Absurdity in the name of publicity

Image of a real sukkah via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Tishri 5771.

Today’s holidays:  Sukkah-Building Day (Judaism), Paryushana (Hinduism), Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), March of Reanimated Corpses/Talk Like A Pirate Day (Secular) (Church of the SubGenius).

Note:  Sukkah-Building Day is not an official Jewish holiday.  11 Tishri, however, is traditionally the day one should start building one’s sukkah (a sort of temporary building with vegetation for a roof) so as to be ready in time for Sukkoth, which starts 15 Tishri.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Don't Build the Belo Monte Dam! - The Petition Site” and “Protect the Paradise Forests and the Orangutan - The Petition Site”.

I have a huge backlog of religious news to comment on, and there is no way I can deal with all of it.  This would be true even if I did not have to put up my sukkah today.  What to choose… What to choose…

Topic 1:  Since Sukkoth is the holiday just around the corner, let us start with “A Look at the Finalists in the Sukkah City Design Competition”, described as “Twelve architects compete to redesign the ritual holiday hut—and you get to pick the winner.”  I would hesitate to call any of the top contenders a winner.  The top 12 are depicted on the voting page, and it is not clear that any of them is ritually acceptable.  Many one would never guess were intended to be sukkoth at all.  When making something ritually acceptable is not a basic requirement, one has to wonder what the people behind this competition are thinking.

Topic 2:  “Pregnant nun ice cream advert banned for 'mockery'”, with the offending graphic visible with respectable detail in “'Pregnant nun' ice cream ad banned after Catholic outcry (on eve of Pope's visit)”.  This is getting in due to being the most recent controversy, not the most worthy one.  Let me just quote this article:

An ice cream company banned from using an advert displaying a pregnant nun has vowed to position similar posters in London in time for the Pope's visit.

Antonio Federici's advert showed a pregnant nun eating ice cream in a church, together with the strap line "immaculately conceived".

The Advertising Standards Authority has ordered it to be discontinued, saying it mocked Roman Catholic beliefs.

I am disturbed that the Advertising Standards Authority banned the ads; freedom of speech does include freedom to say things other people do not like.  However, the ad itself strikes me as at best poorly thought out.  The term “immaculate conception” refers to the Catholic doctrine that Mary, mother of Jesus, was born without the taint of original sin.  The term is often misunderstood as referring to the conception of Jesus, purportedly accomplished by the Holy Spirit and not by the usual human method.  The pregnant nun would seem fit better with the incorrect understanding of “immaculate conception” than the correct one.  A nun conceiving in the usual manner would be getting pregnant through sin (as she is required to be abstinent), and the child would have the taint of original sin.  But a nun conceiving through the Holy Spirit would not commit any sin, and the child might be free of the taint of original sin.  But how does immaculate conception fit in with ice cream?  Ice cream is not conceived at all, nor is the concept of original sin really applicable to it (or anything else inanimate, for that matter).  And if one really wants to force “immaculately conceived” to apply to ice cream, what the meaning of that?  Is this ice cream somehow like Mary or Jesus?  Or is eating this ice cream somehow connected with miraculous pregnancies, perhaps even causing them?  Yes, this is overthinking an ice cream advertisement, but it only qualifies as overthinking since the only thinking which seems to have gone into it is how to cause enough controversy to get a lot of publicity, not thinking about making the content make any sense.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  Since Sukkoth is coming up very soon, “The Laws of the Sukkah according to Dr. Suess”.  For something so silly, it contains a lot of accurate information, not to mention footnotes and references.

Peace.

Aaron

On the Uplift Series

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Aḥare Moth-Qedhoshim).

Today’s holidays:  Day 24 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Festival of Ridvan (Bahá’í Faith), Feast Days of George and Adalbert (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Susan DeLucci (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of St. George (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast of Sir Richard Payne Knight (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “PETITION: NO "TOO BIG FOR JAIL" | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”, “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Keep the Internet open”, and “World Jewish Congress - Support for Israel”, and “Stop KFC From Destroying Our Forests - The Petition Site”.

Image of the guy responsible for the Uplift Series via Wikipedia

Topic 1:  Continuing on the topic of catching up on reporting on my readings and watchings relevant to this blog, I recently finished reading the Uplift Series by David Brin.  (A bibliography follows my description and commentary.)  Please forgive your humble if the description presented below is somewhat disorganized.  The major themes are woven together tightly, and trying to present them in a linear form feels rather like trying to make sense of knotted yarn.

WARNING:  THERE ARE SPOILERS, THOUGH NOT ENOUGH TO GIVE AWAY THE PLOTS.

The Uplift Series is a series of science-fiction stories in which the Five Galaxies (including our own Milky Way), have been dominated by a multi-species civilization of oxygen-breathing sentient beings reaching back over two billion years.  The way things normally work is that promising nonsentient species are modified into sentient beings (“uplifted”) by existing sentient species.  The uplifted client species then serves their patrons for 100,000 years and may afterwards go on to uplift other species themselves.  Successful uplift of client species is a way of gaining prestige.

Species do not simply continue on as they are indefinitely after being uplifted and uplifting clients of their own.  Eventually they mature sufficiently that they withdraw from general Galactic society and take up residence in fractal variants of Dyson shells and become contemplative.  At some point, they may even “transcend” and leave Galactic society completely.  Explaining what “transcendence” really involves here would risk giving away too much of the plots, but suffice it to say that this information is not available to lesser races and is a subject for their religious speculation.

Tradition has it that the chain of uplift reaches back to a single species known as the Progenitors.  Many rival (often warring) religious traditions have grown up dealing with the Progenitors, often predicting their eventual return or claiming they dwell secretly among the younger civilizations.

Another somewhat religious thread is the Library Institute, which is the repository of all knowledge for the Civilization of the Five Galaxies.  Given the sheer amount of data collected by it in over two billion years detailing the histories of untold numbers of sentient species, it is commonly assumed that practically everything doable has already been recorded by the Library Institute and that further improvement is impossible.  As such, Galactic civilization, while far in advance of human civilization, has stagnated.  Furthermore, there is a tendency to assume that the information in the Library is completely reliable.

Notice the themes of order and tradition.  Both of these are very common in real religions, with traditions being passed down from generation to generation and rules ordering society being prescribed.  Also like most real religions with enough members and existing long enough, the primordial ancestral traditions of Galactic society have bifurcated into a plethora of variations on the same theme, even while all claiming validity within the framework of the original tradition.  Many of the variations have gone ideologically rigid, with adherents too often assuming the correctness of their ideology rather than honestly reexamining it as necessary to make sure it is actually correct.  Also dealt with is the common fault of hypocrisy; many groups ignore inconvenient parts of the tradition or rationalize their way around them, e.g., in dealing with environmental regulations or in warfare.

Humanity does not fit well into the highly-ordered Civilization of the Five Galaxies.  No patron species is known to have uplifted them, yet they have managed to become star-farers on their own.  (This is supposed to be impossible.)  Unlike other “wolfling” species, by the time of first contact, humanity has already uplifted two client species:  chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins.  And rather than assimilate into Galactic society culturally and technology, humanity largely clings to its own ways, persisting even in its own science and mathematics.  All this makes for much of the tension which powers the plots of the series.  While there are oddball species in the Civilization of the Five Galaxies, humanity violates the rules to the breaking point.  Having clients is the only thing which really prevents humanity from being wiped out immediately by aliens trying to avoid embarrassment, even though chimpanzees and dolphins are given freedom and legal rights that no other client species have.  Much of the plots, indeed, revolve around war against humanity.  Unfortunately, intolerance (as opposed to mere lack of acceptance) for those who do not fit into the system is all too common in real religions.  This is found in two forms:  built-in (as in Islam) and hypocritical (as happens periodically among members of other real religions).  Such intolerance is based on the logical fallacies of appeal to force, that squelching the opposition actually wins the argument, and wishful thinking.  Let us take these stories as a reminder of what not to do.

Bibliography:

• “Aficionado”
• Brin, David. 1980. Sundiver, Uplift Series, book 1. New York: Bantam Books.
• ———. 1983. Startide rising, Uplift Series, book 2. New York: Bantam Books.
• ———. 1995. The uplift war, The Uplift Series, book 3. New York: Bantam Books. Original edition, New York:  Bantam Books, 1987.
• ———. 1996. Brightness reef. Bantam mass market ed, The Uplift Series, book 4; Book one of a New uplift trilogy. New York: Bantam Books. Original edition, New York:  Bantam Books, 1995.
• ———. 1997. Infinity’s shore. Bantam paperback ed, The Uplift Series, book 5; Book two of a New uplift trilogy. New York: Bantam Books.
• ———. 1999. Heaven’s reach. Bantam paperback ed, The Uplift Series, book 6; The Final book of the New uplift trilogy. New York: Bantam Books. Original edition, New York:  Bantam Books, 1998.
• “Temptation”
• Brin, David, and Kevin Lenagh. 2002. Contacting aliens:  an illustrated guide to David Brin’s uplift universe. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Topic 2:  “Video: Is the Western Wall in Israel? - HR Interviews 'Confused' Tourists”.  Just a demonstration that the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority is backing an idea which does not reflect the socio-political reality that Jerusalem is part of Israel.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Umm, scuse but befoo yoo go to light at end of”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Are you GameStation’s slave?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s holidays:  Day 17 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Friday of the Second Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), St. Messalina/All Hookers’ Day (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Help Eliminate Measles Worldwide - Take Action Today @ The Child Health Site” and “Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) | Co-sign our open letter to Republican Leader Boehner”.

Topic 1:  Silly anti-Semitism:  “UK Bans Western Wall from Israel Tourism Ads”.  The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority has prohibited Israel from claiming or implying in tourism advertisements that eastern Jerusalem is part of Israel.  This is despite Israel annexing the territory in 1967.  Or Jews having being in Jerusalem for millennia.  Or the fact that the Advertising Standards Authority does not have any real authority to dictate what territory belongs to which state.  Note the logical fallacy of proof by assertion:  anti-Semites claim enough that eastern Jerusalem (or any part of Israel) does not belong to Israel (or is not Jewish), expecting this to be taken as the truth.  Of course, reality does not work this way.  I could claim billions of times that the Sun is purple, and the Sun would never turn purple.

Also notable on anti-Semitism:  “Not quite free” (on Europe covertly sticking its nose into Israeli politics through funding nongovernmental organizations) and “A dangerous silence” (on the hypocrisy of the US government treating Israel shabbily while coddling Muslim dictatorships, with little in the way of protest).

Topic 2:  “7,500 shoppers unknowingly sold their souls” and “GameStation: "We own your soul"”.  In a twist on the classic Faustian bargain, GameStation added a clause to their terms and conditions of sale asserting that they owed on-line purchasers’ souls unless they opted out.  88% of such purchasers did not opt out, strongly suggesting that few people read such contracts.  (They are pretty dull and too long.)  The point proved, GameStation nullified this clause.

I would like to note my puzzlement at the notion of selling one’s soul.  One’s soul is not merely a part of oneself; it is oneself.  Literally selling one’s soul would thus be tantamount to selling oneself into slavery.  There is also the question of what the buyer would do with a soul.  If the buyer is Satan (as in the classic Faust story), then one is going to Hell.  However, if the buyer is mortal, like the people at GameStation, then it is unclear what he/she could do with a soul, especially if there were no body still attached with it.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Basement Cat”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron