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| Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > General Chat > A Possible Analogy for SK Stuff. | Forum Quick Jump
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 6/7/2012 7:28 AM (GMT -6) |   | | The Internet really gives us a "non-local" way of looking at a human being. Truly interdependent reality where physical boundaries don't matter. Look at all of us. To the extent our conversations have existed in and through cyberspace, we have authentically transcended our "localities". Brandon in Canada? Not a problem. Tom in Iraq? Not a problem. See what I mean? And imagine how helpful Skype and Facebook have been for helping keep people "together." At the same time, it is our localities (ultimately our human bodies and it's various relationships) that make it possible to exist in such a "non-local" way. No people, no Internet in truth...right? At the same time, no Internet technology, there is none either. For there to be an Internet-using human, both have to be there.
Now, let's say that you have a human person who is on the Internet all the time to the point where they're "locality" is not being preserved or considered. In other words, the "local" relationships suffer due to one's over-focus on the "non-local". There have effectively left their living, breathing lives behind for total online immersion. This is one extreme. Let's call this "Cyborg" The other extreme is a person who chooses NOT to use the Internet at all ever. Let's call this person "Zionite" For this person, all of the benefit they COULD have gotten from the Internet (ie ordering a pizza online instead of calling, Skype, etc) will not be had by their "locality". So for the first extreme, the human overfocusses on the "non-local" and for the second, there is overfocus on the "local". In both instances, there are distortional consequences for the "local." Think of the extremes as on a continuum.
Ideally, you'd strike a balance where the "non-local" and the "local" in a mutually supporting, reciprocal relationality...where the relationality IS the reality. You can't talk about this person FULLY without addressing BOTH the "non-local" and the "local". Let's call this person "Happy Internet User"
Now, let...
Non-Local = infinitude
Local = finitude
Cyborg = SK's despair of the infinite
Zionite = SK's despair of the finite
Happy Internet User = SK's freedom from despair.
What do y'all think? Especially you, Corey! 
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 6/7/2012 7:31:32 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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Corey
Five with a Four-wing
Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
| Posted 6/8/2012 7:45 AM (GMT -6) | | |
Cool. You've pointed out another dialectic in which we live.
In general, SK's answer to various dialectic tensions is to say, "Both/And". We get into trouble whenever we tend to collapse the tension toward either pole.
But he would probably oppose "striking a balance" or "moderation" as the solution to this tension. Actually, he decries that approach as pagan (mere sagacity); moderation before the Infinite is no virtue. The only fitting response is utmost earnestness.
I'm not quite sure what a full-out both/and understanding of our locality would look like. What would it mean to fully embrace our non-locality while simultaneously fully embracing our locality, without moderating either pole? | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 6/8/2012 8:42 AM (GMT -6) | | Thanks, Corey! 
Corey:
In general, SK's answer to various dialectic tensions is to say, "Both/And". We get into trouble whenever we tend to collapse the tension toward either pole.
Exactly.
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Corey:
But he would probably oppose "striking a balance" or "moderation" as the solution to this tension. Actually, he decries that approach as pagan (mere sagacity); moderation before the Infinite is no virtue. The only fitting response is utmost earnestness.
You are right here. The tension betwen the infinite and the finite are never lessened or eliminated, but preserved. If anything, it is heightened up the stages. My "strike a balance" probably wasn't the best state. I was more thinking about a dynamism ala bi-polar assymmetrical relational unity (Loder).
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Corey:
I'm not quite sure what a full-out both/and understanding of our locality would look like. What would it mean to fully embrace our non-locality while simultaneously fully embracing our locality, without moderating either pole?
I think that it would at least involve the self-knowledge that one's impact on the world exist in both realms and cannot be otherwise.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. | | Back to Top | | |
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