This is a curious project, to circumscribe a civilization for study. But what is it? A distinct phase of development, bounded by resources and energy?
Spengler speaks of the birth and death of civilizations as isolated events, as cohering greatness coalescing out of chaos, but for now I want to speak of civilizations as connected to each other, at least those of the classical and the western designations. The connector culture, the early Christians, were clearly in close relation to the Roman empire, and it is equally clear that modern culture itself has been built atop the Christian sensibility. But these are complex matters that take time to work out.
We want to do this because of what we are, finding ourselves exhausted of civilization, the never-ending accumulation and collapse of power which brutalizes all peoples involved. What's more, we can take into account the American anxiety of running out of a frontier, which has inspired countless apocalyptic visions, and one of which we face in an expanded form. The bloom of civilizations has culminated in the western thunderhead, covering all of the earth with its unprecedented drive for expansion and technological development, which now threatens the entire earth - or at least the earth's current-running "eon."
But we do have to take special care here. Does "civilization" have to mean the close coupling of higher stages of human development with explosive expansion and collapse? Is there a secret law which necessitates the archetypal rise and fall, or is another rate of development possible?
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Capital
I do use "capital" pretty loosely and often, but it might be worth clarifying a bit just what is meant by this concept.
More broadly, it can be viewed as the social form that tops the oldest layers of civilization, the finishing crown in which everything finally initiates its unraveling.
One is tempted to overemphasize the phenomenon of capital - as the Marxists invariably do - but one must remember what it ultimately grew out of, which implies all sorts of complex and nonlinear causal chains that are often loosely associated with capital, or are not associated with it at all. Importantly, there was a climate and a movement that allowed capital to express its various forces and develop into a systematic social system which now covers the earth.
Pointing to capital is loose and easy and often works for certain illustrations, but I must remind myself especially to not obsess over it to the detriment of other forces and matter.
More broadly, it can be viewed as the social form that tops the oldest layers of civilization, the finishing crown in which everything finally initiates its unraveling.
One is tempted to overemphasize the phenomenon of capital - as the Marxists invariably do - but one must remember what it ultimately grew out of, which implies all sorts of complex and nonlinear causal chains that are often loosely associated with capital, or are not associated with it at all. Importantly, there was a climate and a movement that allowed capital to express its various forces and develop into a systematic social system which now covers the earth.
Pointing to capital is loose and easy and often works for certain illustrations, but I must remind myself especially to not obsess over it to the detriment of other forces and matter.
What a Waste
Available energy in a given culture contributes to the shape of waste flows and circulation. For example, a farm has to put out a certain volume of produce in order to survive economically, which necessitates a certain workflow, depending on how many funds are available for staff and equipment.
There is constant movement and activity on a small scale organic farm, and so if one is picking out undesirable vegetables, or pulling doubles, or trimming and pruning, or whatever else, one can make use of that waste if it is expedient to the operation. Compost takes a lot of extra work, and the waste can go there if it is feasible. Or if the animal pens are nearby, the animals can be fed. Otherwise all of the extra vegetables rot in the field where they are pulled, because no one has time or energy to bring them where they need to go.
Of course what counts as waste depends on what you are looking at, what you want, what you don't want to lose, what harms you, and all sorts of other variables as well.
Available energy changes in accordance with outside pressures as well. If consumers in the general market desire their vegetables in a certain form, shape, size, or what have you - whether through rival competition or changing cultural sensibilities - then extra time and energy must be put in to meeting that target, and more waste is generated as the range of acceptable products put out is narrowed.
To further explain, who's responsibility is it to wash the vegetables? How many resources are put into mass washing, or washing on a smaller scale? And if no one wants kale leaves that are bitten up by flea beetles - even if the leaves are perfectly safe to eat - then much time, energy, and thought has to be put in to getting rid of the flea beetles.
Butcher
One has to take care with animal slaughter and general husbandry. Yes we are hypocrites - me especially - in that we can tear weeds from the earth with wanton cruelty to prepare space for the plants that we like, but plants don't cry out in pain or cower in corners. Though of course there are those sensitive enough to argue otherwise, and other cultures have seen and experienced things that modern culture rarely glimpses.
But animal care has an immediate effect on observers of various sensitivities. It is easy enough to recognize when an animal is uncomfortable or in pain, and one's methods of animal care determines the extent of these things.
One has to project one's moral sensibility onto the care itself, as much as necessity allows anyway, otherwise the flow of effects reverses. One becomes hardened to the sounds of pain and fear - of animals anyway, which can be compartmentalized more or less - which may cause a creeping coarsening effect that is difficult to reverse.
But animal care has an immediate effect on observers of various sensitivities. It is easy enough to recognize when an animal is uncomfortable or in pain, and one's methods of animal care determines the extent of these things.
One has to project one's moral sensibility onto the care itself, as much as necessity allows anyway, otherwise the flow of effects reverses. One becomes hardened to the sounds of pain and fear - of animals anyway, which can be compartmentalized more or less - which may cause a creeping coarsening effect that is difficult to reverse.
D Was Here
I'm aware that much has already been said about everything pretty much. For some reason I feel compelled to reprocess it and articulate it in my own way.
In this sense, some aspects of philosophy are not much different from a dog lifting its leg to pee on some object to mark its territory. Which is not to mar the philosophy or the dog doing the peeing. It is apparent that dogs get great joy from marking, and then of course sniffing the markings of others.
I like it too. Well, the philosophy part that is analogous to the marking anyway. And besides, regenerating meaning with one's own language in one's own time has powerful effects of its own.
In this sense, some aspects of philosophy are not much different from a dog lifting its leg to pee on some object to mark its territory. Which is not to mar the philosophy or the dog doing the peeing. It is apparent that dogs get great joy from marking, and then of course sniffing the markings of others.
I like it too. Well, the philosophy part that is analogous to the marking anyway. And besides, regenerating meaning with one's own language in one's own time has powerful effects of its own.
Less Work
It takes much less work to accomplish something if you let things - living or not - do what they want to do. Objects want to move in the direction of gravity, plants want to angle towards the sun and put out roots, animals want to seek food, water, security, and generally remain in their groups, and etc.
So in this light, what we usually refer to as work is putting one's energy into making things do what they don't want to do, at least in terms of what our culture tends to on a mass scale. Work becomes organizing everything around you - sometimes by going against the grain of wants and expending energy to move something - so that all of its wants align with your wants.
Once you're within a sphere of aligned wants, you're golden. For the time being.
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Push Past
When one reaches a plateau in physical strength, it often takes some sort of extraordinary inner intensity or outer necessity to push one past the pain of expansion.
It hurts to grow enough to reach a plateau in the first place. Once one has reached an acceptable level of achievement, it feels too tiring to continue on in the direction of pain. But sometimes one must. "Should" is not always a sufficient motivation in this regard.
It hurts to grow enough to reach a plateau in the first place. Once one has reached an acceptable level of achievement, it feels too tiring to continue on in the direction of pain. But sometimes one must. "Should" is not always a sufficient motivation in this regard.
Physical Labor Good?
It is true that physical labor does a variety of things for one's state of being. One is constantly exercising - all the better if there is a dynamism to one's tasks, as opposed to rigid repetition - and basic pleasures, such as eating, drinking tea, resting, and all the like become much more satisfying. And life becomes more satisfying as a result. One's concerns are simplified in this way too. Existential fears tend to take a back seat, the more one looks forward to one's next meal.
However, carried to an extreme endless work becomes numbing drudgery, no matter how dynamic or interesting the work is. Small pleasures become mere consolations as one looks forward to a future of numbing labor.
Those at the spearhead of the Protestant work ethic had some sort of intense drive to labor, and so their labor was their ecstasy, just as the capitalists become titillated by trade. But not everyone shares these sensibilities, and end up being carried along by intense instincts that are separate from their own, because the direction that cumulative human activity is taken by those with the most intensity in their drives.
However, carried to an extreme endless work becomes numbing drudgery, no matter how dynamic or interesting the work is. Small pleasures become mere consolations as one looks forward to a future of numbing labor.
Those at the spearhead of the Protestant work ethic had some sort of intense drive to labor, and so their labor was their ecstasy, just as the capitalists become titillated by trade. But not everyone shares these sensibilities, and end up being carried along by intense instincts that are separate from their own, because the direction that cumulative human activity is taken by those with the most intensity in their drives.
Purple State
One partially gains a sense of the land through one's involvement in a community. Previously I had only seen a handful of right wingers living isolated on various hills in Montana, which colored my perception of the region. Now however I have become involved a community of leftist - or at least center leftist organic farmers, and the texture and consistency of the landscape has changed dramatically, at least as it appears to the perception.
Getting Stuck
There is a quality in a certain number of people in which they can no longer adapt themselves to their own material and social realities and retain an accurate image of themselves and the world. A fear of failure forces them to adopt a fictional alternative narrative, which in the end is what moves them, as opposed to reality doing the moving.
There is always a dance between the two - between reality and the ideal. But here we are looking at a scenario in which the latter is no longer negotiable.
There is always a dance between the two - between reality and the ideal. But here we are looking at a scenario in which the latter is no longer negotiable.
How to Change?
Angling toward the ideal of self-sufficiency - itself an ideal that begs questions - I find myself to be ensconced in the cultural tissue I developed in. Here there is an inertia of desires, habits, connections. And it is as it should be. One may tear away if one wishes, but then after tearing away, one is set apart with the quality of being torn. One wishes to change without pulling too hard.
But sometimes available time and energy - and necessity, whether material or moral - forces acceleration on change, and one does what one can.
But sometimes available time and energy - and necessity, whether material or moral - forces acceleration on change, and one does what one can.
Friendly Reminder
In Montana's Bitterroot Valley, a handful of smoke plumes can be seen across the horizon. Passing thunderstorms and other sources of spark have ignited the dry vegetation, with wind carrying the fires far and wide, as smoke fills the valley.
Legacy
The continuously spiraling Trump administration scandals have culminated in a series of strange and baffling revelations and developments, which by no means mark the end of this slow-motion wreck.
The inquiries about self-pardons for the president and his family were especially surreal, but the blatant crassness of that culminating moment may clear some of the bafflement.
What is clear is that this affair will do lasting damage to the presidency as an institution, as well as the body politic's conception of itself and its relation with itself. With the procession of this presidency, everyone has caught a glimpse of a new horizon of possibility in the political world, and certainly someone more cunning and competent will angle for the reigns, counting on a climate such as this.
Further, we have a large swathe of right wing supporters who will not change their minds; whose concepts and worldviews are now irreparably damaged - if one is being generous enough to describe those concepts and worldviews as anything close to functional, whatever that may mean.
It is a nice idea that people learn from their mistakes, but no, with such dogma the erring vision becomes baked into the mind as it were, the resent searing and branding bad belief into a lasting commitment.
A divided and soured body politic continues to cave inward towards its point of polarization. Without trust - the right continues its flight into an insular and detached worldview, while the left loses all respect - this process can only continue inexorably in the direction it has been going.
The inquiries about self-pardons for the president and his family were especially surreal, but the blatant crassness of that culminating moment may clear some of the bafflement.
What is clear is that this affair will do lasting damage to the presidency as an institution, as well as the body politic's conception of itself and its relation with itself. With the procession of this presidency, everyone has caught a glimpse of a new horizon of possibility in the political world, and certainly someone more cunning and competent will angle for the reigns, counting on a climate such as this.
Further, we have a large swathe of right wing supporters who will not change their minds; whose concepts and worldviews are now irreparably damaged - if one is being generous enough to describe those concepts and worldviews as anything close to functional, whatever that may mean.
It is a nice idea that people learn from their mistakes, but no, with such dogma the erring vision becomes baked into the mind as it were, the resent searing and branding bad belief into a lasting commitment.
A divided and soured body politic continues to cave inward towards its point of polarization. Without trust - the right continues its flight into an insular and detached worldview, while the left loses all respect - this process can only continue inexorably in the direction it has been going.
You're a Jerk
The nature of inter-relational appraisal is such that you are seizing upon some limited aspect of someone's personality, an aspect that only appears at certain times and in certain conditions. Further the act of naming implies a relation too. That person is a certain way in relation to how you yourself feel about the person.
Of course there are certain aspects of a person that can be broad enough that they do a good job of predicting someone's behavior, or predicting a certain set of outcomes if one is to interact with a certain person.
But an appraisal is also necessarily imprinted with an affect, like "good" or "bad." And affects one casts at someone usually evoke similar affects in the other, and the two reinforce each other.
And sometimes a jerk is as a jerk does.
Of course there are certain aspects of a person that can be broad enough that they do a good job of predicting someone's behavior, or predicting a certain set of outcomes if one is to interact with a certain person.
But an appraisal is also necessarily imprinted with an affect, like "good" or "bad." And affects one casts at someone usually evoke similar affects in the other, and the two reinforce each other.
And sometimes a jerk is as a jerk does.
On the Shoulders of Giants
Who exactly is standing on the shoulders of giants? And who are these giants that supposedly give their shoulders to be stood upon? If thinkers, engineers, world leaders, and artists for example endeavor (or deign) to stand on some generous shoulder, what of the shoulder that they stand on? And how many shoulders are actually being stood upon? Did not the owner of a pair of shoulders stand on many others' shoulders?
Here the giants break down, and indeed, we find ourselves standing not on shoulders, but on masses upon masses of human thought and labor.
The giant then is in the mind. One beholds the mass personified in some symbolic figure, and attaches great power to it, and one in turn desires that great power for oneself, so one looks to "stand" in that particular portion of time and space.
Here the giants break down, and indeed, we find ourselves standing not on shoulders, but on masses upon masses of human thought and labor.
The giant then is in the mind. One beholds the mass personified in some symbolic figure, and attaches great power to it, and one in turn desires that great power for oneself, so one looks to "stand" in that particular portion of time and space.
There's Something Here
We humans are so transfixed on our own constructed world, that the rest of the natural world often has a way of re-inserting itself into view when one is least expecting it to, and it is all very surprising. At least to many of us.
What I'm Doing
Yet another obligatory meta post.
My writing has certainly changed over the past couple of months, as well as my aims when writing. Whether this is for the better or worse, I don't know. I just know that I want to keep writing as the structure of my life dramatically changes, and naturally the structure of my writing will follow suit.
I'm aware some of the writing isn't great. I've got some typos and some odd sentence structures here and there, where perhaps fatigue or a wandering mind has angled away, like a drifting hand that is trying to draw a line.
I just don't have the energy to fix everything and straighten everything up, which is ok with me for now. Just going through the process.
Energy in fact is an important component. I've tried to organize thoughts in shorter bursts, trying to encapsulate everything within shorter blocks of text. I've always admired works like the Tao Te Ching and The Prophet for their lean passages, which nevertheless convey much meaning. And poets have always been able to accomplish this as well.
On the other hand, I'm also busy admiring something like Das Kapital, with its enormous scope and intricate detail. A problem. But maintaining a lifestyle that includes heavier physical labor just doesn't provide the surplus energy required to write like that, or oftentimes even read something like that. And all of the background research required to maintain such a project, and traffic in others' ideas related to that project, just implies a different lifestyle altogether.
It is just as important that the fact remains that I don't intend to labor like this as a permanent lifestyle. Heavy labor is invigorating and very rewarding, but too much at a sustained rate becomes burdensome and one toils away instead of self-actualizing. So my life will change in turn, seeking the sweet spot in which I can subsist with satisfaction, and my writing will certainly follow suit.
One should also be thinking about one's readers. What should one be asking of one's partners in communication? What is one's community's shared world supposed to look like?
My writing has certainly changed over the past couple of months, as well as my aims when writing. Whether this is for the better or worse, I don't know. I just know that I want to keep writing as the structure of my life dramatically changes, and naturally the structure of my writing will follow suit.
I'm aware some of the writing isn't great. I've got some typos and some odd sentence structures here and there, where perhaps fatigue or a wandering mind has angled away, like a drifting hand that is trying to draw a line.
I just don't have the energy to fix everything and straighten everything up, which is ok with me for now. Just going through the process.
Energy in fact is an important component. I've tried to organize thoughts in shorter bursts, trying to encapsulate everything within shorter blocks of text. I've always admired works like the Tao Te Ching and The Prophet for their lean passages, which nevertheless convey much meaning. And poets have always been able to accomplish this as well.
On the other hand, I'm also busy admiring something like Das Kapital, with its enormous scope and intricate detail. A problem. But maintaining a lifestyle that includes heavier physical labor just doesn't provide the surplus energy required to write like that, or oftentimes even read something like that. And all of the background research required to maintain such a project, and traffic in others' ideas related to that project, just implies a different lifestyle altogether.
It is just as important that the fact remains that I don't intend to labor like this as a permanent lifestyle. Heavy labor is invigorating and very rewarding, but too much at a sustained rate becomes burdensome and one toils away instead of self-actualizing. So my life will change in turn, seeking the sweet spot in which I can subsist with satisfaction, and my writing will certainly follow suit.
One should also be thinking about one's readers. What should one be asking of one's partners in communication? What is one's community's shared world supposed to look like?
Saturday, July 15, 2017
What Do We Owe Each Other?
We've been asking this question with renewed interest since the intensified struggles around debt and austerity, as the social contract was renegotiated after the 2008 financial crisis. After the fictitious wealth bubble evaporated, society had to be restructured both around changing material realities, such as the restructuring of the global economy, and the gradual contraction of the real economy through energy degradation, health issues, environmental damage, etc. and symbolic social realities, maintained through propaganda and the inertia of a large social body.
This is a great way to generate resent, as the privileged - who enjoy the power to maintain their privileges, and possess the instinct to maintain those privileges - have predictably done everything they can to crush the vulnerable underneath them, so as to maintain their lifestyles. Various classes, identity blocs, and interest groups turned against each other, with the tension and conflict reinforcing itself. One demands one's rights in the face of an encroaching and exploitative power, and the power, upon encountering hostility and resistance, feels justified in exploiting and encroaching ever more. A trap.
The legal contract - and the historical genesis of this legal form bears the past imprint of previous struggles around these matters, not to mention the painful memories of such struggles. Each party is bound by law - by threat of punishment - to uphold their end of the contract. Some sort of exchange is assumed in the contract, in which bonds are weak and easily formed and broken again, so as to maintain the body of social trust required for complex human societies.
A simple scenario can illustrate the larger, more systematic problems implied in the development of such legal mechanics. What is the most likely first impulse arising in one passing someone drowning in a lake? Certainly many would jump right in to help. Smaller groupings of communities do indeed reconstitute themselves very quickly when stressed. Our society on the other hand constantly needs to shed and then renew itself. We pass homeless people piled on the floor, or sigh with despair upon reading about some vulnerable community under siege. What else is to be done? Some do much, though the effects of their efforts may be more diffuse and remote in the face of such mass, while many simply go on with their lives and harden themselves to the suffering. Meanwhile we shed at accelerating rates, and the voices of the dispossessed increasingly bellow: we are owed!
In contrast, one sees a very different dynamic within a small farming community in which profit is not an end, but a means to subsistence, which itself could be considered a virtuous activity in the classical sense: the work activity is enjoyable, clean, and honest. Perhaps not perfectly so, but more so than in many workplaces within this society.
This lowers the tension between peer members. One wishes to help, even in the face of fear of exploitation, like one wants to help a struggling fellow in a lake. When you see someone doing whatever you view as worthwhile, or you love that person as part of your community, you pitch up with what you have as a matter of course. You are not negotiating wages, or demanding vacation days, which is something you do with institutions that you already expect are attempting to exploit you. As such, the bodily, or community trust is a valuable resource in itself.
This is a great way to generate resent, as the privileged - who enjoy the power to maintain their privileges, and possess the instinct to maintain those privileges - have predictably done everything they can to crush the vulnerable underneath them, so as to maintain their lifestyles. Various classes, identity blocs, and interest groups turned against each other, with the tension and conflict reinforcing itself. One demands one's rights in the face of an encroaching and exploitative power, and the power, upon encountering hostility and resistance, feels justified in exploiting and encroaching ever more. A trap.
The legal contract - and the historical genesis of this legal form bears the past imprint of previous struggles around these matters, not to mention the painful memories of such struggles. Each party is bound by law - by threat of punishment - to uphold their end of the contract. Some sort of exchange is assumed in the contract, in which bonds are weak and easily formed and broken again, so as to maintain the body of social trust required for complex human societies.
A simple scenario can illustrate the larger, more systematic problems implied in the development of such legal mechanics. What is the most likely first impulse arising in one passing someone drowning in a lake? Certainly many would jump right in to help. Smaller groupings of communities do indeed reconstitute themselves very quickly when stressed. Our society on the other hand constantly needs to shed and then renew itself. We pass homeless people piled on the floor, or sigh with despair upon reading about some vulnerable community under siege. What else is to be done? Some do much, though the effects of their efforts may be more diffuse and remote in the face of such mass, while many simply go on with their lives and harden themselves to the suffering. Meanwhile we shed at accelerating rates, and the voices of the dispossessed increasingly bellow: we are owed!
In contrast, one sees a very different dynamic within a small farming community in which profit is not an end, but a means to subsistence, which itself could be considered a virtuous activity in the classical sense: the work activity is enjoyable, clean, and honest. Perhaps not perfectly so, but more so than in many workplaces within this society.
This lowers the tension between peer members. One wishes to help, even in the face of fear of exploitation, like one wants to help a struggling fellow in a lake. When you see someone doing whatever you view as worthwhile, or you love that person as part of your community, you pitch up with what you have as a matter of course. You are not negotiating wages, or demanding vacation days, which is something you do with institutions that you already expect are attempting to exploit you. As such, the bodily, or community trust is a valuable resource in itself.
Reality Show
It is probably the timing that accounts for the nature of reality TV. After all, why call something "reality," which is really such a broad category, and then have it become a sort of genre? It seems as though the word itself is a reaction to the sitcom or the drama, which has to be constructed, and is often predicated on various ideals. Or at least, the act of deliberately putting a plot together means you have to be thinking about some sort of guiding ideal.
But then you have this waving away of the ideal: let's present reality with all of its grit. And what you see when you get tired of ideals is just a smattering of dueling egos and conflict, and it eventually it becomes so that the "reality" is really just executives and producers getting together to see how they can actually "construct" and maintain the drama and egotistical conflict that fans have come to expect.
But then you have this waving away of the ideal: let's present reality with all of its grit. And what you see when you get tired of ideals is just a smattering of dueling egos and conflict, and it eventually it becomes so that the "reality" is really just executives and producers getting together to see how they can actually "construct" and maintain the drama and egotistical conflict that fans have come to expect.
Don't Stop
Out here a lot of the farmers - and other types of laborers - are in a state of constant motion. During the week days they are working, and on the weekends they are working, or otherwise they are hiking with heavy packs or engaging in other similarly demanding recreational activities. This constant motion must exact a toll - and it does - as around middle age there is constant complaint of various bodily pains and ailments.
The body craves rest. As soon as one stops moving, the fatigue that sets in is deep and sustained. This is why everyone is constantly moving. But it isn't a bad idea to lay back and let the body shut down for a while.
The body craves rest. As soon as one stops moving, the fatigue that sets in is deep and sustained. This is why everyone is constantly moving. But it isn't a bad idea to lay back and let the body shut down for a while.
Instruction
Instruction must be grounded in a decent understanding of underlying realities. One should be able to locate what one learns within one's own worldview, so one can take what one learns and apply it to the unique conditions of one's own life. Otherwise what one learns is merely the word of the instructor, which requires an authoritarian leader and follower personalities. Instruction must be maintained as an institution, separated from the processes that the lessons describe. Who is to maintain the institution? Who is to gatekeep what is proper instruction and application?
Similarly, if you have to force someone to respect life, whether through threat of punishment or some type of sanction, you have already lost something; you have started an artificial chain, predicated on the word of others. The other will internalize that value system and pass it on. Authority and punishment becomes the reason for doing or not doing something. Of course sometimes this divorce from bare necessity, this human system that becomes suspended is quite necessary, and must be maintained just like any other human structure.
Similarly, if you have to force someone to respect life, whether through threat of punishment or some type of sanction, you have already lost something; you have started an artificial chain, predicated on the word of others. The other will internalize that value system and pass it on. Authority and punishment becomes the reason for doing or not doing something. Of course sometimes this divorce from bare necessity, this human system that becomes suspended is quite necessary, and must be maintained just like any other human structure.
Concealed
When one works up close and personal with plants on a farm, one sees the remarkable expansiveness of a given type of plant. Garlic for example has its huge shoots, which can be chopped up and cooked, and the flowering portion of the plant, the scape, can be picked and then boiled and sauteed to delicious effect. Similarly beet plants have huge leaves which taste pretty good, and can be picked and made into salad.
In the grocery store, all of these things become radically separated from each other. The desired part of the plant, say the bulb of the beet or the garlic clove, is chopped away and presented in a stark state of separation, and one loses sense of the plant itself. One's concept of the plant is chopped down and pared to the simple exchange object, or desire object which is traded in the market.
The extent of this separation, and the awareness people have of various plants varies across regions and cultures, but one wonders about where all of the rest of this plant matter is disappearing to?
In the grocery store, all of these things become radically separated from each other. The desired part of the plant, say the bulb of the beet or the garlic clove, is chopped away and presented in a stark state of separation, and one loses sense of the plant itself. One's concept of the plant is chopped down and pared to the simple exchange object, or desire object which is traded in the market.
The extent of this separation, and the awareness people have of various plants varies across regions and cultures, but one wonders about where all of the rest of this plant matter is disappearing to?
Body
At any moment in physical labor, a group of muscles are working toward some end. What that end is, and what the process is that proceeds towards that end, dictates what groups of muscles are most intensely involved.
It is a joy for the muscles and the body as a whole to merely exercise itself, to grow and produce as it is used up. But then if one is placing too much of a load on a given group of muscles, those muscles wear out from sustained usage. They have become overexploited, in which they are used beyond their capacity to regenerate themselves or even maintain themselves.
And so success in this regard has to do with being mindful of one's body, by shifting weight constantly, economizing one's exertions, and doing even work on the various parts of one's body, making use of structural strengths to manage weight and things of the like.
And then one gives the body what it wants: enough nutrients to regenerate, and the sweet rest that makes the exertion just as sweet.
It is a joy for the muscles and the body as a whole to merely exercise itself, to grow and produce as it is used up. But then if one is placing too much of a load on a given group of muscles, those muscles wear out from sustained usage. They have become overexploited, in which they are used beyond their capacity to regenerate themselves or even maintain themselves.
And so success in this regard has to do with being mindful of one's body, by shifting weight constantly, economizing one's exertions, and doing even work on the various parts of one's body, making use of structural strengths to manage weight and things of the like.
And then one gives the body what it wants: enough nutrients to regenerate, and the sweet rest that makes the exertion just as sweet.
Saturday, July 08, 2017
The Trump Reality Show
Much observation has been made about Trump taking his reality TV existence to the White House, and perhaps there is something more to this. To look at the news cycles, and to gaze over the national conversation, it has become apparent that the mere function of the administration itself has taken an outsized role in our attention and it steadily saps our psychic and even material energy.
The steady drumbeat of a deteriorating global political and economic order has receded in the background, though certainly the palpable changes continue onward, while the vigor of the national conversation has gravitated over to the mere function of the administration itself, something which shouldn't have been as much of a question as it is now. All of the energy has gone from actually administrating world affairs, to administrating the administration itself, what with its dueling egos, office drama, selfish resource grabbers, bold-faced lies, and what have you.
All of that stuff may be taking center stage, but ah, all of the other important stuff, like climate change, perpetual war, poverty, disintegration of states, etc. is still actually happening. Only it is happening in the background. We're just not paying as much attention. We're paying attention to the guy who is walking in aggrandizing himself and lobbing insults at everyone. We're watching reality TV as the world burns, in other words.
The steady drumbeat of a deteriorating global political and economic order has receded in the background, though certainly the palpable changes continue onward, while the vigor of the national conversation has gravitated over to the mere function of the administration itself, something which shouldn't have been as much of a question as it is now. All of the energy has gone from actually administrating world affairs, to administrating the administration itself, what with its dueling egos, office drama, selfish resource grabbers, bold-faced lies, and what have you.
All of that stuff may be taking center stage, but ah, all of the other important stuff, like climate change, perpetual war, poverty, disintegration of states, etc. is still actually happening. Only it is happening in the background. We're just not paying as much attention. We're paying attention to the guy who is walking in aggrandizing himself and lobbing insults at everyone. We're watching reality TV as the world burns, in other words.
Structured Work
The more intensely specialized the division of labor becomes, the more usual it is for tasks to become endlessly repetitive, and work regimes become more stationary in space.
Within smaller operations, in which a greater amount of necessities are handled by those doing the work themselves, and ownership of the operation is more localized, the work itself lends greater vitality to one's life.
One's day can involve a variety of tasks, all of which exercise various faculties that are vital to one's well-being. One may be doing vigorous labor for an hour, and then switching to a more stationary activity to rest one's muscles but stimulate one's mind, and then one is off again to lift something or other after one has rested and perhaps become a little bored. One is constantly moving, and the switching of tasks is invigorating.
It is good to work with a variety of individuals in a variety of contexts, so as to organically strengthen those bonds through work. And here, all of the work components exists together in a loose, nearly semi-anarchic array of components, all of which are conditioned by natural necessity, so that they snap together like links in a tightening chain as a process revs up.
Within smaller operations, in which a greater amount of necessities are handled by those doing the work themselves, and ownership of the operation is more localized, the work itself lends greater vitality to one's life.
One's day can involve a variety of tasks, all of which exercise various faculties that are vital to one's well-being. One may be doing vigorous labor for an hour, and then switching to a more stationary activity to rest one's muscles but stimulate one's mind, and then one is off again to lift something or other after one has rested and perhaps become a little bored. One is constantly moving, and the switching of tasks is invigorating.
It is good to work with a variety of individuals in a variety of contexts, so as to organically strengthen those bonds through work. And here, all of the work components exists together in a loose, nearly semi-anarchic array of components, all of which are conditioned by natural necessity, so that they snap together like links in a tightening chain as a process revs up.
Elegance of Preparation
Balancing tea steep time, economizing the movement of heat, allowing water to evaporate off of its own accord without leaving behind uninvited guests like stains and rust, learning to administrate one's tasks with the least effort, and the maximum enjoyment. These must be part of the art of living that tea masters speak of.
An art of living occurs within one's own time. Why prize the least amount of exertion? This could be a reaction against the uncritical worship of labor, and the absurd excess brought about by the circulation of capital. This aesthetic may very well underlie much of our future logistics.
An art of living occurs within one's own time. Why prize the least amount of exertion? This could be a reaction against the uncritical worship of labor, and the absurd excess brought about by the circulation of capital. This aesthetic may very well underlie much of our future logistics.
Manipulation
My tea ritual is not just about tea, it is about many things. One incorporates everything over time, as the ritual progresses. This is a clue into what the Greeks might have thought about techne. Every discipline starts with an act of focus, which gradually reveals much of what is attached to the object in focus, as the discipline advances.
Anywhere where one moves through the world, one must choose where to start, in order to progress. To influence something, one must become that thing, in a sense, or at least appeal to its nature. This influence changes material reality, and it also changes oneself.
Anywhere where one moves through the world, one must choose where to start, in order to progress. To influence something, one must become that thing, in a sense, or at least appeal to its nature. This influence changes material reality, and it also changes oneself.
Hero Worship
The problem with hero worship is the mimetic drive. Appreciating individuals is one thing. The love bestowed on a model person, serves to spread the model through desire of that love.
Everyone wants the love that the model receives. But this must take place within a cultural belief framework that prizes some objective ideal. The worship of a hero causes all to desire to be that hero, without bothering to become that hero. The trope in which the awkward office worker suddenly becomes a world-saving badass is a nice idea for office workers, but the truth of the matter is that it would take a long and hard series of efforts to become that badass, something the office worker is not likely to undertake. Hero movies have caught onto this a little bit, with their learning montages in which the awkward hero slowly becomes the elegant hero and etc.
But with everyone desiring the status of a hero, suddenly there are nothing but egotists everywhere, angling for advantage and undercutting each other. The path to hero, the process itself which generates the actual fruit is eclipsed.
Everyone wants the love that the model receives. But this must take place within a cultural belief framework that prizes some objective ideal. The worship of a hero causes all to desire to be that hero, without bothering to become that hero. The trope in which the awkward office worker suddenly becomes a world-saving badass is a nice idea for office workers, but the truth of the matter is that it would take a long and hard series of efforts to become that badass, something the office worker is not likely to undertake. Hero movies have caught onto this a little bit, with their learning montages in which the awkward hero slowly becomes the elegant hero and etc.
But with everyone desiring the status of a hero, suddenly there are nothing but egotists everywhere, angling for advantage and undercutting each other. The path to hero, the process itself which generates the actual fruit is eclipsed.
Pressure Relief
It is good to make a mistake, especially in the face of one's peers. Gentle humiliation is enough to relieve the pressure of always being right in the face of one's peers and vice versa, and then lessons from one's mistakes can be shared throughout the group.
Masteries too should be balanced against one another. If one person becomes far more skilled than the others and then takes over, the rest working under that person begin to experience an atrophy of skill. Instead of putting thought into mastering one's domain, one is constantly taking cues from another person, and those higher-level skills suffer. One becomes a drone under another's lordship.
Again, mistakes remove this constant mimetic pressure, this competition towards mastery. One can make room for others to gain competency and thus autonomy over their immediate spheres.
Masteries too should be balanced against one another. If one person becomes far more skilled than the others and then takes over, the rest working under that person begin to experience an atrophy of skill. Instead of putting thought into mastering one's domain, one is constantly taking cues from another person, and those higher-level skills suffer. One becomes a drone under another's lordship.
Again, mistakes remove this constant mimetic pressure, this competition towards mastery. One can make room for others to gain competency and thus autonomy over their immediate spheres.
Start Slow
In sustained and repetitious physical work, one objective is to get the task done quickly. But to do something right quickly, one needs to start slow so as to first get good technique. Otherwise one plateaus. If one achieves good technique early, one can get faster without hitting any blockages.
Here criticism from someone further advanced is a great gift: a potential blockage is opened up before one reaches it and plateaus, at which point one may no longer be able to detect the blockage. Here one would only experience frustration and confusion, at least until the mistake is discovered and one can continue getting better skilled again.
Here criticism from someone further advanced is a great gift: a potential blockage is opened up before one reaches it and plateaus, at which point one may no longer be able to detect the blockage. Here one would only experience frustration and confusion, at least until the mistake is discovered and one can continue getting better skilled again.
Class Separation
There are many processes that contribute to both the spatial and cultural separation of various classes, and this is a complex topic. Though there are a few bits of low-hanging fruit to comment on for now.
In a rural mode of production, one exists much closer to various organic processes of life and death. One deals with a higher frequency of death events, and one becomes intimately acquainted with births and decays occurring over many forms.
One does encounter these processes in the city, but the more social resources one has, the more all of this is concealed. One rests atop a perpetual bed of concrete or asphalt, and subsists within a finished and furnished habitat within which resources flow in, their origins concealed, and wastes flow out, themselves taking place in a state of concealment as well.
Further, with much practical activity on a farm "good-enough" measurements rule, so long as the necessities need to be taken care of, and the obsessive and analytical measurements that are more precise and labored over tend to be seen more in contexts that display a greater amount of technological development.
These differences shape the respective cultures that they take part in. How that looks and to what extent it happens is definitely something to look at.
In a rural mode of production, one exists much closer to various organic processes of life and death. One deals with a higher frequency of death events, and one becomes intimately acquainted with births and decays occurring over many forms.
One does encounter these processes in the city, but the more social resources one has, the more all of this is concealed. One rests atop a perpetual bed of concrete or asphalt, and subsists within a finished and furnished habitat within which resources flow in, their origins concealed, and wastes flow out, themselves taking place in a state of concealment as well.
Further, with much practical activity on a farm "good-enough" measurements rule, so long as the necessities need to be taken care of, and the obsessive and analytical measurements that are more precise and labored over tend to be seen more in contexts that display a greater amount of technological development.
These differences shape the respective cultures that they take part in. How that looks and to what extent it happens is definitely something to look at.
Metaphors at Hand
When one works with plants and soil all day, one eventually grasps the inner logic between such things, and begins to apply that logic to other things in life. One clothes one's understanding of life with metaphors, metaphors which take their shape from the things one is constantly exposed to.
Nutrients
Too much of a nutrient, like nitrogen, will burn a plant. Too much nitrogen in water leads to an explosion in algae blooms, which suck all of the oxygen out of the water, killing everything around them. The nutrient is to benefit whom? Too much of a limited thing makes a limited thing grow, which antagonizes everything around it.
Similarly, too much love and affection on a single person in a group will turn the others towards resent, or at least cause them to angle towards that love in antagonism with each other. Needless to say, too little of a given nutrient is detrimental in the opposite direction; nothing should starve either.
And nutrients do indeed move unevenly, at different times and through different regions of space.
Similarly, too much love and affection on a single person in a group will turn the others towards resent, or at least cause them to angle towards that love in antagonism with each other. Needless to say, too little of a given nutrient is detrimental in the opposite direction; nothing should starve either.
And nutrients do indeed move unevenly, at different times and through different regions of space.
Sunday, July 02, 2017
A Little Sheepish
So I'm sitting on top of a mound of new posts, or at least sketches of posts that need to be fleshed out. And the notes keep building up. Unfortunately I got pretty busy last weekend, and then the latter half of this week I got heat exhaustion, which at more severe pitches can apparently make you sick for days and take your mind.
All a part of getting adjusted to another lifestyle, which has proved fruitful in many ways, and there is plenty more to write in time. Till then.
All a part of getting adjusted to another lifestyle, which has proved fruitful in many ways, and there is plenty more to write in time. Till then.
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