We are on the subject of Categories. We live by categories. They are what is said to matter. I believe categories rise from the philosophies of those who control the shots. In our world, the shots are controlled largely by oligarchs and their servants. I include the leadership of most institutions and corporations. I particularly note the presence of science and academic organizations in the pantheon.
I note further that oligarchical control extends even to individuals like myself who have no connection to anything save some online places like Blasting News and Medium.
I cannot submit to any academic publications because I am either too old or not a Ph.D. I do not want to make this self-referential, but this is a snapshot of many who find themselves more or less marginalized.
Triadic Philosophy
I have assumed that the Web is an ideal place to launch a peoples thought process that I call Triadic Philosophy. One of its features is to champion and advocate the use of three ethical Values -- tolerance, Helpfulness, and democracy.In this article, I will simply suggest how the use of these three terms might affect common categories used to rate entertainment.
They would be used to apply to anything that was recommended. You can see immediately that well over half the offerings on any entertainment provider would be unrated or perhaps be seen as intolerant, unhelpful or undemocratic.
Get the idea? These are not moralistic categories or criteria. They refer to behavior that should be regarded positively.
Questions
The right questions should be applied to anything, to everything. Tolerance, helpfulness, and democracy do the job. Jesus at one point is said to have suggested that decency -- doing right by your fellow human beings -- was adequate.
Being democratic, helpful and tolerant is what everyone is well-advised to agree to.
Congress’s Assault on Charities https://t.co/8hxh2EIzYk
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) November 27, 2017
Categories and harm
Trump and his cronies are very good at using categories to produce harmful results. Immigrants are seen as terrorists.
Americans are seen as not including all Americans. Categories fan out into labels and other widely used words. If we are going to survive as a people, if we are going to claim and create a society that reflects good values, we have to name them and understand what the names mean.
Triadic Philosophy advocates that each person ask three questions prior to anything they are consciously considering. If it tolerant? Will it be helpful, meaning will it educate and enable? Is it democratic? Everything under the sun can and should be covered by these universal terms. When coverage is sparse, it is a measure of how far we have to go.
