Guo's commentary project as presented is to invert and unify Taoist contrasting themes of social norms (naming) and spontaneity (nature), in a foreshaGuo's commentary project as presented is to invert and unify Taoist contrasting themes of social norms (naming) and spontaneity (nature), in a foreshadowing influence for Chan/Zen, to de-emphasize Non-Being as a numinous origin of Being, to ground all things as self-creating in a self-negating "vanishing into" in this translation. Whether this is compelling or utterly circular, Ziporyn does a lovely job mirroring that in steady direct attention to Guo's imagery and language and argument, with only the lightest references to contrasting or comparative philosophical interpretations....more
Lighter and more liberally uplifting than I expected, though not all strong, the late chapters on the shifts in society as we ceased to treat schizophLighter and more liberally uplifting than I expected, though not all strong, the late chapters on the shifts in society as we ceased to treat schizophrenia, epilepsy, etc as personal moral failings stand out. From mostly neuroscience cases and psych experiments lens pushes at any gaps for spontaneous decision making separable from our histories of a second, an hour, a year, a millennium. Then moves into implications for society, primarily our societal morality and justice system's injustices built on individual responsibility....more
A perfect blend of deep historical translation, East vs West metaphysics and cosmology, mindfulness, poetry, and walks in the woods. Seeing mind as laA perfect blend of deep historical translation, East vs West metaphysics and cosmology, mindfulness, poetry, and walks in the woods. Seeing mind as landscape, emptying our mind like "gazing into a flawless mirror of sky", in sincerity our inner thoughts are the same as our outer thoughts....more
It is hard to say easily what this directly contributes, a weaving and complication of many thinkers - Latour, Haraway, Tronto, Stengers - on care's cIt is hard to say easily what this directly contributes, a weaving and complication of many thinkers - Latour, Haraway, Tronto, Stengers - on care's challenges, on critique and trust-building - dissent from within - for avoiding objectification and maintenance of obligations to more than just our tribe, to more than just human relationships. Roves slowly from STS to permaculture and soil ecological timescales, full of considered light shoves and repositionings of our language and thinking....more
Some delicate photo collage and light writing connecting computer chips with early mayan calendars, incan quipus, power distribution grids... made me Some delicate photo collage and light writing connecting computer chips with early mayan calendars, incan quipus, power distribution grids... made me want to watch Koyanisqaatsi again?...more
One of those old-enough books systematically looking at information, technology, and society's structures and making predictions that ring somewhat trOne of those old-enough books systematically looking at information, technology, and society's structures and making predictions that ring somewhat true and prescient - challenges for intellectual property rights, commodification of knowledge, factory automation and its eventual application to white-collar labor too - and perhaps for being right, it seems like it's not saying much new to us today....more
Peaceful and challenging, intimate remembrances of accompanying death in hospice. Buddhist-inflected facing and embracing dying as a way of living, thPeaceful and challenging, intimate remembrances of accompanying death in hospice. Buddhist-inflected facing and embracing dying as a way of living, this has that common medium-distance-immediacy of broad and somewhat indistinct advice while sharing extremely sharp and practical experience....more
A not-quite introduction to Zen, the wonder and presence of what is already familiar and immediate, studied closely from a position of openness withouA not-quite introduction to Zen, the wonder and presence of what is already familiar and immediate, studied closely from a position of openness without the goal of attaining anything. Compiled from short talks and given structure starting from practice and form, to attitudes and feeling, to understanding and mindset, around again to "true understanding is practice itself"....more
Less revelatory than her How To Do Nothing or Bridle's Ways of Being, the intent is there to re-examine the colonial capitalist and puritan influencesLess revelatory than her How To Do Nothing or Bridle's Ways of Being, the intent is there to re-examine the colonial capitalist and puritan influences on time's central role in living - our drive for efficiency, self-improvement, fixed hours and seasons - but even if the message is to de-focus, this is a scattered book. "The point isn't to live more, to but to be more alive in any given moment."...more
Feels dated in that 60s way of clearly writing to a certain class of young men with shared values, but. Creativity and openness, learning balanced betFeels dated in that 60s way of clearly writing to a certain class of young men with shared values, but. Creativity and openness, learning balanced between innovation and continuity. Avoid the obligations of accumulation, renewal is a system property of individual social interactions to reject organizational tyranny, vested interests, and the conforming filtering of ideas and information in hierarchies. ...more
Time is a population-level phenomenon, physics that has focused on integrable time-reversible solutions has discounted the aspects of dynamics that heTime is a population-level phenomenon, physics that has focused on integrable time-reversible solutions has discounted the aspects of dynamics that help us understand self-organization, creativity, and life, all bound up with the chaotic entropic uncertainty that time's arrow creates. As expected even in this "pop" treatment there's a lot of math I'm ill-suited to evaluate....more
A well-worked short study (with a dated feel) in ego-dissolution and recognizing our individualistic society's contradicting double-binds in defining A well-worked short study (with a dated feel) in ego-dissolution and recognizing our individualistic society's contradicting double-binds in defining progress, freedom, and love. Better to dance as one with the universe, but watch out for all the ways attempting to do so reinstates your sense of self......more
What a joyful blending and interweaving of feminist, more-than-human, art-science-speculation, and anger at capitalism's depletion of our capacity to What a joyful blending and interweaving of feminist, more-than-human, art-science-speculation, and anger at capitalism's depletion of our capacity to think in relational terms.
"The anthropocene is more of a boundary event than an epoch ... what comes after will not be like what came before. I think our job is to make the Anthropocene as short/thin as possible and to cultivate with each other in every way imaginable epochs to come that can replenish refuge."...more
Follow along with a 1968 interdisciplinary conference on society's attempted control of ecological processes, human-and-more meta-cognitive capacitiesFollow along with a 1968 interdisciplinary conference on society's attempted control of ecological processes, human-and-more meta-cognitive capacities, cargo cults and state machines and ... it's quite lovely, and unresolved, and a bit cringe in details. Should society be much more or much less oriented towards change? Why is it so hard for individuals to change habits of thought? How much can systems models, cybernetic language, incorporate change? The answers aren't so much as riding along the swells of debate....more
Writing that conveys a mindful presence - direct, pragmatic, and unhurried - covering Buddhism's four divine attitudes - lovingkindness, compassion, sWriting that conveys a mindful presence - direct, pragmatic, and unhurried - covering Buddhism's four divine attitudes - lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity in her word choice. Salzberg does a wonderful job of including personal, historical, and scriptural stories, motivating adjacent emotions and frustrations, and providing practical meditative exercises with each chapter....more
Love is a willful act, to honestly commit and extend yourself to make others' conditions of growth your own. The ways our society portrays love as comLove is a willful act, to honestly commit and extend yourself to make others' conditions of growth your own. The ways our society portrays love as compatible with domination, selfishness, accumulation, and instant gratification make it harder to recognize and enact meaningful love, but we all have access to loving counter-narratives in community, friendships, religion, self-acceptance, etc.
My first hooks, a deeply well-read commentator pulling in a wide range of threads from 20c writing and her personal experiences....more
Humble academic conversant philosophy, interrogating why we can't settle on a ethics based in removing contamination or suffering or bad things or strHumble academic conversant philosophy, interrogating why we can't settle on a ethics based in removing contamination or suffering or bad things or stripping down to some innocence, especially in realms of consumption or oppression. Points in a collective interconnected liberatory direction, from topics including colonial settling, AIDS and disability and transgender activism, climate and interspecies justice, and that to be human (without overly centering humanity) is to be impure, contingent, and political....more
Great whale facts, wild how little we know about most whales. What we do know about the social behavior of humpbacks, bowheads, sperm whales, killer wGreat whale facts, wild how little we know about most whales. What we do know about the social behavior of humpbacks, bowheads, sperm whales, killer whales, and coastal dolphins (the authors study sperm whales, apropos, but build their argument across all these evenly) makes it clear to likely that social learning that is not environmentally or genetically determined is widespread in many aspects of their lives, and which make the case for preservation of broad populations of whales to maintain cultural diversity....more
Wide-ranging on themes of pre-history and archeological evidence for alternative social organization., a rich history of creative perspectives on humaWide-ranging on themes of pre-history and archeological evidence for alternative social organization., a rich history of creative perspectives on human relations. Many of the arguments are compelling for non-domination, non-hierarchical societies and rejecting a still-common "myth of progress", "stages of social evolution", or that social inequality is an inevitable or inherent outcome of agriculture or urbanism or social complexity. Instead they find our societal problems in violence, patriarchy, and domination, and point us to look at the margins of history and society for answers.
Upon digging in to most of the areas discussed, looking to cited sources and other current experts in a topic, much of what is presented as novel or based in new evidence gets weaker, unsupported conjecture, or misrepresentation. It took me a while to write this review as it took me a while to become comfortable with this disappointment. There is just too much too broad in an attempt to stretch their exploration of what we don't know into a call for social creativity.
I highly recommend James C Scott's "Against The Grain" as a much briefer and tighter treatise on the strongest element of this story, that the modern archeological evidence argues against state hierarchy and exploitation inevitably arising from agriculture and sedentism....more
You ought to know I have long loved Krista's radio conversations, and that this book beautifully captures the form and content of those conversations You ought to know I have long loved Krista's radio conversations, and that this book beautifully captures the form and content of those conversations towards a larger project of understanding human capacities for social good and connection. An openness to unfinished dialogue, to finding larger more generous more loving language, to hope expressed as grief and as goodness, to humility as a readiness to see goodness and be surprised... these aren't answers, just directions. ...more
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