the mystique of your critique

One of the biggest issues with reading comprehension today (aka literacy)—especially in lyrical artforms but perhaps equally much so in any text-based communication—is that a lot of us still think in terms of “What would this mean if I were to say/do it?”  IRL, you have to ask yourself what it means to the other person.

As in, literal empathy… you have to be able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes (either consciously, or unconsciously, as the case often was in times past.)  Ask yourself *why* THEY would say and do what they’re saying and doing.  A huge element to the language of art is actually precisely this: it teaches us to explore nuance, dialect, and diaspora; or more simply the infinite storytelling of our meta existential existence, the journey of our journals and the journals of our journey.

It takes a little bit of extra time… it takes a little bit of extra energy… both of which are in short supply in today’s hyper-pop world.  And do we ever contemplate the opportunity cost of a “time = money” type approach to life?  The collective social cost, of our impatient and scattered attention spans?  We scroll, we skim, we skip, we mistake the great mystery for easily quantified cliches, eyes glazing over before the magic even begins to reach us.

This process of mutually receptive empathy used to be a little more intuitive to our communication; which had largely been based around in person conversations, oral cultural histories and lore, live community events, telephone calls, books, long letters, etc.  In spoken conversation we still get a little more of that context, because the person is putting their own voicings on each word and phrase, hand signals, body language—emotions, emphasis, accent, etc—but it can happen even to an oral tradition if megalomania and hysteria begin to take over our individual perceptions.

We’re not just “misunderstanding” each other, but also we’re becoming pathologically addicted to our own points of view, our own insular bubbles, our own ideologies, and we’re not being challenged enough by our external circumstances to counterbalance this internal world.

Status?  Quo.

To see, or not to see, that is the question.

Our world is full of Not-Sees… is that who you wish to be?