This is fascinating! I was especially struck by the last paragraph. Do you think it's possible that a fair amount of woke politics is a kind of displacement or sublimation of that which cannot be countenanced - the collapse of the stable Real represented by climate change, for instance? What I mean is that, given how existentially traumatic it can be to witness accelerating ecological collapse while feeling powerless to do anything meaningful about it, perhaps the performative wokeness of shouting about Hitler kettles on the internet is a way (a crap one, of course) of trying to reclaim some sense of traction on the world... which I guess then entails figuring out healthier forms of individual and collective empowerment.
People are realising how little control we actually have over the Real, and so are scrambling to exert some sense of control in their lives.
That control, of course, is all symbolic. Deep down, everybody knows that its easier to get people to use the correct pronouns, to say "Black Lives Matter," and to confess their privilege or whatever rather than getting people to stop destroying the environment.
There's something even worse here, which is the move to smear the "darker green" environmentalists--the ones who advocate an end to industrial capitalism rather than just 'green new deals' and climate accords--as eco-fascist and inherently racist. There were some essays that went viral about half a year ago painting environmentalism itself as inherently white supremacist and a way for white people to not deal with racism and sexism.
Nevermind that the people who will experience all this first hand are the very ones that woke ideology claims to be liberating...
How much of the "outcry" over things like the tea kettle is people taking the piss or doing it because it's easy for them and wastes the corporation's money, I wonder.
The essay is worth it simply for this finely polished gem of chalcedony: " on the internet it’s all one big slippery slope of unbounded metaphors where everything means exactly what other people think you meant by it, provided they are loud enough."
I would argue that a good example of the tension, mysticism, and thus-ness of going between the fourth order and the fifth order is the Zen observation: After ecstasy, the laundry.
I also have, after reading your thoughts, a sudden new appreciation for what can be accomplished in haiku. (I'd argue that there also is much of this in the Palatine Anthology and in Cavafy, too, particularly in Cavafy's poem Ithaka.) The direct experience of poetry (as in those lines of Merwin) is a kind of experience of an oracle.
Have I told you already how happy it makes me that you're writing this book? I have so many thoughts on this.
I lay the blame at the feet of Queer Theory. Have you run into Derrick Jensen's take on "wokeness"? I don't think he's written anything much about it but there's a video and an essay:
This is fascinating! I was especially struck by the last paragraph. Do you think it's possible that a fair amount of woke politics is a kind of displacement or sublimation of that which cannot be countenanced - the collapse of the stable Real represented by climate change, for instance? What I mean is that, given how existentially traumatic it can be to witness accelerating ecological collapse while feeling powerless to do anything meaningful about it, perhaps the performative wokeness of shouting about Hitler kettles on the internet is a way (a crap one, of course) of trying to reclaim some sense of traction on the world... which I guess then entails figuring out healthier forms of individual and collective empowerment.
YES.
I think the shadow over all this is the "return of the real" which I mentioned in my essay, Here Be Monsters. (https://rhyd.substack.com/p/here-be-monsters).
People are realising how little control we actually have over the Real, and so are scrambling to exert some sense of control in their lives.
That control, of course, is all symbolic. Deep down, everybody knows that its easier to get people to use the correct pronouns, to say "Black Lives Matter," and to confess their privilege or whatever rather than getting people to stop destroying the environment.
There's something even worse here, which is the move to smear the "darker green" environmentalists--the ones who advocate an end to industrial capitalism rather than just 'green new deals' and climate accords--as eco-fascist and inherently racist. There were some essays that went viral about half a year ago painting environmentalism itself as inherently white supremacist and a way for white people to not deal with racism and sexism.
Nevermind that the people who will experience all this first hand are the very ones that woke ideology claims to be liberating...
How much of the "outcry" over things like the tea kettle is people taking the piss or doing it because it's easy for them and wastes the corporation's money, I wonder.
I wish it were only that. Unfortunately, it's just easier to demand the capitalists act moral rather than demanding they stop exploiting people.
Thanks for the elegant quote from Merwin.
The essay is worth it simply for this finely polished gem of chalcedony: " on the internet it’s all one big slippery slope of unbounded metaphors where everything means exactly what other people think you meant by it, provided they are loud enough."
I would argue that a good example of the tension, mysticism, and thus-ness of going between the fourth order and the fifth order is the Zen observation: After ecstasy, the laundry.
I also have, after reading your thoughts, a sudden new appreciation for what can be accomplished in haiku. (I'd argue that there also is much of this in the Palatine Anthology and in Cavafy, too, particularly in Cavafy's poem Ithaka.) The direct experience of poetry (as in those lines of Merwin) is a kind of experience of an oracle.
Operating at the fifth order, Kaga no Chiyō
O morning glory!
bucket at the well entangled,
I ask for water
Or this koan:
before enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.
Have I told you already how happy it makes me that you're writing this book? I have so many thoughts on this.
I lay the blame at the feet of Queer Theory. Have you run into Derrick Jensen's take on "wokeness"? I don't think he's written anything much about it but there's a video and an essay:
https://youtu.be/n-NseFg2kno
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/10/liberals-and-the-new-mccarthyism/