In a gift-based economy, how much is enough? How much of what? Exactly.
David “with a small d” Kittay is a professor at Columbia University, teaching “Technology, Religion, Future” and “Interpreting Buddhist Yoga”. He’s also the father of Burning Man’s Social Alchemist, Bear Kittay. Last year he gave a talk at TEDx Black Rock City about How Much?
The discussion is on the subject of a hermeneutic algorithm to determine meaning in our conversations. How much meaning resides in what is said and understood.
Teacher and lecturer in Columbia University’s Religion Department, specializing in Buddhism. Moderated panel at Columbia last year on “Burning Man, Religion, Technology, and the Future,” with Larry Harvey, who attended my seminar on the same subject. Many years experience as trial lawyer, and teach and appear on panels speaking on ethics, law, technology, the future, and religion.
Can you please put a warning on content this empty, that consuming it may be harmful to your health. or like a cigarette pack in Australia? come on, mate, I need all my brain cells… How many? All of them!
how much harm would it do?
too much
I thought I just had. You know how the BMORG and some others like to go on about how Burning Man is so much more than the NV burn itself, and that people really are concerned with spreading Burning Man culture beyond the playa? Well, I think a good indication of where people’s concerns really do lie is on which posts they comment on here, and on the Burning Blog. Posts about anything directly related to the playa and/or BMORG’s management of the NV burn always get a ton of comments. Posts about Burning Man philosophy, affiliate organizations (Burners Without Borders, etc), and the dreaded “where in the world is Larry, Crimson, Bear Kittay….” get very little love.
Just sayin’…
I have noticed that too. On our Facebook page I try to post a broader range of articles.
I feed a half feral cat. She’s quite lovely and enjoys having her ears rubbed. But if I tried to pick her up she’d rip me to shreds, it’s an understanding we share. When I first met her she was nearly starving and loved the dry cat food I’d give her. Then I thought I’d give her a treat with the good stuff – Whiskas in the packet. She was so happy her purr mechanism almost threw a rod. So Whiskas it was from then out.
Then one day my little market stopped shelving the good stuff and I had to go back to gifting her dry cat food. When she sniffed that dry cat food and looked up to me with the most WTF?! look I’ve ever seen, I knew I had created a monster. I thought I had achieved some credit with her by pumping fresh wet nutrition into her for so many months… but all that didn’t matter.
The dry cat food just wasn’t enough for her anymore, and there was no going back; no more purring, no more leg rubs, no more cute little cat sounds. She still comes around once in a while, but it will never be the same.