There is no 'realm of
shared human ideas and concepts,' there is only the activity of the person's brain,
who is aware of the idea of Quinn the Eskimo,
Sasquatch, or God, or "Being,",
and is aware of the brain activity of his
fellows, who happen also to be aware of the
idea of Quinn the Eskimo, Sasquatch, or God
or "Being" and are aware of the
brain activity of their fellows, [which without
them knowing it - includes you if you happen
to believe in the existence of Quinn the
Eskimo, Sasquatch, or God, or "Being."].
The idea that there is somewhere out
there
in the Platonic Wild Blue Yonder a
mental
Eldorado of shared human ideas and
concepts,
where the universal idea of 'Quinn
the Eskimo,
Sasquatch, or God, or "Being,"
' awaits the call to be thought about,
and
whose universality is eternally inaccessible
to those that do not think about them
and
do not hear the call to think about
them
is fantasy. For me the human brain
is a self-referential
system, and I hold to the importance
of eigenbehaviors
for the explanation of complex phenomena.
As far as the idea of the concept of
"operational
closure" is concerned any cognitive
system is semantically independent.
For Quinn the Eskimo, Sasquatch, or
God,
or "Being:" read numbers
too, and
imaginary lines, but the big difference
between
numbers and imaginary lines and poor
old
Quinn the Eskimo, Sasquatch, or God,
or "Being,
" is that of degrees of pragmatic
utility.
Sasquatch is only valuable inasmuch
as he
provides much needed tourist income
for certain
remote areas of the Eastern seaboard
of America,
from those hoping to catch a glimpse
of the
creature, and maybe get some saleable
footage
of this zoological will o the wisp.
God and
Being certainly oversupply fantasy-fodder
for the ontologically challenged who
are
prone to states of religious and ontological
raptus, whilst in addition no doubt
providing
much needed income for Die Industrie
Heidegger
and the Churches, but number provides
a much
more useful abstract construct, which
though
it no more exists than any other activity
of our existential embodied brain,
is absolutely
essential as a cognitive tool to ensure
the
future development of humanity.
But Quinn the Eskimo? Where is he placed
on the degree of utility scale? A synesthetic
metaphor for the Messiah? Some hippy
Mr.
Fix-it? Death? Some entertaining Mr.
Tambourine
Man to jingle-jangle our blues away?
I'd
love to know, that is if Dylan meant
anything
by this interesting allusion?
Quinn the Eskimo.
Ev’rybody’s building the big ships
and the
boats,
Some are building monuments,
Others, jotting down notes,
Ev’rybody’s in despair,
Ev’ry girl and boy
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
Ev’rybody’s gonna jump for joy.
Come all without, come all within,
You’ll not see nothing like the mighty
Quinn.
I like to do just like the rest,
I like my sugar sweet,
But guarding fumes and making haste,
It ain’t my cup of meat.
Ev’rybody’s ’neath the trees,
Feeding pigeons on a limb
But when quinn the eskimo gets here,
All the pigeons gonna run to him.
Come all without, come all within,
You’ll not see nothing like the mighty
Quinn.
A cat’s meow and a cow’s moo,
I can recite ’em all,
Just tell me where it hurts yuh, honey,
And I’ll tell you who to call.
Nobody can get no sleep,
There’s someone on ev’ryone’s toes
But when quinn the eskimo gets here,
Ev’rybody’s gonna wanna doze.
Come all without, come all within,
You’ll not see nothing like the mighty
Quinn.
Words by Bob Dylan.
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