{"id":45506,"date":"2019-04-19T15:56:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T20:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=45506"},"modified":"2019-04-19T15:56:23","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T20:56:23","slug":"this-is-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=45506","title":{"rendered":"This is Water"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.epsilontheory.com\/this-is-water\/\">This is Water<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.epsilontheory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/matrix.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20074\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says \u201cMorning, boys. How\u2019s the water?\u201d And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes \u201cWhat the hell is water?\u201dDavid Foster Wallace (2005)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the perfect description of a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epsilontheory.com\/you-are-here\/\"><strong>Zeitgeist&nbsp;<\/strong><\/a>\u2026 the water in which we swim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can\u2019t see it. We can\u2019t hear it. We can kinda sorta feel it, if we focus really hard, but only kinda sorta. All the same, because it\u2019s part of a social system and not a physical system, WE create it. Not in a conscious fashion. We can\u2019t set out to create a Zeitgeist.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.epsilontheory.com\/clever-hans\/\"><strong>But we can be nudged.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.epsilontheory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/stadium-1b.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18406\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s like a stadium crowd holding up cards for the TV audience. They can\u2019t see the picture they\u2019re making \u2026 they have no idea what it looks like or what their role in its making might be. But they\u2019re told\/asked to do it. So they do.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">THIS is a Zeitgeist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>What\u2019s the matter, Ben? You got a problem holding this card up over your head? It\u2019s for the troops. You support the troops, don\u2019t you? Don\u2019t you?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, I support the troops. And yes, I have a problem with this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why? Because I don\u2019t trust the State and the Oligarchy to use the common knowledge of \u201csupport for the troops\u201d \u2013 the crowd watching the crowd express a public act of allegiance to the military, so that everyone knows that everyone knows that yes, it is right and proper to support the troops \u2013&nbsp;<em>for the right reasons<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is Water There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says \u201cMorning, boys. How\u2019s the water?\u201d And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[1092,1309],"class_list":["post-45506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-liberty","tag-oligarchy","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45508,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45506\/revisions\/45508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}