with actual good or truth.
special pleading: refusing to apply the same principles to oneself that one applies to others.
presenting the "good" reason: selecting, as the explanation for one's actions or ideas, a credible fact when other explanations could be had.
Here are the ways minutiae distract and deceive:
oversimplification: reducing a complex situation to a simple, inaccurate statement.
many questions: (plurium interrogation) posing a complex question and demanding a simple answer.
vague similarities: asserting that two situations or ‘existents’ are similar without specifying the properties they share.
diversion: attempting to support one proposition by arguing for a different one entirely.
strawman: attempting to refute one's opponent's proposition by attacking misrepresentation of the his/her position.
wicked alternative: attempting to support one proposition by denouncing another, when the second is not the opposite of the first.
false dilemma: representing a situation as having only undesirable alternatives when the facts do not support such a judgment.
all-or-nothing mistake: presenting a naked dichotomy when such an evaluation is unwarranted.
slippery slope: arguing that if one event were to occur, other harmful events would result without showing how the events are linked.
impossible conditions: contending that mankind should be changed or even perfected before any remedy for a problem should be considered.
nothing but objections: continually objecting to any plan proposed to assure that nothing is done.
...related to minutiae
wishful thinking: constructing false expectations though ignoring unpleasant facts.
lip service: verbal agreement unsupported in action or true conviction.
prejudicial fallacies: representing whatever position coincides with whatever prejudices the speaker perceives in the audience.
red herring: diverting the attention of the audience from the discussion of the real issues to irrelevancies.
pomp and circumstance: permitting the setting in which the argument takes place to affect the attention paid to the argument.
humor and ridicule: using inappropriate humor to deflect attention away from the discussion.
I wish you all a week of continued health, peace of heart, joy with your children and loved ones and an abundance of charity. Be well.
Part 3: “THE PROMISE” : Cultism