You write "Our use of all this digital media also makes it harder for us to shake off our addiction to hydrocarbons. but I'm not sure that's true. Despite all the hype, that's not actually true - energy use is going down in the West, quite significantly in some places (and it's only very partially because we've outsourced energy-intensive tasks)
Thanks for both deeper dives. While all of it may not have fully resonated, it definitely added to my own perspective-building.
I've long said that you will feel the future before you can articulate it, endorsing a kind of somatic sensing beyond our thin safety net of accessible metrics. But I was unfamiliar with "structures of feeling", which seems highly relevant albeit more collective.
As for our authoritarian times, George Box is highly apt here. But Timothy Snyder provides a useful alternate lens to the René Girard one I most commonly encounter.
Great, as ever. One thing I disagree with, though. I think that Abundance and similar are also addressing the crisis of proliferating bureaucracy.
Certainly, those I know who have read it link the critique with over-regulation in planning, and DEI training (which has good intentions but is so ineffective that it is a waste of time).
This is a good point. But my instinct is that the issue of proliferating bureaucracy—from the citizens’ perspective—is as much about a lack of accountability of large over-centralised organisations as much as the difficulty of getting things done. (Which is why I linked it to Dan Davies book as much as Mark Fisher’s original argument). Today’s story about Thames Water bidders wanting immunity from legal action seems indicative of this, along with many of the assumptions in the Labour government’s planning proposals in the UK. I think the question is whether it is possible to have the equivalent of Robert Moses style effectiveness without railroading vulnerable or poor communities in the process. I suspect not.
You write "Our use of all this digital media also makes it harder for us to shake off our addiction to hydrocarbons. but I'm not sure that's true. Despite all the hype, that's not actually true - energy use is going down in the West, quite significantly in some places (and it's only very partially because we've outsourced energy-intensive tasks)
See the latest Amory Lovins paper referenced in here: https://jeromeaparis.substack.com/p/where-is-electricity-demand-going
Thanks for both deeper dives. While all of it may not have fully resonated, it definitely added to my own perspective-building.
I've long said that you will feel the future before you can articulate it, endorsing a kind of somatic sensing beyond our thin safety net of accessible metrics. But I was unfamiliar with "structures of feeling", which seems highly relevant albeit more collective.
As for our authoritarian times, George Box is highly apt here. But Timothy Snyder provides a useful alternate lens to the René Girard one I most commonly encounter.
I think both Rene Girard and also Peter Turchin’s work are valuable lenses to use to look at the current American crisis!
Great, as ever. One thing I disagree with, though. I think that Abundance and similar are also addressing the crisis of proliferating bureaucracy.
Certainly, those I know who have read it link the critique with over-regulation in planning, and DEI training (which has good intentions but is so ineffective that it is a waste of time).
This is a good point. But my instinct is that the issue of proliferating bureaucracy—from the citizens’ perspective—is as much about a lack of accountability of large over-centralised organisations as much as the difficulty of getting things done. (Which is why I linked it to Dan Davies book as much as Mark Fisher’s original argument). Today’s story about Thames Water bidders wanting immunity from legal action seems indicative of this, along with many of the assumptions in the Labour government’s planning proposals in the UK. I think the question is whether it is possible to have the equivalent of Robert Moses style effectiveness without railroading vulnerable or poor communities in the process. I suspect not.