An Oversimplified and Minimalistic Generalization of Leibniz using Pop Culture Referenc(ing) Inspired by a Jamba Juice Ad.
Yes I’ll say that again:
An Oversimplified and Minimalistic Generalization of Leibniz (the 17th-century German philosopher), using Pop Culture Referenc(ing) Inspired by a Jamba Juice Ad.
What I love about this ad. Not only does it harken back to the 80s — the “80s” — but it’s reminiscent of the 80s’ perception of their immediate future, the 90s.
(However, this ad was published in 2020, and this time-jumping adventure allowed me to embark on the notions of time, space, and pop culture.)
80s is like Back to the Future Part I? II? Both? or Kurt Russell’s mullet years.
90s is like Debbie Gibson or “I Like Big Butts” MTV debut.
So here’s what’s fascinating.
It’s 2020. Now. (Writing this).
We can refer to the 80s and 90s in such a way to view the 90s from the 80s point of view, or, view the 90s from the 90s point of view, or, view the 90s from 2020's point of view. Etc., etc.
And this all makes the notion of time and culture extremely fluid.
No?
For example, and to go a little bit deeper, the 80s’ imagination of the future (& its various socio-cultural integration) is a real fabric of the 80s — it is very much part of the 80s.
Then, there’s another (mini-)layer of time jumping depending on what perspective of time you’re looking from.
So where and how do you draw the line? When and where is the sign on the road that says, “Welcome to the 90s” or “You Are Now in the 90s”?
(Yes, the calendar year, December 31, 1989, 11:59 PM is one answer. But that’d also be different depending on where you are on earth, or not on earth.)
Pop culture, often through images, media, entertainment, fashion, etc., identifies itself in time/with time (more specifically, decades) “the 80s”, “the 90s”.
So while culture belongs to the realm of space and time, can you just blend space and time together?
Can time AND space be fluid, together? Is it a cultural thing?
Is time a cultural thing too?
I did a quick search and Leibniz popped up.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), “one of the great renaissance men of Western thought”.
Famous physicists like Isaac Newton and Samuel Clarke believed that space & time were absolutes — substances “that even God cannot modify or destroy”.
But Leibniz believed that space & time were not absolutes in how they made them out to be.
Leibniz thought of them as “hypostatization” — something treated as real when they’re abstract.
Leibniz thought time & space were not concrete unlike many before him.
‘Space and time are not in themselves real (that is, not substances). Space and time are, rather, ideal. They are…illusions (although they are illusions well-founded upon the internal properties of substances)’.
Space and time are illusions? Not real?
(Didn’t they throw you in the dungeon for saying things like that?)
Quite the radical thinker.
Then, is the only thing real the cultural artifacts that remain in history?
The way Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth spritz cologne smelled the first time my sister sprayed-attacked me?
The joyous glee from watching certain movies with family? Bumping up the music in the car with friends? Stuffing one’s face with simple-carb-galore from the nation’s then-trending donut chain?
Now, back to Kurt Russell’s mullet days… Or rather, just Kurt Russell…
References: https://www.iep.utm.edu/leib-met/#H7
