While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

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You've nailed provincialism pretty well exactly - as long as the armies raze the next village over instead, many would neither notice nor care. They're not theirs.

This, if I remember correctly, is coupled with a dislike of anything obviously foreign. Racism runs high. Etc.
Are you referring to any specific situation or just generalizing? Because specific communities have had parochial attitudes towards one another, or among themselves, but the definition of those communities - and the strength of the attitudes - varies wildly from place to place and time to time.
 
You know, I was hoping that Dachs would sweep in to bring some illumination to this conversation. :)
 
I'm sorry to disappoint you, then. :p
 
talonschild said:
You've nailed provincialism pretty well exactly - as long as the armies raze the next village over instead, many would neither notice nor care. They're not theirs.

Your making 'provincialism' sounds like nationalism-lite. Pre-modern Southeast Asian identifies could be shared across huge distances and be meaningful despite that. See: 'Arab', 'Chinese' and 'Malay'.

Grandkhan said:
Religious zealotry seems like a pretty recent invention, its one of those things that seemed to come with monotheism and religions that actively proselytise.
Hinduism, lots. See: Colas.
 
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The #nes scientific society, today debating the colours of the Dota 2 Character 'Venomancer'. I make use of the results of the xkcd colour poll and the in-game model of Venomancer to compare a random sampling of the light-colour regions of carapace to the names of various hues from the colour poll. Overall, a chi-squared goodness of fit test confirms that Venomancer is statistically more yellow than green.

In #nes, Luckymoose has made a counterargument, stating that of the colours this test labels as yellow, several are actually green. I have disagreed with this, noting that comparing a relatively pure yellow to an ambiguous yellow-green will naturally make the ambiguous colour look green- however, this is an optical illusion akin to the Grey Square, which demonstrates that perceived colour depends largely on context. At any rate, I stand by my original assertion, as it was done in a replicable manner that avoids my own personal biases.

Science: not just for answering useful questions!
 
I just want everyone to just file away in the back of their head the fact that the debate over the Venomancer began when Iggy insisted that he was yellow "like a rubber duckie."

rubberduckie.jpg
 
I just want everyone to just file away in the back of their head the fact that the debate over the Venomancer began when Iggy insisted that he was yellow "like a rubber duckie."

rubberduckie.jpg

It was hyperbole, to counter your strong stance that Venomancer was green. That said, I do not believe that he is actually as yellow as a rubber duckie.

This is such a silly discussion. :p
 
Going back to the religion discussion, polytheism was also very open to one another because their gods could be easily equated to one another. For example, one could say Horus=Ares and both sides would move on. With monotheists, however, that is challenging because the gods are so distinct. You can't say Muhhamed(sp?)=Jesus.
 
Going back to the religion discussion, polytheism was also very open to one another because their gods could be easily equated to one another. For example, one could say Horus=Ares and both sides would move on. With monotheists, however, that is challenging because the gods are so distinct. You can't say Muhhamed(sp?)=Jesus.

...except Mohammed wasn't a god, and you very much can say Deus=YHWH=Allah. Because according to the major religions themselves, they are. :p

This has nothing to do with gods. For that matter, monotheism in actual practice is often extremely syncretic ("open") as well, with the difference that religious hierarchies may not approve it. Even then though, the degree of their disapproval can vary quite a bit. The Russian Orthodox Church spent the longest time in the Middle Ages not really caring all that much about how most people in its care were practically pagans in actual religious practice.

EDIT: On the whole I doubt the rise of religious zealotry has much to do with actual religion. I think it has more to do with philosophy and the rise of ideocracy among a small part of the population. Religion just got mixed up in this, as did politics, economics and many other wholesome things further down the line.

I have no idea what you mean by pagan gods being less distinct. Depending on what version of monotheistic theology we're talking about, God is either as distinct or much more abstract/less anthropomorphised than that.
 
talonschild said:
We ought to also note that when Catholicism (or, as it was then called, Christianity) moved into Europe, they assuaged devoted pagans by essentially equating non-chief gods to the various saints.
That didn't happen.
 
I'm a bit concerned that the proposal goes so far down the 'reality tv' end. If the people who make it are the type of person who usually gets voted for by viewing audiences, I think I'd have to pass up the opportunity. ;)
 
I have to agree with Iggy, not sure I would get many votes. But, also, I don't think the kind of Peoria who would get votes are the best people to go on such a mission. I feel like an introvert would be better suited than an extrovert.

And on the topic of religion, polytheistic gods are much not flexible than monotheistic ones. For example, look at the Greeks! Athena had multiple names ad multiple personalities, no one evn knew who exactly drove the sun, and they had all sorts if conflicting myths. And then you can look at the Romans: they adopted gods from all sorts of cultures, Germanina, Greece, even Egypt! They were infinitely more open minded than a monotheistic religion could be, if only because there are more options to relate different gods to. It's just a fact.
 
I was actually thinking more about the kind of horrible person who'd get voted in, more than my extremely poor odds of becoming a popular character on television. :p
 
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