... but not as we know it!
Forgive me friends, I'm slow but eventually I figure out what you people are saying. Embedded within Rhuby's seemingly innocent, cast-off-remark above was a koan, a cry for help, an otherworldly wailing moan/scream with grotesque echoes that reverberated throughout time to the beginnings of mankind and of life itself. Rhuby was asking...
What is meant by the term "to know" ?
I'm glad you asked. It is important to know what we mean by "knowing" in order to understand the absolute meaning of Art.
1,000,000 YEARS B.C.
Before language life was pretty well straightforward. If a hungry tiger was chasing you you pretty well knew he wasn't chasing you for a conversation about the aesthetics of his stripes.
Or, if you pinched the tail of the Big Guy's favorite chick you pretty well knew that pretty soon you were gonna be knocked off your rock.
(Hence the term knocked off your rocker but I digress.)
Anyway, before language the information that we extracted and abstracted from the environment for selfish survival reasons was directly consensequated by the harsh reality of nature, and as far as that went, that was the truth.
100,000 YEARS B.C.
Language was a pretty good invention. Like television and the computer it held the potential to offer mankind much. But along with the ease of effective transfer of valuable information came the rise of self interest groups like shamans, bankers, and aluminum siding salesmen, who by the necessity of staying in business, lied loud and long to all who would listen.
But yet lying worked. If a leader couldn't rabble rouse his troops to effective battle that particular entity couldn't stand. So more and more an interacting culture was constructed based on all kind of lies. And one of these self perpetuating lies is what today we call Art.
(Please excuse me. They are calling me to Thanksgiving dinner, and I kid you not.)
To be continued...
