Loved this. I got really into Tara Brach's guided meditations during the pandemic and I've been returning to them recently. They really help me cope with the new world.
I very much appreciate how carefully you map—and historicize!—understandings of the present. I have been a little irritated by all the "is this fascism yet" posts, accompanied by charts and graphs and listicles of what is and isn't fascism. Your lucidity is refreshing!
(I have a thought about how fascism and christian nationalism are being used to avoid the term white supremacy, but I am very much trying not to think toward the U.S. too much.)
the histories of mass technologies ended up being extremely helpful here, because you see over and over that when something is introduced, we don't yet have any idea what its USE might be and the most we can imagine is making something easier. like right after movies were introduced, before the concept of a narrative film story existed, the big idea was that maybe they could be ... moving backdrops for stage plays. or people would be able to watch maurice chevalier's dance routines even after he died. those were the big ideas in newspaper editorials the next day! ways to extend something, rather than ways something would be reinvented.
Loved this. I got really into Tara Brach's guided meditations during the pandemic and I've been returning to them recently. They really help me cope with the new world.
I very much appreciate how carefully you map—and historicize!—understandings of the present. I have been a little irritated by all the "is this fascism yet" posts, accompanied by charts and graphs and listicles of what is and isn't fascism. Your lucidity is refreshing!
(I have a thought about how fascism and christian nationalism are being used to avoid the term white supremacy, but I am very much trying not to think toward the U.S. too much.)
the histories of mass technologies ended up being extremely helpful here, because you see over and over that when something is introduced, we don't yet have any idea what its USE might be and the most we can imagine is making something easier. like right after movies were introduced, before the concept of a narrative film story existed, the big idea was that maybe they could be ... moving backdrops for stage plays. or people would be able to watch maurice chevalier's dance routines even after he died. those were the big ideas in newspaper editorials the next day! ways to extend something, rather than ways something would be reinvented.