When I posted this encyclopedia of magical rules, I read over it but didn’t spend much time thinking about any of the rules in particular (I was more interested in breath than depth). Lately I’ve come to notice heavy use of the Law of Contagion in thinking in our society.

The Law of Contagion says that the history of things matters. The classic example is would you wear a sweater that belonged to a serial killer? Detection of contagion is called psychometry. It is a form of fetishism.

Our late-modern society is obsessed with authenticity. Contagious reasoning is frequently used to assess the authenticity of an item. Examples:

• a sweater knit by a native person is much more authentic than one made in a factory
• food grown on a local farm is surely more enivronmentally-friendly and nutritious
• luxury brand items are worth more than high-quality knock-offs
• real items are better than replicas

The fix for the Law of Contagion is Leibniz’s Law, the identity of indiscernibles. A serial killer’s sweater does not appear different from another sweater. The only way to determine that it is in fact the killer’s sweater is to monitor it from every moment the killer takes it off. Any time we stop monitoring it, it could be switched for an identical copy. There is always a possibility of doubt.

Believing the Law of Contagion is a weakness. You pay a higher price for things with a shiny history than identical alternatives. You ignore more important characteristics like quality and environmental footprint. Objects become hyperreal, where their contagion is more important than their function.

Bismillah.

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.”

- Jim Jarmusch

QFT. The only problem with the link is that “the first rule of filmmaking is that there are no rules.” That’s so obvious it’s no longer cool to say about anything, even Wittgenstein: We should all know by now that the point of any code is its own transcendence. If not, it’s broken.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

Salaam.

Wikipedia says there’s a debate about whether authenticity is a measure of the things you do or the way you do them. The former definition strikes me as degenerate: surely violating the rules of society just to be cool is not what anyone means by “authentic”. Non-conventional behaviour only appears authentic to the casual third party who doesn’t consider the possible benefits. So authenticity looks like a virtue ethical system: the reasons justify the ends.

Development of authenticity in a person could be similar to morality:

1. do whatever is easiest
2. do what everybody else is doing
3. do things for your own reasons

Apparently the authentic = counterculture definition came from the idea that Western society is inherently inauthentic, so anything against Western society must be authentic. But subcultures create and maintain themselves through appeals to specific authenticities, so it must be relative. An action is authentic if and only if the person doing the action has “pure” intent. Purity is a measure of adherence to a culture’s values.

Striving for authenticity is either trying to get at the “soul” of your culture, or trying to avoid inauthentic impulses that have infected your culture (such as from the dominant culture). Either way, it’s still within and relative to your place in culture.

Cravings for authenticity are not sacred, they’re just a cravings to be the best, deepest sheep. If you buy the rejection of authenticity you have three options:

1. accept that your culture is a game and decide to win it
2. decide to worship inauthenticity instead
3. stop considering some reasons for doing things better than others