I’m still mulling over the importance of Aesthetics. Raemon’s writing really set me on a path I should’ve explored much much earlier.
And since all good paths come with their fair share of coincidences, I found this essay to also mull over.
Perhaps we can think of Aesthetics as the grouping of desires and things we find beautiful(and thus we desire and work towards), in a spiritual/emotional/inner sense?
I prefer to think of Aesthetic as a less rational, more monkey-brain part of us. A lot of the things we find beautiful come from basic instincts of what is good/bad for our survival and reproduction. Healthy food, safe places, good partners, etc.
I would rationalize that finding suffering ugly is in a similar vein as finding skin boils ugly; they’re indicators of diseases, unsafe land, unsafe conditions, bad things et al.
Going with the “people’s suffering” take, perhaps wanting to act on immediate, in-your-eyes suffering is an aesthetic choice/preference, but making a (shut up and multiply) decision wouldn’t be aesthetic, but fully rational? Our monkey-brains can’t quite grasp the people’s suffering continents away from us, or imagine the actual amount of people suffering, so wanting to act on that as a whole wouldn’t touch on our direct aesthetics, but in conscious, controlled rational thoughts.
Scott talked some days ago about how Brazil didn’t take real coordinated efforts, and as a brazillian living in the country’s largest city, I’m here to both defend my country and say that things are much worse than a lack of coordination.
The government, both at federal and state level, took quarantine measures earlier than other countries did (according to the Johns Hopkins institute), compared to number of confirmed cases. We officially closed schools at about 100~ confirmed cases, with parents refusing to take their kids to school much earlier. (Per comparison, Lombardy closed at about 200 cases or so).
They’re also taking measures to have a semi-UBI going on so people have spending money for basics and utilities. Brazil also has much more robust work laws than US, thus people aren’t at such a risk of sudden unemployment without social safety nets that can last them through this pandemic. They’re also pushing for landlords and companies to open negotiations for rent and utilities.
BUT
The biggest factor here is the brazillian people, which are simply not caring about what the media has to tell them. Barely two weeks of quarantine in, and people are going outside and finding ways to restart their normal convenient lives.
Stores will open and work normally, but restrict the number of clients inside, thus forcing people to wait in long queues on the sidewalks (which is legally public and thus the store can’t be blamed for gathering people despite the current quarantine orders going on. Also for cultural reasons, no one is going to give the 5ft space recommendation. All the queues are as dense and closely packed and near the entrance as they can get away with).
During weekends, people will still throw large illegal parties (baile funk) or go outside to walk in parks, eat street food and unwind under the sun or on our beaches.
I believe that a reason this is happening is because people here largely distrust the media and will prefer to receive their news from chain messages on Whatsapp(Page 122). Thus misjudging the risk or severity of the situation. Another root cause might be risk compensating behavior; since everyone is now washing their hands and using alcohol gel and taking care to not cough on others, thus is safe to go outside and behave normaly if everyone is taking these precautions.
Bonus point: Who has a very dense public transport system and a city population higher than NYC and close to Tokyo’s thus making any attempt of “social distancing” very moot? Yes, Brazil.
This is going to be quite a ride for most of us.
I just came here to write a shortform on aesthetics, but I might as well write some random thoughts here and reach you in particular.
I believe that “Aesthetics Maketh the Man”. You can judge much about one’s character simply by what they find beautiful or ugly, and you can judge their values and morals simply by how solid their aesthetics are.
Perhaps it is indeed easier or better to quantify “aesthetics” as the array of morals, values, sense of beauty and empirical metis that compromise a living being’s personality. Things that are intrinsically part of how we interact with the world and society at large.
But to actually answer your question: I have given thought to aesthetics from a rational(?) POV that I hadn’t bothered with before, and no, I haven’t ever went into a “major disagreement” that went anywhere near “well”. People can be very irrational towards things their own aesthetic sense considers “ugly”, even (or specially) within the rationalist community.