Meta
The Friday Bun Society hereby declares that it does not condone invalid and just plain annoying uses of the word “meta”.
A good example of frivolous invalid usage is referring to some alternative view of a conceptual model as “meta-model”. Equally maligned is to claim that abstract concepts of such a conceptual model form a “meta-model”. (Reporting professionals and spec writers, we know where you live. No bun for you.)
Now, as far as annoying usage goes, The Friday Bun Society is fully aware that some people might consider that to be a matter of opinion. Those people would be wrong, because The Friday Bun Society is the self-appointed owner of The Ultimate Truth and therefore opinions of others hardly matter. (And because we own The Ultimate Truth, it doesn’t matter that we have appointed ourselves. We are Right. Next, please.)
So let us rewind a bit and try this again:
Now, as far as annoying usage goes, The Friday Bun Society is also very annoyed with people who think they are so clever that they can just give advices on how to use the word “meta”. Sometimes they even fall to self-deprecating humor while trying to desperately come up with some humor when there is none to be found. They write self-referencing posts to their weblogs and have nothing to say apart from clumsy wordplays with their non-native English language. They make the joke so obvious that not even the thickest mind could miss it. They write long, incoherent paragraphs and don’t know when to stop. It’s as if they’ve been sipping Merlot while writing! They don’t realize that while they condemn other people they just declare themselves guilty on the same deeds.
But of all the people inhabiting this globe, the worst are those who try to rise a step above the meta-level, complaining about meta-complaining. It’s one thing to complain about complaining but totally another to complain about someone who is complaining about complaining!
Those people! The nerve! They are definitely on The List when the revolution comes.
November 11th, 2005 at 08:38
I can’t but agree. Maybe these people have undergone a metamorphosis of some kind. Especially those who write these obvious wordplays you mentioned. It’s just so sad.
November 11th, 2005 at 11:37
Excellent post! Summarizes our view perfectly, and states that we are the core of all truth. I think we should describe the correct meta-model, so that others would understand why they are wrong and annoying.
Oh, and I wish we didn’t talk about the Revolution in public.
November 14th, 2005 at 21:12
What Revolution? The Friday Bun Society does *NOT* know anything about the Revolution. And the Concept has absolutely nothing to do with it. Komu must have been talking about some example-kind-of revolution only.
November 22nd, 2005 at 00:40
True, and we also firmly deny the existence of a List containing the names of those who shall be bunished. Komu must have been talking about a shopping list or perhaps a Collection. Having people on a shopping list does not make sense, so it would be a Collection then.
November 22nd, 2005 at 11:04
Yes, of course it would be a Collection. I strongly deny having people in my enslaving^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H shopping list.
November 22nd, 2005 at 20:16
To be more precise, it would be a Set. After all, what’s the point in having multiple entries for one person? I’m pretty sure no one will have time to weed out all the duplicates when the Revolution starts.
Not that it’s ever going to start. And even if it would start (which it will not), we would definitely have nothing to do with it. And it would most definitely have nothing to do with our plans for global domination. Not that we would even have such plans.
December 9th, 2005 at 16:28
3 [metaphysics] : more comprehensive : transcending — used with the name of a discipline to designate a new but related discipline designed to deal critically with the original one