sus

Well-known member
Is the pro-Twitter self conscious? It doesn't feel as though it is. I think most people have experienced suddenly snapping out of a daze and realising they've been aimlessly browsing the net in almost a trance rather than actively choosing to keep doing it each moment.
Well sure but that's true of everything. You don't go play tennis and every second ask "should I keep playing this?" There's a flow, and when you're too tired or the cadence hits a resting point, you snap out. Exactly like social media.

The problem is we've all decided being on social media is really bad for you and just wasted time, so we need an excuse for why we play it longer than our "ideal selves" would ideally like
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
Well sure but that's true of everything. You don't go play tennis and every second ask "should I keep playing this?" There's a flow, and when you're too tired or the cadence hits a resting point, you snap out. Exactly like social media.

The problem is we've all decided being on social media is really bad for you and just wasted time, so we need an excuse for why we play it longer than our "ideal selves" would ideally like
You've got a point but the manner in which social media/the internet seems to grab all of our shameful, slovenly drives -the most powerful magnet in that system- is worth noting.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
What kind is that
I don't want to get in a semantic debate on what constitutes manipulation. Man watch t.v., man change. you called the media news cycle one of the main perpetrators of modern mental illness last week so we must agree.
 

version

Well-known member
... buying a k-punk book from Amazon and wondered what the point of it all was if a company like that are perfectly happy to stock the stuff.
I suppose you could flip this and say Marx or whoever does pose a threat, but capitalists can't help but pursue any market they can.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Quintessential @thirdform post. Bot-like even. I think the question is not

Should we want out?

Or

Should we just complain?

But

Is there a form of complaint that cannot be recuperated by the "inside"? Jury's out
I think Thirds point is bang on. Revolution (or change) will arise due to structural forces at play. This has fuck all to do with our wants and desires.

Think of Covid or climate change not the actions of those interested in politics
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Also to be go back to beginning of thread, at any one time, you have the options for out that structural forces grant you. This has changed a lot in my lifetime. Used to be, you could squat/sign on/live in a van for a good while with like minded folk so live a life outside the system. These options have been shut down over my life.

Sure new ones have arisen but I'm too old to know what they are.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Also to be go back to beginning of thread, at any one time, you have the options for out that structural forces grant you. This has changed a lot in my lifetime. Used to be, you could squat/sign on/live in a van for a good while with like minded folk so live a life outside the system. These options have been shut down over my life.

Sure new ones have arisen but I'm too old to know what they are.

I feel for people younger than me who haven't had the option to squat or live on site, there's no playgrounds for people in their teens or twenties anymore.. Thatcher seems to have won beyond her well deserverved grave and I'm pissed off about it
 

version

Well-known member
I think Thirds point is bang on. Revolution (or change) will arise due to structural forces at play. This has fuck all to do with our wants and desires.

Think of Covid or climate change not the actions of those interested in politics
In that case, why be a Communist or anything like that? You can do whatever you want and revolution will happen or not happen regardless.
 

luka

Well-known member
yeah its obviously not a satisfactory position, even if it is true, which it isnt in any useful sense
 

woops

is not like other people
I feel for people younger than me who haven't had the option to squat or live on site, there's no playgrounds for people in their teens or twenties anymore.. Thatcher seems to have won beyond her well deserverved grave and I'm pissed off about it
The chief role of the universities is to prolong adolescence into middle age, at which point early retirement ensures that we lack the means or the will to enforce significant change.
 

version

Well-known member
It's a good interview, that Ballard one.
 

version

Well-known member
Also to be go back to beginning of thread, at any one time, you have the options for out that structural forces grant you. This has changed a lot in my lifetime. Used to be, you could squat/sign on/live in a van for a good while with like minded folk so live a life outside the system. These options have been shut down over my life.

Sure new ones have arisen but I'm too old to know what they are.
I feel for people younger than me who haven't had the option to squat or live on site, there's no playgrounds for people in their teens or twenties anymore.. Thatcher seems to have won beyond her well deserverved grave and I'm pissed off about it
You can still do it to a certain degree, but it definitely seems as though it's been made more difficult. My brother's been in squats and things in forests and stuff, although it sounds as though it was more of a thing when he went abroad. Apparently he went to a huge one in Berlin that had several floors.
 

version

Well-known member
Did anyone see that story about the hermit somewhere in the US who was living in a cabin in the woods? Apparently he'd been there for decades, grew his own food and everything and some landowner recently came after him, had him arrested and his cabin just happened to burn down.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
In that case, why be a Communist or anything like that? You can do whatever you want and revolution will happen or not happen regardless.

Let me flip the question on its head. Why be a cultural critic?

There are areas of the communist/marxist/anarchist tradition (call it whatever you want) which require historical development. Granted, if you have no interest in history, you could see this all as being pointless. But, for instance, you'd need a special kind of cheek to argue that Gorter's open letter to Lenin was insignificant. Clearly we had a theoretician here trying to highlight the differences between 1920s Russia and 1920s Germany, and further more the transition from feudalism to capitalism. These are all important debates, especially if we want to historically ground Stalins or Maos excesses. The problem with predominantly peasant revolutions is they can turn anyone into mass industrialisers, with all the destruction that logistically entails. To see Stalins or Maos crimes as part of a mafioso character is nothing but a cop out.
 
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