Originally Posted by
Bertrand
I would agree with this except to add that I think their idea of beauty changes over time, its not just the most popular trend at the moment... the art of ESIs is a great example of them running ahead, not behind on this... what it feels like you're suggesting to me is to drown the distinction between the true and the beautiful and the ugly and the false in relativism, which I'm not really down for, rather I think we need to elevate our conception of beauty which is precisely what ESIs function to do in society... while it is true they will never reach objective perfection I think there's rationality in striving as if you can and everyone benefits
i do agree that are certain binaries, such as that we are all sinners and that God loves us all, and in light of that, these comparisons we draw between better/worse between individuals are somewhat trivial and subjective... I feel like this goes to the basic dispute in Christianity of faith v works, with Jesus saying "all have fallen short" "no one is good" but also stuff like "remove the vine that does not bear fruit" "know them by their fruits" implies that subjective valuations of worth are necessary in determining the sincerity and truth of a thing (and the right to eliminate the perceived "bad"). i think the easy answer is that humans are just creatures in tension between these two poles and that one must keep both in mind when evaluating others but one cannot go too far in either direction without sinning. in other words, we must maintain the tension
as far as proper takeaways not existing, I do think that negativism has its merits, where often we don't know the singular best solution to any problem because its too complex or we're just too stupid, but I do think in those situations you can ask yourself "what should I definitely not do"... in other words, don't knowingly make things worse... I do think in that sense proper takeaways exist and its not a spurious notion in of itself
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