Power & Control (& Also—)
On harnessing immaterial power that is not rooted in external/coercive control, nor in the oppressive systems of domination & submission upon which modern society largely operates.
Power & Control (& Also—)
For example, when given an opportunity to buy the patents for the telephone shortly after it was invented, William Orton, the president of Western Union (then the dominant telegraph company), reportedly dismissed the device as an “electrical toy.” The view prevailing at the time was that the telephone would be used merely for short updates—a purpos... See more
Kevin Whitaker • The Power of Anomaly
“electrical toy” is brilliant, so true king
Indeed, the obsessiveness/compulsiveness of my research has convinced the Google robots that I'm one of them, so they must challenge my humanity each time I try to use their service. Paradoxically, because I'm apparently one of those newfangled "smart" robots (my word, not Google's), no single humanity test is sufficient, since I might be learning ... See more
Abecedarian Web Log
lol (lmao—mdr, even).
“I'm left with an even greater challenge than certifying my humanness: to conduct my life's work, I must strive to be less inquisitive, less passionate, less productive, and less insightful. Therein lies the irony, for I must dehumanize myself to prove to a search engine that I'm ‘real.’ And now I'm off, once more, to Google myself.“
"Human consciousness emerges on the interface between three components of animal behaviour:
Communication
Play
Use of tools
Behaviour, in this context, is a biological adjustment by means of movements and all kinds of movement-related physiological activity
Communication and play yields symbolic games and, more importantly, language
Interaction between s... See more
Communication
Play
Use of tools
Behaviour, in this context, is a biological adjustment by means of movements and all kinds of movement-related physiological activity
Communication and play yields symbolic games and, more importantly, language
Interaction between s... See more
Evan Thompson • Consciousness
Rebecca Solnit’s 2004 book Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities. In the book, Solnit writes about how the urgency of the political moment (then, the Bush Administration and the so-called “War on Terror”) calls for letting go of any fixed ideology.
“To be anti doctrinal is to open yourself up to new and unexpected alliances, to new... See more
“To be anti doctrinal is to open yourself up to new and unexpected alliances, to new... See more
Regarding the power of surrender in the context of leftist political organizing.
Embrace ambiguity. Anomalies usually don’t point to obvious actions. They fall into gaps that are not well explained by current models, and the data supporting them may not be clear-cut. Established businesses often have difficulty embracing this kind of ambiguity, as is demonstrated by the adage “What gets measured gets managed.”
But ambiguity crea... See more
But ambiguity crea... See more
hbr.org
Solnit argues that leftist organizers suffer from clinging to fixed views on the strategies and practices that lead to liberation. In fact, the idea that these fixed strategies and practices will lead to a static utopia is the delusion of permanence. Instead, organizers should adopt a view of process, responding to the needs of the moment. She quot... See more
Be like water. (Regarding the power of surrender in the context of leftist political organizing)
nice 👌
ART BY NUMBERS #5 – Protect Me From What I Want – Jenny Holzer (1983-84)
Eve Bradyairheadzine.wordpress.com
“By using the usual mediums of banal advertising to convey striking, sometimes shocking or contradictory thoughts, she opens a subtle sociopolitical commentary. ‘Protect Me From What I Want’, from the Survival Series of 1983-1984, is a particularly resonant example of this when displayed in the huge sign Holzer used, as the universal message can be critically applied to the advertising industry, and mindless consumerism, that she is attacking in her work.“