That New Yorker article on personality is fascinating. I've got to go to sleep, but thanks for the recommendation -- I'll finish it tomorrow. I have so many thoughts about this -- about whether we change and what our core personalities are, etc. -- but one of them is, did you ever watch the TV series, The Good Place? I have this odd, almost embarrassing, obsession with it. Like, I've never, ever seen a TV series this many times. I watch it while I brush my teeth at night now because I don't really need to hear the dialogue any more, y'know? Anyway, the point is that its premise is (at least in part) that we become better (or worse) people based on the people we're around. And I think there's a lot to that.
I never watched it. And I regret it, because that's the one where no one goes to heaven because of a bug in the system that makes it impossible? I should watch it.
I have no idea how the show got greenlit when it threw around the adjective “Kantian” on the regular, but somehow it did, and also people seemed to like it? I know I do, and maybe you might too -- let me know if you end up watching.
I think I am an angrier person now because I am so much more in awe over the wonder in the world than I was as a younger man; I'm angry because so few seem to really give a fuck about it. I mean, one of the most spectacular, impossible sights I've witnessed over the last couple decades was the first time I saw a meadow light up with fireflies. It's right up there with seeing an orca breach, or hearing wolves howl. And all of these wonders are under dire threat right now because humans need lights on 24x7, or want fresh seafood every day thousands of miles from a shoreline, etc. I know this is a downer, but goddamn do I love all that stuff and hate to watch it being destroyed by us. With maybe only a decade or two of life left on this earth, I feel I'm really at a crossroads in deciding how to live on it, and I don't feel particularly courageous in the face of these choices.
I get it. I think what depresses me most about that is how difficult it can be to give up the smallest convenience. That makes me realize how much pushback we will get when we need to give up things like lights all night, fruit out of season, or my favorite, which I learned while working in global shipping: we ship American wheat to Italy to make pasta to ship to the USA to sell for a dollar. Those ships pollute as much as millions of cars each, and the entire global economy depends on them. Turning every car electric from wind farms won't touch that. And the convenience we'd lose would drive many towards eagerly awaiting fascism, as they blame climate migrants for the smallest change.
That New Yorker article on personality is fascinating. I've got to go to sleep, but thanks for the recommendation -- I'll finish it tomorrow. I have so many thoughts about this -- about whether we change and what our core personalities are, etc. -- but one of them is, did you ever watch the TV series, The Good Place? I have this odd, almost embarrassing, obsession with it. Like, I've never, ever seen a TV series this many times. I watch it while I brush my teeth at night now because I don't really need to hear the dialogue any more, y'know? Anyway, the point is that its premise is (at least in part) that we become better (or worse) people based on the people we're around. And I think there's a lot to that.
I never watched it. And I regret it, because that's the one where no one goes to heaven because of a bug in the system that makes it impossible? I should watch it.
I have no idea how the show got greenlit when it threw around the adjective “Kantian” on the regular, but somehow it did, and also people seemed to like it? I know I do, and maybe you might too -- let me know if you end up watching.
Re conspiracy theories (and conspiracies), are you familiar with Sarah Kendzior's work?
I watched her get big on Twitter. I haven't read anything she's written.
I was wondering what you might think of her writing. It seems well researched and well written.
Loved Serial Mom.
I think I am an angrier person now because I am so much more in awe over the wonder in the world than I was as a younger man; I'm angry because so few seem to really give a fuck about it. I mean, one of the most spectacular, impossible sights I've witnessed over the last couple decades was the first time I saw a meadow light up with fireflies. It's right up there with seeing an orca breach, or hearing wolves howl. And all of these wonders are under dire threat right now because humans need lights on 24x7, or want fresh seafood every day thousands of miles from a shoreline, etc. I know this is a downer, but goddamn do I love all that stuff and hate to watch it being destroyed by us. With maybe only a decade or two of life left on this earth, I feel I'm really at a crossroads in deciding how to live on it, and I don't feel particularly courageous in the face of these choices.
I get it. I think what depresses me most about that is how difficult it can be to give up the smallest convenience. That makes me realize how much pushback we will get when we need to give up things like lights all night, fruit out of season, or my favorite, which I learned while working in global shipping: we ship American wheat to Italy to make pasta to ship to the USA to sell for a dollar. Those ships pollute as much as millions of cars each, and the entire global economy depends on them. Turning every car electric from wind farms won't touch that. And the convenience we'd lose would drive many towards eagerly awaiting fascism, as they blame climate migrants for the smallest change.