cultural studies
Is 'Western civilization' a real thing or a brand?: Category critics
The relay race that wasn’t Columbia needed a reason. Twenty million dead. Veterans coming home. The faculty designed a course that explained why — a narrative from Athenian democracy through Roman law to the American republic, as if the whole thing were a relay race and the baton... Is 'Western civilization' a real thing or a brand?: Civilizational defenders
The execution and the guilt In 399 BCE, Athens executed Socrates for asking questions. That fact — that the civilization killed its greatest philosopher and then spent twenty-four centuries feeling guilty about it — tells you more about what we mean by "the West" than any... Is 'Western civilization' a real thing or a brand?: The Story
War aims In 1919, Columbia University launched a course called "War Aims." The First World War had just killed twenty million people, and the university needed to explain to returning veterans why it had been worth fighting.... Is tradition a resource, a trap, or something else?: Dialecticians
The tea ceremony changed with every generation Okakura published The Book of Tea in 1906 describing a ceremony already transformed multiple times since Sen no Rikyu’s fifteenth-century version.... The Age of Sincere Uncertainty
For much of the twentieth century, public life was animated by confidence. Progress would come. Expertise would guide it. Institutions would stabilize it. Even critics tended to assume that history had a direction. Late in the century, that confidence curdled.... Looking for bridges in views about the second Trump administration. I'm currently aware of four views:
- This is the worst thing ever, I'm terrified
- This is the best thing ever, I'm thrilled
- I don't pay attention to politics, so far my life feels exactly the same
- Some of the changes seem pretty cool so far, but we'll see
Where are the middle grounds? I want to know how to build bridges in my personal connections when politics comes up these days.
No honey. You mistake "tokens" to represent en masse. That's not how the real world works. The mass majority of minority groups are unwilling to play Uncle Tom to make you feel better about yourself.... What's your Favorite movie and why?
Mines probably Last of the Mohicans because it's amazing.
My reaction to this is not about the movie, but about the book "Last of the Mohicans". I hated the book. To me, it didn't have any plot. It had anecdotes followed by more anecdotes where each anecdote was how the heroes got captured, were facing sure death, there was no way... Averse to one metric judgments?
yes, well said! I think humanity has some exciting (and much needed) work to do 1) developing matrices of metrics and looking at whether something is successful or not in a much more nuanced and multivariate way 2) developing the cultural and psychological sophistication of how... Incorruptible Organizations AMA with Eric Ries. Wednesday 2/4 at 3:00 PM CT
Lean Startup author who now focuses on legal structures to protect mission-driven organizations from corruption. incorruptible.co
Free book giveaway! Register here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNfb54LuzwIMale -exclusive - dominance at the top echelons of the most significant cultural, religious and political institutions is an irreducible part of the central thread of all major existing and formerly existing civilizations for over six millennia.... Hey Gang. Hey there! I am a children's book author, part time travel agent and sports nut. Hope everybody's hanging in there.
https://www.aaronfoxwrites.comI'm not sure if we would fear it more or use it to control artists and writers. Unfortunately, I fear a great deal will depend on how the political environment impacts society in general.... is "The Body Keeps the Score" misleading, or even flat out disproven? I think this is an extremely important topic. So many people's ideas about trauma rest on the writings of Peter Levine and Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score author)—but what if they just don't hold up to scrutiny, and the "science" they reference doesn't exist or is misinterpretted? This substack article is provacative, but I like it because it's someone who might be coded "left" or "hippie" by a bunch of other beliefs.. Admittedly, I skimmed, and I got recommended it because i have my own views about the trauma mindset's shadows, but would be super curious people's thoughts.
here are some juicy tidbits:
much of this science is uncertain at best, and in some cases was discredited decades ago.
polyvagal theory, which van der Kolk heavily references, has been disproven. Paul Grossman, from Universitätsspital Basel in Switzerland, writes in this paper that the basic premises of polyvagal theory “have been shown to be either untenable or highly implausible based on the available scientific literature.”
I wish we talked more about the legions of people walking around who have trauma histories who have managed to lead healthy, happy lives. In my first few years as a therapist, I noticed that contrary to the trauma narratives we see reflected in pop culture, people who have traumatic experiences are often not irrevocably damaged by it, but instead use internal and external resources to overcome it. They form healthy relationships, have meaningful careers, and raise loving families. These trauma survivors are not unicorns.
and
Part two debunked Peter Levine’s claims that trauma is stored in your body and needs to be released.
"Levine makes claims that are not supported by research and makes promises he cannot keep. He has contributed to fears that everyone has the residue of trauma lurking in their bodies by broadening the definition of trauma until it applies to any stressful experience. By exaggerating the degree to which traumatic memories are repressed, Levine (along with van der Kolk) has promoted the widespread fear that hidden trauma is causing somatic symptoms, even for those who have no memories of unpleasant experiences.
wrt the afterthought, the thing that bugs me is a more general pattern of people reducing all of life into one explanatory frame and then being dogmatic, dismissive, or demanding because they assume their way of making sense of things is indefensible or "true" in some platonic... Ancestral trauma/patterns is real? bullshit? I've been working with a healer the past year that holds a more ancestral trauma frame being transmitted down the line. To believe such a thing, you kinda have to believe there's either (A) a non-material way of transmitting such trauma across generations or (B) we simply don't have the physical causation yet.
We do have the epigenetics research that shows descendants of people from poverty or famine have an effect even if their own upbringing didn't feature it at all.
On another hand, whatever is true subjectively is well true subjectively.Is it simply an interpretation of our inner experience or could there be explanatory power?
you kinda have to believe there's either (A) a non-material way of transmitting such trauma across generations or (B) we simply don't have the physical causation yet. I'ma leave aside A, although I could say a bunch of speculative philosophically dubious stuff about that....