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Consciously Experiencing Human Dignity

2020-03-03 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Prompted by a YouTube comment calling The Art Assignment's videos 'exercises in consciously experiencing human dignity', John says that is what he seeks in art and beyond: recognizing the dignity of oneself and others, since humans, for all their harm, are the most interesting thing that ever happened on Earth.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — John's worry; The Art Assignment's 'The Case for Video Games' and 33Ranjit's comment

  • ★★ John calls himself a vast paramecium of worry that swallows any nearby worry to grow ever larger, but says he doesn't want to talk about that today. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says Sarah and Complexly producer Brandon Brungard made a brilliant Art Assignment video last week (week of 24 February 2020), The Case for Video Games, and viewers should watch it. — 00:00:00 · The Art Assignment, Sarah Urist Green, Complexly

  • ★★★ 33ranjit (quoted): YouTube commenter 33Ranjit wrote that Art Assignment videos look at what humans do without shirking problems but never ridicule others: exercises in consciously experiencing human dignity. — 00:00:29 · The Art Assignment, YouTube

    “exercises in consciously experiencing human dignity in others and ourselves”

  • ★★★ John realized only from the comment that exercises in consciously experiencing human dignity are what he looks for in novels, poetry, YouTube videos, philanthropy, video games and much else. — 00:00:29 · YouTube

00:00:58 — What John seeks in art: calm and wonder, distraction, and consciously experiencing human dignity; dignity defined

  • ★★ John watches videos of extremely high-level Tetris literally every day, seeking a strange mix of calm and wonder rather than human dignity. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says he often looks to art for distraction from the world and its worries and from the complexities of being a person. — 00:00:58

  • ★★★ When ready to look at the world and its people, John wants exercises in consciously experiencing human dignity, meaning dignity as being worthy of respect and honor. — 00:01:27

    “dignity in the sense of being worthy of respect and honor”

  • ★★★ John believes in acknowledging one's own human dignity and recognizing it in others, especially people told by the social order or power structures that their lives matter less. — 00:01:27 · the social order

00:01:56 — Art Assignment videos recognize overlooked artists and art forms; Sarah's six years

  • ★★★ John loves Art Assignment videos for finding ways to do that, from artists who get little critical attention to art forms like video games often treated as not proper art. — 00:01:56 · The Art Assignment
  • ★★ John says that over six years Sarah has shown millions what is important about the art world, and shown the art world what is important about the rest of the world. — 00:01:56 · Sarah Urist Green

00:02:26 — Humans have done harm but are the most interesting thing on Earth; we become better by consciously experiencing human dignity

  • ★★ John doesn't think our species is great: we have done much harm, and while obsessed with the apocalypse we ignore that to thousands of species we are the apocalypse. — 00:02:26

    “to many thousands of Earth's species, we are the apocalypse”

  • ★★★ John says humans are overwhelmingly the most interesting thing that ever happened on Earth, and it is easy to forget how wondrous and strange you are. — 00:02:26

  • ★★ Through photography and art you have seen what you'll never see (Mars's surface, deep-ocean bioluminescent fish, a 17th-century girl with a pearl earring); through empathy, felt what you'll never feel. — 00:02:55 · Mars, empathy
  • ★★ John tells the viewer they are the only part of the known universe that knows it is in a universe. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John says we must be better to ourselves, each other and the world, and we become better by consciously experiencing human dignity in ourselves and others. — 00:02:55

00:03:24 — Thanks; Sarah's book You Are an Artist and their tour; the four-minute worry

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a pinned comment John says he and Hank will be on tour next week (week of 9 March 2020) in Columbus, Indianapolis and Ann Arbor and hopes to see viewers there. — creator comment · Indianapolis
  • ★★ Asked in comments how the like/view ratio is holding up, John says it holds incredibly well on the Art Assignment video; here it is still a little off because people are conscious of it, but reverting to the mean. — creator comment · The Art Assignment
  • ★★ In a comment John says he reads about covid-19 far more than anyone should and is much less worried about it than many, but an irrational worry disorder needs no rational worries. — creator comment
  • ★★ In a comment John says no virus wrote Beloved or recorded A Love Supreme; because humans are so interesting and powerful, they have a responsibility to act differently from a virus. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: 33ranjit · dignity · The Art Assignment

Also: People: Sarah Urist Green

Projects: Complexly

Works: Girl with a Pearl Earring · Tetris · The Case for Video Games · You Are an Artist

Organizations: Instagram · YouTube

Rituals: Four-minute rule

Concepts: consciousness · empathy · human impact on the environment · novel · photography · poetry (concept) · video game · wonder (emotion) · Worry

Places: Mars

Only in the description or credits: Brandon Brungard

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