on agency & what it gives us
"[Swaraj] is loosely defined as self-rule but it actually goes much deeper," says Kothari, who has written extensively on Swaraj and the ecological crisis. "It means my own autonomy, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, my independence, both as an individual and as a community. But it's not the American notion of individualism that I can do what I
... See moreCreative Destruction ā¢ Rabbit Holes š³ļø #39
To make diagnosis something āempoweringā, the first step is to completely break it apart and acknowledge all of its potential different and conflicting functions. Diagnosis can give you access to community, or cut you off from community. It can give you access to benefits, or it can bar you from income through employment. It could get you your
... See moreDazed ā¢ This New Book Asks Whether Capitalism Really Is Driving Us All Crazy
The power of agency is, in practice, the power to build: to direct our intelligence toward the work of understanding the world and adapting it to our needs. Itās how we impose a purposeful order on natureās chaos.
Gena Gorlin ā¢ Death is the default
In ordinary language, we frequently speak of machinery or ideas ādoingā things in our lives. But they do nothing. People ā human persons ā produce, operate and apply their creations. The problem with assigning agency, even informally, to the nonhuman is that this disguises the strength of human control, limited though it is in other respects. It... See more
Bennett Gilbert ā¢ On hope, philosophical personalism and Martin Luther King Jr | Aeon Essays
The future depictĀed here is one where EuroĀpean citĀiĀzens reclaim agency through introĀspecĀtion. As preĀvailĀing narĀraĀtives of perĀpetĀuĀal ecoĀnomĀic growth and techĀnoĀlogĀiĀcal fixĀes falĀter, more and more indiĀvidĀuĀals believe that changĀing the world begins with perĀsonĀal transĀforĀmaĀtion.
INWARDS - N O R M A L S
agency through introspection at a community level ā what does this narrative look like through a post-individual lens, but still leveraging introspection and inside-out thinking
Chatā evokes what search engines and databases cannot: a sense of personal involvement. It implicates oneās selfhood, which helps cultivate certain behaviors
Anna Wiener ā¢ The Age of Chat
guerrilla gardening is a way that people can take back not only their present, but also their future ā even as it seems under dire threat from an economic and social system apparently hellbent on human self-eradication.
Damien Gayle ā¢ āI Call It Botanarchyā: The Hackney Guerrilla Gardener Bringing Power to the People
When we do not know what we should hope for, we can hope to learn. There is room for what the philosopher Jonathan Lear calls āradical hope ā¦ directed toward a future goodness that transcends the current ability to understand what it isā.
Kieran Setiya ā¢ Whatās the Use of Hope?
āstructureless structureā is in place so that a good amount of agency and experience-making can happen. When I say experience making, I mean, how open is the space? I have no interest in curating an experience based on what I want folks to take away from their respite,