Greece, Rome, the Arena & the Internet
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:45 pm
Our collective modern culture is saturated with silly notions of Greek militarism, such as the low art film (I enjoyed it tho) "300", (lol), yet we as a whole seem a bit lax regarding the high esteem the Greeks maintained for learning.
When the Greek city states were replaced by the capital-centric Roman juggernaut, it seems our modern notion of relative worth was affected.
We know that the Greeks held Olympic games, yet in spite of our superficial aping of the practice of honoring " the best", we really as a population tend to prefer the games in which we all participate.
Hence my comparison of the Roman Colosseum to the Internet.
We could have had heaven on earth by now if people had devoted as much of their Internet time to knowledge as they do to gaming.
Imagine if all the kids logged into Steam and Xbox Live and World of Warcraft got on Wikipedia or forums or even started a webcomic or their own media outlets --
I dont think modern kids are stupid. I believe they are mildly brainwashed, conditioned, addicted to the life substitute for violent games.
A relatively poor Roman could arguably attend and "enjoy" arena games. They were designed to shock and awe people of all classes.
Greek culture was a bit more religiously organized although slaves enjoyed a few respites. It is possible that classism was more severe within their culture prior to Roman homogenization.
Thanks to gaming, any person of any social standing is free to waste endless hours pitting his wits and reflexes (animal cunning) against that of others, or against the computer.
I wonder if anyone has considered the insult to AI, that we use more of it to handle our recreation than our education...
The arena could arguably have been used for educational purposes. But honestly, it was much too large. Gone are the small and cozy Greek amphitheatres. Enter the stories-tall, man-eating, culture-dwarfing Colosseum and you'll see a lot of the structure of the Internet written there.
For two thousand years millions and billions of souls have bought in to the deception of being "included" in the people trap of violent spectacle.
When the Greek city states were replaced by the capital-centric Roman juggernaut, it seems our modern notion of relative worth was affected.
We know that the Greeks held Olympic games, yet in spite of our superficial aping of the practice of honoring " the best", we really as a population tend to prefer the games in which we all participate.
Hence my comparison of the Roman Colosseum to the Internet.
We could have had heaven on earth by now if people had devoted as much of their Internet time to knowledge as they do to gaming.
Imagine if all the kids logged into Steam and Xbox Live and World of Warcraft got on Wikipedia or forums or even started a webcomic or their own media outlets --
I dont think modern kids are stupid. I believe they are mildly brainwashed, conditioned, addicted to the life substitute for violent games.
A relatively poor Roman could arguably attend and "enjoy" arena games. They were designed to shock and awe people of all classes.
Greek culture was a bit more religiously organized although slaves enjoyed a few respites. It is possible that classism was more severe within their culture prior to Roman homogenization.
Thanks to gaming, any person of any social standing is free to waste endless hours pitting his wits and reflexes (animal cunning) against that of others, or against the computer.
I wonder if anyone has considered the insult to AI, that we use more of it to handle our recreation than our education...
The arena could arguably have been used for educational purposes. But honestly, it was much too large. Gone are the small and cozy Greek amphitheatres. Enter the stories-tall, man-eating, culture-dwarfing Colosseum and you'll see a lot of the structure of the Internet written there.
For two thousand years millions and billions of souls have bought in to the deception of being "included" in the people trap of violent spectacle.