Hollow States (two kinds)
I don’t mean to make much of the Upwing/Downwing dichotomy. They can be understood in existing words but those words have a lot of political baggage. Better to use nonsense words if I’m going to imbue new meaning at all. And, frankly/uninterestingly, both “teams” will have plenty of objectively significant events to cherry-pick in the more »
More Mulling
Chris Matthews on “Up Late with Alex Baldwin” Something he said spoke to some half-ideas I began fielding in “Mulling Over“, when I was citing “What is Your Water Talent“. “You know when a small business guy is elected President, because he’s used to doing it all himself. Reagan was a corporate person, he more »
Oakeshott on Conversation and Play
I thought about shifting into pooling more New Age thought but the character of the movement kinda repulses me in some way. Perhaps that’s another reason to dig into it? Any, an unexpected detour prompted by a new Daily Dish essay. Another quote-heavy post, I’m more interested in reading than writing right now. A Californian whom more »
A Survey of the Dark Enlightenment
Tomorrow: Quotes from Oakeshott. I’ve also been posting about some UpWing stuff in a private fb group, so I might compile some of that together if it’s not too absolutely boring and trite. We’ll see. — The other day I was tinkering around in my garage and I decided to build a new ideology. more »
October 02013
So ends the month of October. Fogbanking: An Overview August-October 2013 August (started writing mid-month): 4 posts, ~5,600 words, post to revisit: Kludge. September: 8 posts, ~11,400 words, post to revisit: Developing Organizations (I talked about TIMN, which uses some vocabulary that I use and abuse pretty frequently. My definition of ‘tribe’ has expanded from this more »
“Beginnings”
For ages they had been without heads. Headless they lived, and headless they died. How long they had thus flourished none of them knew. Then something began to change. It happened over unremembered generations. The signs of a transfiguring were being writ ever more deeply into them. As their breed moved forward, they began crossing boundaries more »
Two Books on Incomprehensible Man-Made Systems
Two books: One I’m reading and one I just heard of. Their essences below, no detailed notes yet. Normal Accidents “Normal” Accidents: What Perrow calls System Accidents. Normal Accidents have two characteristics: The complex interaction of multiple discrete failures that are not in operational sequence. Opaque processes: due to that complexity, the systems are more »
Mencius Moldbug II
In which things become a little hairy. This post is now my official longest, but it’s mostly Moldbug quotes and the guy wrote up a storm, so I don’t think it properly counts. After his discussion of the American Revolution, Moldbug quickly turns his attention to what many might consider his most caustic positions: to Moldbug, Anthropogenic Climate more »
Mencius Moldbug I
The Ninety Degree Revolution This article on Aeon Magazine proposed a new political dichotomy based on (as ever) views of human nature and what kind of future we are prepared for. The new dichotomy: Green (or DownWings) vs Black (or UpWings). [As opposed to Red/Blue (or Blue/Red if you’re American) Left-Wing/Right-Wing] Of course, the strength more »
Mulling Over
More only-vaguely-connected notes on things I’ve done and things I’ve considered. I’m kind of wandering in the desert right now, I expect to find a direction again soon. This one may be especially incoherent or especially uninteresting, I could certainly see that complaint. I. (Notes and Lists) I scribble notes. In college my desk was more »