Tag: philosophy

by jad

Georgetown, Pleasure Spiked with Pain

We’ve been spending more time in Georgetown ever since Christine joined Side Rail, so I walked around to see what I can see. Much of this is stuff I’ve seen many times but never stopped to photograph. Some of it is new. I’ve been trying to train myself to “see” more clearly, even without the novelty of new places. x “During the past two hundred years Western philosophically-oriented, and later also socially-oriented thinking has been increasingly reflective and differentiated in its search for an understanding of the phenomenon of alienation. Marx saw also the moment near at hand to do … Continue reading “Georgetown, Pleasure Spiked with Pain” →

by jad

One Year Back in the Politics (and the House Votes Against Socialism)

This month marks a year of my diving back into leftist politics after my first wave of disillusionment with the scene here just before the pandemic. I tried different orgs and modalities for expressing my principles, but eventually circled back to the same one I’d joined when I first moved here, with fresher eyes and a clearer sense of its strengths and limitations this time around. I also had a better idea of what kind of project I wanted to contribute my (limited) energy towards. That project was “ecosocialism.” It’s one of those words that can mean anything and nothing … Continue reading “One Year Back in the Politics (and the House Votes Against Socialism)” →

by jad

Gunther Anders, the Bomb, and the Thingification of Man

Pope Leo XIV was reported the other day as saying on AI: “We currently interact with machines as if they were interlocutors and thus become almost an extension of them. In this sense, we not only run the risk of losing sight of the faces of the people around us, but of forgetting how to recognize and cherish all that is truly human.” It sounds like typical priestly pablum, the kind that anyone who has ever spent any time in a Catholic school might roll their eyes at out of force of habit; I can almost hear Father Madi crooning … Continue reading “Gunther Anders, the Bomb, and the Thingification of Man” →

by jad

Mamdani, Marx, and the Architect Bee

There’s going to be a lot of ink spilled on the meaning of Mamdani: is he or isn’t he, will he or won’t he, can he or can’t he, etc. Much of this will be less about Mamdani himself and more about what he has come to symbolize. So, what has he come to symbolize? The return of class politics? The revenge of multiculturalism? Is this when September ends? Someone wake up Billie Joe. I read an article from an Italian network of communists that describe Mamdani’s promises as both unrealistic and less revolutionary than a Christian Democrat in the … Continue reading “Mamdani, Marx, and the Architect Bee” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Kyoto and the Manufacture of “Japonica”

There seems to be a whole industry in Kyoto for “Japonica,” of which great parts of the city are the epicenter—the site where Japan’s “authentic past” is staged, mediated, and consumed. One reason for this is very material: Kyoto was largely spared from U.S. bombing in WWII, meaning its temples, shrines, and machiya houses provide actual historical continuity. And yet, much of this is also manufactured: for international tourism, Kyoto functions as a museum of Japaneseness. Its Japonica is carefully staged, and the staging itself becomes part of the experience. Japan as wooden townhouses reconstructed to look old, Japan as … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Kyoto and the Manufacture of “Japonica”” →

by jad

Imago, Ergo Sum

Many years ago, I had a conversation with someone who said they’d been receiving messages from beyond the grave—not just any grave: she said she’d been in touch with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park fame. I don’t remember how and why this came to pass in her life, but she’d said that I probably wouldn’t believe her so I didn’t press for answers. She seemed to feel to be genuinely heartbroken about his death and had found some purpose for others like her. She said he wanted them to know that he was okay. I remembered this story as we … Continue reading “Imago, Ergo Sum” →

by jad

You’ll Never Do That

When do you know when something’s shifting? I feel like any time I’m consciously working on a change, it slips into a new normal that doesn’t feel like much of anything—it’s the unexpected and unanticipated that actually makes a difference. So when do you know that it’s actually happening? And if it’s not, how do you know it’s time for something new? It’s so easy to get stuck in a routine out of force of habit and even easier to forget it’s a routine at all when it’s like water to a goldfish or a strong sense of self to … Continue reading “You’ll Never Do That” →

by jad

Cornucopia Daze

We went to Kent Cornucopia Days for the first time since we checked it out right after I immigrated here and were surprised by how much the weekend fair had grown over the years; and these are post-pandemic days too, you’ll remember. Spread across the whole downtown core, it felt like a mashup of a farmers’ market and a state fair, minus the rides and plus the sociopolitical quirks you’d expect of a town like Kent. There were some surprises too. I took a bunch of photos and will be posting them for however long feels curatorially appropriate. I read … Continue reading “Cornucopia Daze” →

by jad

Total Being

I read an article today that introduced me to the notion of “total being.” It seemed like the sort of thing I should read on a day like today. The piece even opened with an image I know too well: that of a taxi weaving through the chaos of city traffic. I know this image because I’ve taken interest in the politics of urban mobility and spent many formative years of my life invested heavily in their pursuit, but I also know it more viscerally than that. It evokes a nightmare that would recur for the longest time. It doesn’t … Continue reading “Total Being” →

by jad

Splitzing Politics

It’s worth pausing to consider “The Severance Metaphor” I wrote about in light of these images I got from “The Split Cam“; they weren’t wrong about branding the double-exposure process as “image fusion” because the end result is way more about fusing than splitting, isn’t it? I’m not sure why the more common lens attachment that does this trick is called a “splitzer,” but it’s making me think that there may be a use to having a third term in between those other two poles: severing, integrating, but also “splitzing” as well. Maybe it’s the goldilocks via media between the … Continue reading “Splitzing Politics” →