#theumlaut

[daintydoraposts]

Day 23/100: The Umlaut. Nominally two dots above specific vowels in German, the word "umlaut" comes from one of the Brothers Grimm... Jacob Grimm was not only a collector of fairy tales (along with his brother Wilhelm), but also one of the most famous linguists ever. In 1819 he described a sound-change process that affected the historical development of German. He called it umlaut from um (around) + laut (sound). Technically, "umlaut" doesn't refer to the dots, but to the process where, historically, a vowel got pulled into a different position because of influence from another, upcoming vowel. Quite a lot going on for two tiny dots! [Navy blue buttons on laminate flooring] #100daysofthepunctuationproject #100days #the100dayproject #gm100dayproject #thepunctuationproject #punctuation #punctuationproject #punctuationmarks #umlaut #theumlaut #germanumlaut #germanpunctuation #germanicpunctuation #dots #buttons #brothersgrimm #jacobgrimm #language #germanlanguage #linguistics

[blstff]

Let us start with a consideration of what exactly it is that telescopic morality entails. The question, as the Vulgar Moralist put it, is what the proper sphere is for morality. The telescopic friends and loved ones I have known over the years have obsessed over problems far away, which they were unable to meaningfully influence. Moreover, they were righteous about this, and either implied or outright told those of us with more mundane concerns that we were immoral for ignoring the cosmic injustices occurring around the world on a daily basis. Indeed, by doing so we were perceived as partly culpable for the fact that such things continued to occur.

The claim, in short, is that the proper moral sphere is the whole world and encompasses all of humanity, and focusing primarily only on those things touched by a typical individual’s life is myopic and indistinguishable from egoism.

Most of the time this is merely annoying. People talk big or (as the Vulgar Moralist puts it) attend rock concerts to end hunger, but don’t actually make any meaningful personal sacrifices. My piece last week was largely a response to the combination of this attitude withthe perpetual outrage machine that the Internet has been turned into. This combination results in real consequences to the objects of ire regardless of whether or not the outraged people have carefully investigated the context—and I am highly skeptical than any significant proportion of them ever do. The combination of gluttony for righteousness, unquestioning acceptance of the particular context a story is presented in, and entitlement without sacrifice is a recipe unlikely to produce virtue.

[blstff]

Modern moral conversations are profoundly confused, privileging the far over the near. Yet our relationship to the far is always that of a molecule of a drop of water in a vast ocean that extends well beyond our field of vision. In making our morality telescopic we trivialize the choices that do matter; the ones close to us, involving the people in our lives. Obsession over a world you cannot hope to meaningfully influence is the road to either madness or self-delusion, and it is hubris from the outset. Cast off the chains of telescopic morality and move forward with the morality of human flourishing, of eudaimonia.