On Friday, May 19, 2017, the mayor of New Orleans delivered a speech on US Civil War monuments that many on the political left have are heralding — a speech that happened the same day that the above statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed. Continue reading “E Pluribus Pluribus”
Everyday Theory
If you’re watching the Netflix series Master of None (starring the comedian Aziz Ansari), or if you’re a scholar of religion on social media much, then you may know about season two’s episode entitled Religion. Continue reading “Everyday Theory”
Cue the Sparkly Distraction
Question: How do you prepare a generation to come to grips with economic realities that are rather different than what their immediate predecessors might have taken for granted?
Like, say…, someone currently in the (dwindling) middle class — you know, someone with enough income to be able to save some of it — and thus someone who assumes that they’ll retire at 65 (or maybe even younger), just like dear old dad did…? Continue reading “Cue the Sparkly Distraction”
Hegemonies Have No Irony
For the full quotation, from a recent interview with Mikael Sala, an advisor to the French far right politician Marine Le Pen,
see the article posted by NPR.
Photo of two Roman Catholic nuns, heads covered,
on a public street in Paris, January 19, 2011
“Oh my god, look at what you did to him”
By now you’ve likely seen the video (maybe it’s already old news, in fact), when a passenger on a United Airlines flight in the US was forcibly removed from the jet in order to make room for United employees. Continue reading ““Oh my god, look at what you did to him””
On Objects of Knowledge
A book that the members of Culture on the Edge
recently read and discussed.
Learn more about Habeas Viscus.
(See more by the artist)
Droning On
Yea, that’s me, at three and a half, with two of the many drones my dad’s built over the years. The one I’m holding was called “Sodbuster.”
Curious thing, though, is that my dad didn’t call them drones. And you likely wouldn’t either. Continue reading “Droning On”
Repackaging
Have you caught the video that’s making the rounds online these days (it was posted on youtube on January 27, 2017, and it’s already got over two million hits) : the ad for a Danish broadcaster, in which they ask:
What happens when we “unbox” each other?
Not seen it?
Well then this is your lucky day. Continue reading “Repackaging”
Misattributions
It occurred to me sometime ago that when we pour something we’re not actually pouring anything. Continue reading “Misattributions”
On Online Selves
In a recent interview, the creator and primary writer of the British anthology series, Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker, offered the following commentary on selves and social media.
Social media has made it…, and the internet and technology in general, has sharpened all of those things — I guess they’ve always been there, that performative nature of life, has always been there, that you sort of perform your personality, I guess, to everyone, on some level. I remember…, my theory is that we’ve got…, that we used to have several personalities and now we’re encouraged to have one, online. By which I mean…, I remember once having a birthday party and people from different aspects of my life showed up…, and I behaved differently with all of these people, in the real world, but once they were all together in one space, and they were all mingled in, in one group, if I walked over to them I suddenly didn’t know how to speak. Do you know what I mean? Because like, with some of them I’d try to be all intellectual and erudite and with others I’d just swear and curse and be an idiot. And suddenly when they’re all in one space I don’t know who I am. And I kind’a feel like one sort of thing is that online you’re encouraged to perform one personality for everyone. And I wonder if that’s one of the things that’s feeding into the kind of polarization that seems to be going on…. I think that lends itself to group-think, in some way… I wonder if we’re better equipped to deal with having slightly different personas…, that come out when you interact with different types of people.
For the full interview, see 28:46 onward from this episode of Fresh Air.
Watch the trailer for the newly released third season: