Category: ideas

As certain scientists and philosophers see it, the discovery and dissemination of knowledge is far from being an unqualified boon. We might be in danger of knowing too much. “Information can potentially be extremely dangerous,”

“Play it again, Sam.” “Excuse me while I slip into something more comfortable.” “Me Tarzan, you Jane.” “Come with me to the Casbah.” “Greed is good.” None of those iconic lines was actually uttered in the movies from which they supposedly came. Yet there are good reasons that the quotations changed as they slipped into our collective cultural memory.

“Men and women shown dating profiles of attractive members of the same sex will describe themselves as more religious than people who don’t feel as if they have to compete in the attractiveness stakes. Meanwhile, another study finds that thoughts of randomness push people toward God – but only if they can’t attribute feelings of stress to some easily defined external factor.”

Stephen Asma finds striking similarities between “green living” and traditional religion: orthodoxy (recycling, using paper or cloth grocery bags), spiritual practice (reducing one’s carbon footprint), sin (plastic grocery bags, driving an SUV), enemy infidels (oil company execs, anti-regulation politicians), a coming apocalypse (climate change), high priests and prophets (the “Goracle”), and so on.

“In France, perhaps more than anywhere else, the secularisation of society (compounded by the Republic’s struggle against the Roman Catholic Church) had led to the adoption of art and literature as substitute religions. Nietzsche had announced the death of God only to see Him replaced by the ‘Author-God’. Enter Roland Barthes.”

“Most people tend to not appreciate flattery accompanied by obvious ulterior motives, and consider themselves fairly adept at determining whose compliments are sincere and whose are BS.” But what if flattery works nonetheless, even on the skeptical? Studies are finding that it does. (Except, of course, on the sophisticated readers of ArtsJournal.)

“To a degree probably unmatched anywhere else in North America, the city of Vancouver has tried to impose notions of sustainability in its decisions on what, where and how to build. The result has come to be known as ‘Vancouverism,’ an urban motif of public transit instead of freeways, a low-carbon energy infrastructure and gleaming high-rise condominium towers in sunlit, walkable neighborhoods laced with urban parks.”

“A clever title makes a work easier to recall, and research has linked that sense of ease with feelings of favorability. … [But] people usually invest effort to understand important information, but also mistakenly infer the reverse – namely, that information that requires effort to be understood is important.”