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9004430 "The best way to measure the loss of intellectual sophistication - this "nerdification," to put it bluntly - is in the growing disappearance of sarcasm, as mechanic minds take insults a bit too literally." irony intellectual-sophistication post-ironic sophistication post-modern post-modernism nerdery reddit wisdom-vs-nerds nerdiness nerds nerd internet wit Nassim Nicholas Taleb
a38e890 Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur post-modern post-modernism values-in-life modernity values Nassim Nicholas Taleb
9ce37e0 Like it or not, it's the society we live in. Even the standard of right and wrong has been subdivided, made sophisticated. Within good, there's fashionable good and unfashionable good, and ditto for bad. Within fashionable good, there's formal and then there's casual; there's hip, there's cool, there's trendy, there's snobbish. Mix 'n' match. morality post-modern Haruki Murakami
1ca748a In the presence of Esch, values have hidden their faces. Order, loyalty, sacrifice--he cherishes all these words, but exactly what do they represent? Sacrifice for what? Demand what sort of order? He doesn't know. If a value has lost its concrete content, what is left of it? A mere empty form; an imperative that goes unheeded and, all the more furious, demands to be heard and obeyed. The less Esch knows what he wants, the more furiously he wants it. Esch: the fanaticism of the era with no God. Because all values have hidden their faces, anything can be considered a value. Justice, order--Esch seeks them now in the trade union struggle, then in religion; today in police power, tomorrow in the mirage of America, where he dreams of emigrating. He could be a terrorist or a repentant terrorist turning in his comrades, or a party militant or a cult member a kamikaze prepared to sacrifice his life. All the passions rampaging through the bloody history of our time are taken up, unmasked, and terrifyingly displayed in Esch's modest adventure. sacrifice esch sleepwalkers imperative broch cult post-modern modern certainty purpose-of-life order symbolic existentialism fanaticism novel values loyalty Milan Kundera