The Invisible Men

`Wittgenstein’s Beetle

In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein uses an analogy in an attempt to clarify some of the problems involved in thinking of the mind as something over and above behaviour. Imagine, he says, that everyone has a small box in which they keep a beetle. However, no one is allowed to look in anyone else’s box, only in their own. Over time, people talk about what is in their boxes and the word “beetle” comes to stand for what is in everyone’s box.

Through this curious analogy, Wittgenstein is trying to point out that the beetle is very much like like an individual’s mind. No one can know exactly what it is like to be another person or experience things from another’s perspective (look in someone else’s box), but it is generally assumed that the mental workings of other people’s mind are very similar to our own (everyone has a beetle which is more or less similar to everyone else’s). However, it does not really matter – he argues – what is in the box, or whether everyone has a beetle, since there is no way of checking or comparing. In a sense, the word “beetle” – if it is to have any sense or meaning – simply means “what is in the box”. From this point of view, the mind is simply “what is in the box” – or rather “what is in your head”.

Wittgenstein aruges that although we cannot know what it is like to be someone else, to say there must be special mental entity called a mind that makes our experiences private is wrong. Part of the reason he thinks this way is because he considers language to have meaning through public usage. In other words, when we talk of having a mind (or a beetle), we are using a term that we have learnt through conversation and public discourse. Furthermore, the word we have learnt can only ever mean “whatever is in your box” – i.e. your mind – and should not therefore be used to refer to some entity or special mental substance since no one can know that such a thing exists (we cannot see into other people’s boxes).`

Re: # 32

Brother masadi,

Don`t rail against kaka just because you are STILL an underachiever bhangi in your preferred social system of azaan and domestic servitude.

Trees and dogs also function through system of interaction with other organisms. A mango tree, when uprooted and planted elsewhere will be `udaas` and not bear fruit for several years before blossoming again. Of course, your mullah model of social interaction has no place for animals and plants because your chutya religion is not smart enough to think through self-awareness theories of other living things.

Your models of understanding the uniiverse is severely handicapped by the revelatory `ashraf-ul-makhlooqaat` status of humans. Step outside that matchbox and witness Alienation BEING MANIFESTED in various ecosystems.

PS. Look up Wittgenstein and his though experiment of `Beetle in the Box` and maybe you will understand that feelings (like Alienation) can only be evaluated if they are MANIFESTED. If hamidm is not MANIFESTING `traits of Alienation`, please leave him alone and administer those doses of azaan back in your ear to cure thyself mullah!

hamzaad writes <<< Alienation is a feeling that that organisms (even dogs and trees) may manifest. >>>

After reading this nonsense I need not have responded to your idiocy par excellence. Alienation is restricted to conscious, self evaluating organisms, unlike dogs and trees, and it is a product of a social system, not some ghost affecting your psyche from on high.

Re: # 25

thats a bit overly reductive, isnt it?

minhaj-man: Nothing is sacred when you are in your 20s (assuming you are a 20-something) least of all ``memories``, which should be cherished as opposed to worshiped, from a distant future, of the past that was yesterday.

Thanks yoda.

``I miss the US too, but what I miss about it is``

Senhor Masadi:
I am guessing, there is at least one thing you`d definitely be missing in Pakistan and that is the grand library system as it is in us (college libraries or the cities`) and come to think of: old bookstores and recordstores. I don`t think there can be an argument about that.

`#25 by masadi on April 18, 2007 6:10am PT

it is a trait of a social system and the US social system is an Alienation generator par excellence.`

You are an idiot par excellence. Alienation is a feeling that that organisms (even dogs and trees) may manifest. IT IS NOT A TRAIT HOVERING OVER THE SKIES OF THE LAND OF THE FREE! You can feel it in the middle of karbala fighting alongside Hussain or in America when your selected reading is rejected in your book club. The cheerful morons that you resent are really your personal demons and cannot be projected onto people who have a firmer control of their destinies.

Unlike you, a few desis in this country and in Pakistan control their own destinies. Your middle class angst are a product of your own shortcomings. If you can`t hold onto a job in a private university because some desi entrepreneur deemed you irrelevant, HE IS IN CONTROL and you are just another uncle with a pocket protector..

I find it funny how people adapt a lifestyle based on what is considered cool and curious about the penchant of anglofobs to be accepted by white society. If you are going to embrace a particular lifestyle then do solely for what it stands for and what it means to you, and not for any wrong notions of social acceptance.

Re: # 25
masadi i hear you`ve gone back to pakistan.
to paraphrase jane austin, in pakistan it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possesion of a green card must be in want of a wife.

Re: hamid and his gang

All of your replies are quite ignorant compared to the profound insight based on experience of the article`s author. Alienation is not a gora or colored trait, it is not an immigrant or native trait, it is not a worker or middle class trait, it is a trait of a social system and the US social system is an Alienation generator par excellence. Those that understand this and get back in tune with their reality, they are the liberated. The rest of you, who are ``enjoying every minute of it``, self deceived and deceiving, remain enslaved, soon you`ll note that your entire life has just vanished away......for nothing. Devoid of meaningful memories, trapped in bureaucratically circumscribed existence, bowing day and night to the corporation for whom you work, for whose sake your leisure activities are rationalized, and for whom you nurture your kids.....you are a lost bunch....I pity you

I miss the US too, but what I miss about it is living within it yet rejecting its enslaving system. That sense of liberation and freedom, the real freedom not the fake bs is what I miss. In this country, the number of the free are much more and what required education and knowledge to uncover over there is known to the common folk based on their experience and deprivation. They are all social scientists of sorts without degrees. Over there, among the cheerful morons, hypnotized by the system, those that are liberated are few, and that feeling of liberation is what is missed...

Re: # 22

hamzaad,

.....excellent post ........ ``the haven of domestic servants and the mediocrity supporting it`` says it all ......... after thirty years in this country and loving every minute i still think that ``naukar allah taala ki sab say bari naymat hai ``....... and if i ever move back to pakistan it will be because of the cheap and abundant domestic help you can get there !

Re: # 8

I cant believe this, but I think both sides might be right. Kulharee is correct in pointing out that NYC is city that echoes with a million smaller cities, a million neighborhoods that are communities. E.B. White evocatively describes this and other city related phemonema in his essay ``Here is New York``. So, there are infinite possibilites of communal and individual identity every two blocks. This labryinth can be incredibly absorbing and challenging; some people have negotiated New York and found they belong here for the above reasons and others run back to the suburbs (where life is much stranger, if you ask me).

I am sorry that the writer of this piece felt so alienated in my city. Unfortunately, it is as White poiints out, a gift and a curse for all of us. ``Belonging`` can shift in degrees from one circle of identification to another; i.e. neighbors, friends, fellow hobbyists, work colleagues, commuters, etc.

I hope the writer revisits, and the next time he comes, be prepared to encounter and engage with the many communities that make New York. As Hamzaad (and I cant believe I`m agreeing with Kaka), for the discomforts and anonymity of New York, it is filled some of the best or people struggling towards being their best at their art and labor.

Also, spend some time in the boroughs. You might visit the most affluent middle class of color borough in Queens-African American, West Indian American. The Bronx has a growing and interesting West African and Bangladeshi community. Harlem is simply one of the most culturally, politically and socially significant areas of our city. Go to Long Island when you want to be in Surburbia. I cant account for Staten Island.

Written from the heart and written well!

Although NYC may have a lot of cabbie and working class desis, it is IMPOSSIBLE not to find like-minded, high brow individuals. You don`t seem to suffer fools like zeena easily and you shouldn`t have to but it is only through fools like zeena that you will get to meet people like neembu. Moreover, with your insights about what ails `the Orient`, you will find plenty of ears from the Lower East side to the Columbia precincts..

You fell off the great diaspora discourse by moving back to the haven of domestic servants and the mediocrity supporting it. Maybe like Saima Shah here, you surrounded yourself with goray MBAs and figured them to be relevant to YOUR view of the West and America..

PS. kaka was just listening to Natalie Cole`s live performance of `Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds`.. and it occured to him the utter irrelvance of `goras and integration etc` in face of this beautiful rendition. If you can`t appreciate the Occident on its merit of skilled artisans and best artists.., you really are wasting your time living ANYWHERE in the world.

What a BS article!! When you voluntarily move to some other country, you are the newcomer there. It is their country and you are trying to become a part of it. The onus is on you to integrate, not for the locals to treat you like a son-in-law who is gracing their home with a visit. How many goras did you invite to your place for dinner? How many goras did you consciously try to hang out with after work? Did you pick up on local sports and culture, which are topics for people to socialize on? If you kept inviting people and they didnt reciprocate, you have cause to complain. If you never took the first step and waited for the goras to initiate social interaction, then you are acting like a pompous fool who thinks he is God`s gift to America. Yeah, right!!

The fact is that all desis come to the US for studies or jobs. A lot of them intentionally restrict contact with goras to a professional level. After work, they like to hang out with other desis, attend desi parties, watch desi movies, marry some desi woman from desiland, shop from desi grocery stores etc. The same desi who will go out of his way to make friends with a new desi and invite them over for dinner, will rarely do that with a gora. Then they complain that the goras do not accept them socially!!

Taali do haath se bajti hai. If you want to integrate, take the first step. My experience is that goras are ordinary people just like desis or anyone else. If you make attempts to establish friendships, some will reciprocate, some will not. That is true with desis as well. My best friend at grad school was a gora. I have had many gora friends, just like I have several desi friends. I have dated americans as well. In general, goras are very open minded and have no hang-ups on interacting socially with anyone. It is an utter mistake to assign group identity to all goras rather than think of them as individuals. The point of going to America or any other place is to get out of your comfort zone and establish new relationships, to broaden your mind, rather than live in a self-imposed ethnic cocoon.

Hmmm... My bro`s been living in US since 7 - 8 years (was in NY and then moved to Dallas) .... Never heard such things about GORAs from him. According to him .. they are very friendly, polite and accepting people ... Neways ... we all have our experiences ... Good luck with ur stay in Pakistan. Cheers

``we mock our most sacred memories.``

minhaj-man: Nothing is sacred when you are in your 20s (assuming you are a 20-something) least of all ``memories``, which should be cherished as opposed to worshiped, from a distant future, of the past that was yesterday.