No subjective opinion has any meaning in the abstract; once we recognize any preference as a separate thing from the experience that formed it, once it becomes reflexive, we are tempted to deploy that preference as a signifier. Preferences can be communicated, but the experiences that prompted them aren’t — they aren’t transferable and have no social value. So it becomes more useful to have preferences than experiences, to have preferences at the expense of experiences, and to have all “experiences” take the form of social sparring over preferences. This is a game that can be won. But in the process, the value of all personal experiences, once turned into the negotiable currency of opinions, escapes our control.
Rob Horning, here.
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teethoftooth posted this
