5 ms·

The Owl’s Right Eye (2019)

119 points by paulorlando 6y ago

colanderman 6y ago
The (excellent) manga The Promised Neverland uses of an owl as a symbol of protest as well. One of the main themes of the story is turning a blind eye to injustice, and indeed, one of the owl's eyes (the left eye, in this case) is black.
- utexaspunk 6y ago
  It's also interesting because they are using a wound as a signifier. Anyone could legitimately have an eye injury requiring such a dressing, but now an innocuous bandage is a show of support. The creativity and ingenuity that has come out of some of these protests has been really inspiring and gives me hope that humanity will always find ways to fight oppression no matter how oppressed they are.
  - paulorlando 6y ago
    I try to remain optimistic about this stuff. The other comparable are the "blank paper" protests, which also have a long history. Here's an article from the same site: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blank-paper/ https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blank-paper/
flatline 6y ago
From 2019. The mention of mask bans feels either ominous or quaint in hindsight, I can't quite decide which.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  I'll take "ominous" for 1000, Alex.
- dang 6y ago
  Year added above. Thanks!
- emptybits 6y ago
  Indeed. One strange bright (?) side of Covid-19's probable persistence in the world for some time, even after successful mass vaccinations in 2021, is that wearing a mask in public for any purpose has become more legitimate almost anywhere in the world. IMO one should not need to justify wearing a mask during any gathering or peaceful protest in public. Pandemic or endemic viruses make this "easier". :-}
th0ma5 6y ago
This is a wonderfully presented article of an important aspect of the impact of symbolism in culture. This reminds me of the modified okay symbol which makes a W shape co-opted by white supremacists. Because of its generally innocuous nature, even people who aren't white supremacists will defend politician's use of it as their opponents imagination. These sorts of symbols, and our understanding them, are a front in the ongoing epistemological war.
- corndoge 6y ago
  It's all about context. The symbol has legitimate uses. I do not care that white supremacists use it, as I have no intention of letting white supremacists dictate what symbols I use.
  - whythre 6y ago
    Kind of like the Swatstika. People (often American) freak out about historical uses of the symbol by Asian cultures, due to ignorance of the Swatstika predating the 3rd Reich. The Nazis appropriation and modification of the symbol doesn’t mean that the swatstika is inherently bad, or that it’s only use is in the service of nazisim.
- strken 6y ago
  The okay symbol is unique in that it was chosen to be as innocuous as possible by 4chan trolls in order to make their ideological opponents crack down on normal behaviour. Ignoring trolls is a time-honoured and effective response to them, and would have been pretty effective in this case.
  - centimeter 6y ago
    There was a whole series of campaigns after the pepe the frog thing where 4chan/8chan picked random innocuous shit and decided that they would try to convince journalists that it had something to do with white supremacy. The OK sign is probably the most successful example. Of course, this ended up forming a hyperstition, where this false belief ended up leading to its own truth-hood, in a limited capacity.
dredmorbius 6y ago
The takeaway point at the end resonates strongly: Identity at scale can weaken trust. The US had proposed a National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) Alex Howard, May 4, 2011: The NSTIC proposes the creation of an “identity ecosystem” online, “where individuals and organizations will be able to trust each other because they follow agreed upon standards to obtain and authenticate their digital identities.” The strategy puts government in the role of a convener, verifying and certifying identity providers in a trust framework. http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/05/nstic-analysis-identity-privacy.html http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/05/nstic-analysis-identity-pri... The strategy itself: https://web.archive.org/web/20110415230954/http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/NSTICstrategy_041511.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20110415230954/http://www.whiteh... Kristine Schachinger, in an obituary for Google+, tied that service directly to the NTIS initiative: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-plus-history-death/283685/ https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-plus-history-deat... And some previous thoughts of mine: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/aa6pmi/a_manhattan_project_for_online_identity_nstic/ https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/aa6pmi/a_manhatta... I'd also had the idea that communications advances undermine social trust dynamics: Cultures evolve systems (usually religious) to create and foster a sufficiently-reliable trust network. As communications improve, reliance on that trust diminishes. You no longer need to be able to rely on a person working in your interest for days, or weeks, or months, or years. You can check on them at a moment's notice. You can monitor them continuously, across a wide range of metrics, without their conscious awareness. A domain built on Trust becomes instead Panopticon. https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6jqakv/communications_advances_undermine_trust/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6jqakv/communi...

119 points by paulorlando 6y ago

The (excellent) manga The Promised Neverland uses of an owl as a symbol of protest as well. One of the main themes of the story is turning a blind eye to injustice, and indeed, one of the owl's eyes (the left eye, in this case) is black.

utexaspunk 6y ago
It's also interesting because they are using a wound as a signifier. Anyone could legitimately have an eye injury requiring such a dressing, but now an innocuous bandage is a show of support. The creativity and ingenuity that has come out of some of these protests has been really inspiring and gives me hope that humanity will always find ways to fight oppression no matter how oppressed they are.
- paulorlando 6y ago
  I try to remain optimistic about this stuff. The other comparable are the "blank paper" protests, which also have a long history. Here's an article from the same site: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blank-paper/ https://unintendedconsequenc.es/blank-paper/

flatline 6y ago

From 2019. The mention of mask bans feels either ominous or quaint in hindsight, I can't quite decide which.

pmiller2 6y ago
I'll take "ominous" for 1000, Alex.
dang 6y ago
Year added above. Thanks!
emptybits 6y ago
Indeed. One strange bright (?) side of Covid-19's probable persistence in the world for some time, even after successful mass vaccinations in 2021, is that wearing a mask in public for any purpose has become more legitimate almost anywhere in the world. IMO one should not need to justify wearing a mask during any gathering or peaceful protest in public. Pandemic or endemic viruses make this "easier". :-}

th0ma5 6y ago

This is a wonderfully presented article of an important aspect of the impact of symbolism in culture. This reminds me of the modified okay symbol which makes a W shape co-opted by white supremacists. Because of its generally innocuous nature, even people who aren't white supremacists will defend politician's use of it as their opponents imagination. These sorts of symbols, and our understanding them, are a front in the ongoing epistemological war.

corndoge 6y ago
It's all about context. The symbol has legitimate uses. I do not care that white supremacists use it, as I have no intention of letting white supremacists dictate what symbols I use.
- whythre 6y ago
  Kind of like the Swatstika. People (often American) freak out about historical uses of the symbol by Asian cultures, due to ignorance of the Swatstika predating the 3rd Reich. The Nazis appropriation and modification of the symbol doesn’t mean that the swatstika is inherently bad, or that it’s only use is in the service of nazisim.
strken 6y ago
The okay symbol is unique in that it was chosen to be as innocuous as possible by 4chan trolls in order to make their ideological opponents crack down on normal behaviour. Ignoring trolls is a time-honoured and effective response to them, and would have been pretty effective in this case.
- centimeter 6y ago
  There was a whole series of campaigns after the pepe the frog thing where 4chan/8chan picked random innocuous shit and decided that they would try to convince journalists that it had something to do with white supremacy. The OK sign is probably the most successful example. Of course, this ended up forming a hyperstition, where this false belief ended up leading to its own truth-hood, in a limited capacity.

dredmorbius 6y ago

The takeaway point at the end resonates strongly: Identity at scale can weaken trust. The US had proposed a National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) Alex Howard, May 4, 2011: The NSTIC proposes the creation of an “identity ecosystem” online, “where individuals and organizations will be able to trust each other because they follow agreed upon standards to obtain and authenticate their digital identities.” The strategy puts government in the role of a convener, verifying and certifying identity providers in a trust framework. http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/05/nstic-analysis-identity-privacy.html http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/05/nstic-analysis-identity-pri... The strategy itself: https://web.archive.org/web/20110415230954/http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/NSTICstrategy_041511.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20110415230954/http://www.whiteh... Kristine Schachinger, in an obituary for Google+, tied that service directly to the NTIS initiative: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-plus-history-death/283685/ https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-plus-history-deat... And some previous thoughts of mine: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/aa6pmi/a_manhattan_project_for_online_identity_nstic/ https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/aa6pmi/a_manhatta... I'd also had the idea that communications advances undermine social trust dynamics: Cultures evolve systems (usually religious) to create and foster a sufficiently-reliable trust network. As communications improve, reliance on that trust diminishes. You no longer need to be able to rely on a person working in your interest for days, or weeks, or months, or years. You can check on them at a moment's notice. You can monitor them continuously, across a wide range of metrics, without their conscious awareness. A domain built on Trust becomes instead Panopticon. https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6jqakv/communications_advances_undermine_trust/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6jqakv/communi...