Ontology talk:9k/RD/Q52,39

Main entry

5239. Q5239/Q52,39machine heart (Daoism)

The story

... "It's called a well sweep."

The gardener flushed with anger and then said with a laugh, "I've heard my teacher say, where there are machines, there are bound to be machine worries; where there are machine worries, there are bound to be machine hearts. With a machine heart in your breast, you've spoiled what was pure and simple; and without the pure and simple, the life of the spirit knows no rest. Where the life of the spirit knows no rest, the Way will cease to buoy you up. It's not that I don't know about your machine — I would be ashamed to use it!"

Machine hearts and Deltarune

618. Q618/Q618

     machine heart

     (Daoism) [1] -> this is some prime pre-capitalist BS that, without much exaggeration, illustrates what's wrong with the world. (the original story, not so much the video.)
     

     the gardener rejects an early capitalist's fancy irrigation equipment. (I imagined a sprinkler, but at that time I'm guessing it was a bit more like an irrigation canal? anyway it's a machine that can be installed over a farm field by a few people, I'm not sure by one person but I'm guessing by less than 50.) he treats this like it's really profound. then Confucius says that if his ideas can't be applied to the real world to change it they aren't achieving anything. which is a much better lesson. this makes me seriously wonder if this fable was actually being spread around by the early CPC. I need to investigate that.
     so, the video I found takes in that story and then it concludes... it was good for the man to reject early capitalism coming to China and drive the capitalists out. no, that's not good. as for that particular man who knows — maybe he'd be fine — but this story is spread around like a general pattern applying to a lot of people. and like, if everybody does this you get a China where everybody hates cities, and when people hate cities they turn into nazis. Heidegger — ranted about modern technology making the world worse, nazi ally, Nazi party shortly showed up to defend all the people who existed before capitalism and say those people should keep ruling it. Dugin — turned against Stalin and the pain of industrialization in Russia, ranted about technology-adjacent things, became a nazi, urged Russia toward invading Ukraine. United States — has farm capitalists rather than peasants, they rant about cities, they've been turning into nazis. do you see the problem now?
     if you click up any video commenting on Deltarune it's so frustrating. Deltarune has this wonderful pile of Materialist themes and accidentally-Communist images, but everyone always pulls the worst interpretations out of them and gets these like very specifically, unnecessarily specific bourgeois narratives out of it and I'm like, no!! hitting my fist on the table, why is this always the way people read it where is your imagination
     like I'm going to be honest, I don't need everyone reading Deltarune as Communism. that's my thing, and I used to believe it was impossible to get a Marxist reading out of Deltarune back when Chapter 2 released. so. I'd take a weirdly elaborate theory about how Rudy is the Knight and what somebody suddenly became convinced one day the real-life symbolism of that was. I'd take a reading of Deltarune purely as metafiction where games are like an elaborate chess match between the player and Gaster or Noelle and Gaster or whoever. I'd take anything that somehow wasn't... this.
     that said. the end of the video where the musician found a way to "glitch" or "corrupt" an erhu was wonderful. it had basically nothing to do with the Daoist parable, and that made it actually fine

618. Q618/Q618machine heart (Daoism) -> it's not an irrigation canal, it's a well pump! that makes the story even funnier. like, gosh, even some wealthier peasants had well pumps I think. not even having a water pump would be rather unusual. although if I remember right it seems like some villages in Africa didn't have them into the 2000s. I think it's an urbanization thing that happens as you go toward the very first cities or large towns. a large enough village will have a water pump, but maybe some of the most basic peasants that exist first won't have one. gosh I never thought I would get deeply fascinated by the historical materialism of well pumps. here we are.
618. Q618/Q618With a machine heart in you, you've spoiled what was pure and simple, and the spirit knows no rest; the Way (Tao; Dao) will cease to buoy you up -> this is a proposition. I'm not sure what it's saying but it's definitely claiming something in particular. why does a machine heart make the Tao leave you? maybe I need to go back and read about what the Tao actually is.
618. Q618/Q618the Tao / the Way (Daoism) [2]
618. Q618/Q618The Tao can bring ultimate clarity (Lao Tzu) [3] -> and it apparently failed at its own promise, according to its own followers.
     gosh. this is just like Aron Ra reading the Bible and the Quran and remarking "what a clear book! yep, it's perfect."
618. Q618/Q618The Tao is not separated into faith and reason [4] -> oh, that's cool actually. it's like, the only religion I could have believed if I lived in the 1000s. that or alchemy.

Ideologies or fields

• HAS / Daoism