What is the Purpose of Meaning?

Part I: about the name


Once the decision has been made that there will be a blog, there remained one last, major hurdle between me and a career of a frugal, accomplished blogger. I am talking, of course, about the name. Now this is not an easy nor frivolous matter. You would think that ultimately the success or failure of a blog is decided upon its content. You would think wrong. A name is crucial, it is a make or break situation. Choose a title that is not catchy, cool, hip, in, sexy, chocco, jazzy, classy - and all the insightful commentary in the world will not save you from the abyss of obscurity. It is an issue not to be taken lightly, and that is why I devoted all of my efforts to this one task.

So what would be the appropriate name for the future centre of the iternetverse? Not a trivial question, indeed. It surely would need to be of ambiguous nature - to arouse and maintain the publics’ attention. A riddle, perhaps. A query so difficult, that it borders on the impossible. An answer so ethereal, an oniric haze, that is beyond comprehension. A thing I saw on TV as a kid and it stuck in my memory till this day. Now we are getting somewhere!

Yes, it is true. Being the poster child of the internet revolution, ailing liberal education and cartoons, I thrive on a cultural soil consisting of obscure, pop-cultural references. Instead of being fluent in the canon of classical literature, I command the vast knowledge of youtube, or star wars, or harry potter books and what not. I appraise games as one contemplates impressionist paintings, and I see art or work of pure genius where you would notice nothing but a waste of time and effort. It is not my fault, it is the circumstances that shaped me this way.

Why I do despair at my condition, it is only because I am at a forefront of generations to come. A human brain has a limited capacity and there is a finite number of hours any given day. Yet the amount of content available to absorb is quickly getting out of hand, vigorously chasing after plus infinity. People need to make choices what to spend their precious, little time on and culture in this regard, is similar to a language - it enables you to communicate so the most popular one wins.

An example - to give you a flavour of the future - it is generally unacceptable to not know the most prominent works of Shakespeare. The lack of knowledge about the character of Spiderman would only raise a slight brow. And have you ever heard of Dexter’s Laboratory? No? Then you simply were not born early enough. Don’t worry, your kids will fill you in.

Where am I going with this, my patient Reader asks. I am gracefully approaching the conclusion of this lengthy stream of consciousness, so don’t worry. To learn the origins of the title, if you have not figured it out yet (persistent, aren't we?), please direct your efforts here. I will not make any more feeble attempts to rationalize my choice of source material as I feel that I would fail miserably. Take it as it is and interpret however you want. Moving on!

In essence, the purpose of meaning symbolizes a great challenge for the mind, it is the limiting case of a difficult question - it has no answer (no, this does not count). And the prime intention of this blog is - to collect questions that baffle me, questions that are bowling buddies with 'What is the Purpose of Meaning'. I need a comfortable space to put them on, so they do not escape memory. I need a medium to convey a discussion about those issues, as they might prove unyielding to a single mind.

Of course, those lofty and philosophical ideals will have to make some room for a whole lot of venting, self-aggrandizing, posturing and ridiculing of other peoples' opinion to come. Hey, live and let live, right?



Part II: about you not knowing who I am


So it seems that among bloggers, and especially among those I personally hold in high esteem, it is in good fashion to have an alter ego. Preferably a witty reference to ones professional role. These alter egos are then allowed much creative freedom, as the authors secret identity is safely tucked away on the cushy sofa of anonymity, chuckling merrily at the unfolding maelstrom of discord and bickering that accompanies any, if not all, debates.

Well, inventing a persona is bothersome, by which I mean that after long trials and many hardships I must grudgingly acknowledge the fact that I come up with absolutely nothing publishing-worthy in the department of catchy nick names. But that is ok, for at least a few reasons.

First and foremost - I really have nothing to hide at this point in my career/life, aside from, perhaps, a bit crummy writing style (lacking grammar/dreadful punctuation/glaring factual errors). And - in case the situation was to change in the coming years - I will let the most qualified person to handle the task of redoing the, hopefully, massive amounts of controversial writing that I surely will produce - and that person is future me.

Second - seems that no amount of hushmail accounts, encryption algorithms and the likes can protect you from the hungry, public eye, once a critical level of unquenchable thirst for knowledge is reached. This was the case of zerohedge (and some other blogs you might have never heard about). Hopefully - moderation, as common sense would dictate, is the cure for this modicum. I do not mean that compromising ones ideas or beliefs for the sake of political correctness (or anything else for that matter, with the possible exception of contractual obligations and fiduciary duties - but I'm no purist, believe me) is the only way out. By all means, go out there and shout straight into the face of those unwashed masses, let them know what uneducated, clueless and undeserving swine they really are, and how their luck is just about to change, for you - the saviour - have just arrived, in the nick of time. It certainly sounds like a tempting prospect, and with relatively little downside. But it might not win you a lot of friends (or influence people, it seems). That is just it - stray too far into the inviting and vast stretches of Monkey-poo-flinging-land and all the deception in the world will do nothing more than just stall the inevitable revelation of your true identity. Sure, there is an argument to be had for anonymous speech¹. But as long as I don't wake up in Communist China I feel no worries. For simple, day to day, situations maintaining a good reputation for keeping the discourse mild and civilized just seems like the right thing to do.

And last - but no least - I have my own personal language for venting reasons (seriously, the estimated speakers-of-my-mother-language-to-world-population ratio stands at 0.6%; even adjusting for those without access to internet, it is just barely over one percent - definitely in my comfort zone), which I plan to use extensively. Actually - already have.

¹ At least that's what zerohedge would have you believe. As is stated in their manifesto (yes, they actually have a manifesto):

though often maligned (typically by those frustrated by an inability to engage in ad hominem attacks) anonymous speech has a long and storied history in the united states. used by the likes of mark twain (aka samuel langhorne clemens) to criticize common ignorance, and perhaps most famously by alexander hamilton, james madison and john jay (aka publius) to write the federalist papers, we think ourselves in good company in using one or another nom de plume. particularly in light of an emerging trend against vocalizing public dissent in the united states, we believe in the critical importance of anonymity and its role in dissident speech. like the economist magazine, we also believe that keeping authorship anonymous moves the focus of discussion to the content of speech and away from the speaker- as it should be. we believe not only that you should be comfortable with anonymous speech in such an environment, but that you should be suspicious of any speech that isn't.