As soon as we take for granted that there are better and worse ways of doing things, we create a hierarchy that implies perfection at the top. I’ve written that “modern society has a predilection for centralization;” modernity obsesses over perfection by collecting what are perceived as the best ways to do things into what is […]

Wikipedia is frequently snubbed for its anonymous, user-edited content. The argument is this: you don’t know who’s writing the articles you are reading, so you cannot trust them. This is offered in direct contrast to institutional sources like textbooks, academic journals, and proprietary encyclopedias.
What I find interesting about this discussion is the ommission of the […]

I’ve added an essay I wrote a while back to the Library page. It uses postmodern theory to critique organizational, and follows yesterday’s post with a more intensive academic analysis of institution.
It’s quite long. If you read it, please comment.
>A Postmodernist Account of the Organization

I want to continue to expound Abandonist political theory as introduced in this post. In particular I want to develop my statement that the abandonist renegotiates power through circumvention, not through competition.
Reformists cooperate. Revolutionaries compete. Abandonists circumvent.
But cooperate with what? Compete with what? Circumvent what?
The answer is institution–and this is tricky to define, but I […]

Modern society has a predilection for centralization–the consolidation of resources. This has clear roots in Enlightenment thinking: use natural science to discover and build on the best ways to do things, and ultimately strive toward perfection. This crippling singularity does not reflect the complexity of the human experience.
There is no best form of government. There […]

Don’t waste time walking’ & that’s like a motto for a whole generation. His voice is complacent & my vigor is vacant Both had long work days but his paid better & mine was way wetter, weather like my life too cold to not hurt, but too hot to fully freeze. We live in inbetween, […]

The other night I parted ways with some friends and enjoyed a solo nine mile bike ride. Music kept my right ear company while my left listened for traffic.

And I had a thought. Ruminating on that Ironman post, I discovered a connection. I wrote about how weapons and systems of control can shrink the sphere […]

So, I just saw the new movie adaptation of Ironman. If one can look past the racism and sexism that Hollywood seems incapable of transcending, it offered a fairly intriguing story. The narrative is well-rounded, with enticing action sequences that are by no means the central focus of the movie. By the end, some important […]

I used to cringe when someone would bring up that cute little anecdote about Thoreau’s night in prison after he refused to pay his taxes in opposition to war and slavery. I’d try to hold my tongue, but more often than not would slip into a diatribe against this sort of logic. Sure taxes fund […]