Oedi-Politics

Oedi-Politics is the intrusion of patterns of behavior and thought characteristic of family dramas – specifically those characteristic of the bourgeois nuclear family – into the realm of the political. It is the adoption of maternal, paternal, and filial roles by political actors and the determination of future courses of action by the relationship between these roles. In short, when people should be coming to agreements, making compromises, working through problems, they are instead defaulting to playing house. Everything else becomes secondary, and poisoned by this.

The Aim Is To Have Chosen Successfully: On Within the Context of No Context by George W.S. Trow

Within the Context of No Context essentially read like the I Ching with anger management problems. It’s an abstract text: I’m beginning to think it best to read it more like a map than a book. It’s a work of genius and madness. Possibly, it’s the last great work of bourgeois philosophy.

An Infliction of Sacred Wounds: On Mental Health Under Capitalist Realism (Fisher's Ghosts, part 4)

The system, which supposedly generates prosperity for everyone to an unprecedented degree, doesn’t. We’re told that it works, we’re told that doing all of these things should help, and we internalize this narrative. It becomes a subconscious mantra, the way that an Orthodox monk is encouraged to say the Jesus Prayer in time with his heartbeat. You see: we’ve been sold a fantasy that does not map on to reality. Human beings are smart enough that you don’t have to actually give us the reward. You just have to convince us that the reward is there.

Something To Do On the Way To the Grave: Fisher's "Depressive Hedonia" and Getting Some Hobbies (Fisher's Ghosts, part 2)

Put simply: it’s not a job or a side hustle per se, and you have to actually do something.

Tips for the Pre-Successful: Examining the Good Place

Edgar and I recently watched Season 3 of The Good Place on Netflix – we don’t have I happen to think that it has some of the best writing and performance in television,