Youtube lecture by Karen Barad: Troubling Time/s, Undoing the Future. Quoting Niels Bohr: “Concepts are specific material arrangements”. Hence, there is no difference between an object and the apparatus and the world consists of phenomenon.
20170120
Slavoj Žižek defending his stance against political correctness in Zero Squared #95: Žižek And The Double Blackmail podcast. He argues (in short) that political correctness comes to play only after public moral and decency has been corrupted. Political correctness tries to enforce decency through rigid dogma and etiquette, but it’s doomed to fail because decency is not a matter of form, it’s a mode of existence.
He also shares interesting notes on academic power, arguing that it is:
- The power to employ.
- To fund research.
- To make publication.
And that academicians do not have this power!
He also outlines a new memesis for the political left: “Liberal fascists” i.e right wing politicians who execute social transfers which benifit the working class. He claims that the possibility for “liberal fasism” arise from the lefts lack of motivation to adapt to new political realities. Hes mapping a route to leftist populism.
20170119
Humans are not alienated, we are in our element because we are the element. #ॐ We don’t eat meat because we are unaware or the pain animals feel when they are slaughtered, we eat because we are aware of their pain. Our societies are unjust because we like them this way. By making the world unfair we get to excuse ourself from the real work ahead, the process of changing ourselves.
Catching up on Marx: Marxism by David L. Prychitko. A weird source but a nifty text.
I want to rehearse the skill of talking while listening. I want to have conversations in which both parties talk, listen and understand each other at the same time.
Hevoslinja: Muistolahja-valokuvat Uuteen-Seelantiin
20170116
How much is Super Mario being payed or is he a slave? Is he taking time off from work or a professional hero? Why is he collecting money on his trips? Who’s money is it? Is the money Marios share of Nintendo’s profits? How much tax is Mario paying?
A potpourri of good talks on new materialism!