attention
But how do we achieve such a state? What does attention consist of? For Weil, paying attention required concentrating on an object (in this case, God) without distraction, without expecting anything from it, and without preparing to respond to or interact with it in any way. To pay attention, “our thought must be empty, waiting, not seeking... See more
Simone Weil Against Distraction
... See moreAfter a lot of trial and error, I now view audience attention as something like the wind that powers a sailboat. It's a real phenomenon, independent of the boat, and you can successfully sail only if you harness it. You don't turn the boat into the wind, but you also don't simply allow the wind to set your course. You figure out where you want to
As Iris Murdoch puts it, “reality” is “that which is revealed to the patient eye of love.” Or, elsewhere, “Attention is rewarded by a knowledge of reality.”
L. M. Sacasas • What You Get Is the World
- We inhabit a techno-social environment manufactured to fracture our attention.
- The interests served by this environment in turn pathologize the resultant inattention.
- These same interests devise and enforce new techniques to discipline the inattentive subject.
L. M. Sacasas • The Pathologies of the Attention Economy
Questions of attention do not concern something numinous and ineffable; they are about the texture and quality of our material experience—and whether we can work to free ourselves from the quagmire of consumption, performance, and sensational reaction that forms our digital environment.
Attention Stuffed - Dissent Magazine
Acknowledge just how much of what you think, feel and do is picked up from others, consciously and unconsciously, and try to become more conscious of more of them.
Ian Leslie • How To Be Influenced
TWELVE THESES ON ATTENTION
It explores the concept of true attention, emphasizing its importance for genuine encounters, human relationships, and personal freedom, while discussing the societal challenges and potential sanctuaries needed to cultivate it.
friendsofattention.net“It is in the capacity to love, that is to see , that the liberation of the soul from fantasy consists. The freedom which is a proper human goal is the freedom from fantasy, that is the realism of compassion. What I have called fantasy, the proliferation of blinding self-centered aims and images, is itself a powerful system of energy, and most of... See more
What Is To Be Done? — Fragments
But if the deep roots of boredom are in a lack of meaning, rather than a shortage of stimuli, and if there is a subtle, multilayered process by which information can give rise to meaning, then the constant flow of information to which we are becoming habituated cannot deliver on such a promise. At best, it allows us to distract ourselves with the... See more