Sameness vs Difference

[Human Mint]

I was jamming a bit with those two concepts.

Any example: Two people are both evil, sameness. But a different kind of evil, difference.

There is a sameness in all pathologies: every sickness is a sickness of the cell. An example of sameness. But in practice you are always drawing differences otherwise you can't treat them correctly.

Another one: in this forum we are the same in that we all watch Leo's episodes. We hold a sameness of information, like we are all espectating the same match. When people watch all the same match there is a sameness of experience, which produces connection. We are seeing the same thing. But someone from the outside knows nothing about the match, that person will see think very differently when hearing about that match. 

Hopefully you're seeing how you can extrapolate that into any domain.

There are words that denote sameness: citizens, students, action movies. But you don't treat every student the same. You can't teach a 6 years old the same as an 18 y.o, on the other hand there are universal principles of education that just expresses differently.

[enchanted]

It runs deep for sure. Profound concept. 

[Human Mint]

11 hours ago, enchanted said:

It runs deep for sure. Profound concept. 

Profound and an interesting practice. I am trying to take it somewhere. I am more drawn to sameness for some reason.

A cool example of sameness: A cartoon drawing of yourself; it's cartoon, it's made of paper and ink, but it is the same as you.

And also things that you thought were different but you see the sameness in a new light it always feels like a mental level up.

Edited 6 hours ago by Human Mint

[enchanted]

Yes totally agree and good questions you ask.

You may be drawn to similarities for the same reason DaVinci was, who famously said: look for the interconnectedness of all things. DaVinci is perhaps suggesting that we look for the similarities between things, or at least look for things that everything shares. Which I agree is a more holistic and advanced approach. 

 

Examples of recent and past arguments that boil down to 'similar vs different':

-Is Israel 'similar or different' to Nazi Germany? 

- Are people who criticize IsIsrael ''similar or different' to anti-semites?

-Are people who support Israel 'similar or different' to evil, genocidal, maniacs?

-Are some feminists 'similar or different' to incels?

 -Are DNC candidates 'similar or different' to racial left communists?

-Is Trump 'similar or different' to a dictator?

-Are transwomen 'similar or different' to cis- women?

-Is same sex marriage 'similar or different' to traditional marriage?

-Are immigrants 'similar or different' to natives?

-Are slaves 'similar or different' to masters? 

-Are men 'similar or different' to women?

-Are some CEOs 'similar or different' to the robber barons of the 1800s?

People actually argue this stuff without realizing that they are merely just listing similarities or differences. (And sometimes they think volume and passion helps their case too.)

Edited 3 hours ago by enchanted

[enchanted]

2 hours ago, Human Mint said:

And also things that you thought were different but you see the sameness in a new light it always feels like a mental level up.

This is very true. Its also true when noticing differences. For example, it's a level up when a prejudiced person notices that not all Latinos are alike. Or when a feminist or chauvinist realizes not all men or women are alike. Or when a novice bird watcher realizes not all falcons are alike (and have different personalities). 

Leo was right, all learning is either making distinctions or drawing similarities. 

Edited 3 hours ago by enchanted

[yetineti]

It’s confusing because differences can be used as distinctions. Distinctions are the foundation of learning, which is the foundation of intelligence, which is generally foundational, as reality can be considered infinitely intelligent.

At the same time, sameness can overlook distinctions and seemingly ignore the process of intelligence. Simultaneously, sameness can be indifference. Complete indifference is actually love, which also has to be endless, in reality.

What is interesting is how these processes seem to coexist while fighting each other.

Love seems to fight the idea of distinctions and learning, while learning seems to scrap everything into pieces, leaving little left to love.

This is interesting because it is typically hard to learn about something you do not love and equally, love something you have not learned.

One could argue the entire point of existence is learning to love and loving to learn.

The problem is when either conflicts with survival, we forget the relationship and it is easy to be consumed by love while we learn nothing and perhaps easier to be consumed by learning while we forget how to love.

We have to learn through both differentiation and unification, while love recognizes unity without necessarily denying difference.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by yetineti

[Human Mint]

I completely overlooked distinctions as the basis for learning, which it is!

That's a cool one. Mastering a craft i.e the ability to draw distinctions more and more the deeper you go. For an untrained mind it will look like a fuzzy ball of the same thing, but the master is conscious of a lot more. 

Think of mandarin characters, for an anglosajon they all look like the same strokes and simbols. But a trained speaker gets the meaning of each symbol correctly.

[Human Mint]

2 hours ago, enchanted said:

Examples of recent and past arguments that boil down to 'similar vs different':

-Is Israel 'similar or different' to Nazi Germany? 

- Are people who criticize IsIsrael ''similar or different' to anti-semites?

-Are people who support Israel 'similar or different' to evil, genocidal, maniacs?

Best question here would be how is Israel similar to Nazi Germany, and also, how is Israel different to Nazi germany? And so forth with each. That will get you better answers.

When you lay it as a dichotomy you are asking for a limited answer.

[yetineti]

1 hour ago, Human Mint said:

Best question here would be how is Israel similar to Nazi Germany, and also, how is Israel different to Nazi germany? And so forth with each. That will get you better answers.

When you lay it as a dichotomy you are asking for a limited answer.

Good catch.