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{{a|devil|{{image|Lucky Bastard|jpg|The lived experience when you are not “a proper little jailer’s pet”, yesterday.}}}}{{dpn|/lɪvd ɪksˈpɪərɪəns/|n}} | {{Quote|HAMLET: Madam, how like you this play? <br> | ||
Knowledge about the world one gains, first-hand, by living through it. | QUEEN: The lady doth protest too much, methinks. | ||
:— ''Hamlet'', III, ii}}{{a|devil|{{image|Lucky Bastard|jpg|The lived experience when you are not “a proper little jailer’s pet”, yesterday.}}}}{{dpn|/lɪvd ɪksˈpɪərɪəns/|n}}Knowledge about the world one gains, first-hand, by living through it. | |||
Knowledge that is joyously ''subjective'', and not the quasi-objective, pseudo-knowledge by which we are all systematically indoctrinated through social institutions | Knowledge that is joyously ''subjective'', and not the quasi-objective, pseudo-knowledge by which we are all systematically indoctrinated through insidious social institutions like our education, socialisation, government and the calculating fingers of the media. | ||
Each person’s “lived experience” is necessarily unique and, taken ''ad absurdum'', unavailable — literally “[[ineffable]]” — to any other person. | |||
This calls to mind a stanza in one of the JC’s favourite Ogden Nash poems: | |||
{{quote| | {{quote| | ||
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Or I creep into yours.<ref>Ogden Nash, ''Listen...'', reprinted in ''Candy is Dandy: The Best of Ogden Nash''</ref> <br>}} | Or I creep into yours.<ref>Ogden Nash, ''Listen...'', reprinted in ''Candy is Dandy: The Best of Ogden Nash''</ref> <br>}} | ||
Of course, knowing what one’s “lived experience” is can get confusing when you consider it includes being indoctrinated through social institutions like school, university, work and, well, people who witter on about “lived experiences” all the time. | Of course, knowing what one’s “lived experience” is can get confusing when you consider it ''includes'' being indoctrinated into those lesser forms of pseudo-knowledge, through social institutions like school, university, work, the internet and, well, people on it who witter on about “lived experiences” all the time. Yes: like the JC. | ||
In any rate, your lived experience is personal, subjective and your own business, to be ''minded'' as such: though you may be politely indulged, no-one much cares to hear about it.<ref>The proprietors of ''The Times'' appear to believe, wrongly, that this rule does not to apply to Robert Crampton, for some reason.</ref> So, life advice, kids, from the Dale Carnegie school of winning friends and influencing people: frame your interactions with the world in terms of ''others''’ lived experiences, not your own, lest you come across as a ''bore''. | |||
''Suppress'' the instinct to yawp about your own problems (and, for that matter, successes). For, if you have the time, energy and platform — that is, the ''luxury'' — to do that, they will hardly seem existential in nature. The converse is just as true: if you are so damn good, why are you wasting time crowing about it, rather than just getting on with winning? In either case, the bard had it right: | |||
But odious though he is, one will not often hear the humblebragger droning on about his lived experience. Disingenuously complaining about your lot is a dark inversion of [[Humblebraggadocio|humblebragging]]. No more edifying, and so much more of a downer. Let’s call it “[[humblegriping]]”. | |||
There is one exception to the “no humblegriping” rule. This is where you owe your unlikely success in the world to doing so. thanks to one or more intersecting marginalisations, your own lived experience has not been a happy one — it is seen by some as a justification for prioritising ''your'' ghastly experience over those of others you adjudge to have been more fortunate than you when, as a tenured academic, you find yourself with the platform to lecture more fortunate people than yourself about how badly you have been treated. | |||
It’s a bit circular like that. | It’s a bit circular like that. | ||