weekday links
Spenglerian Moments, Borders, and the Rise and Fall of Kingdoms (The Outpost): Since the publication of The Decline of the West in 1918, Oswald Spengler’s theories of civilizational decline have never truly gone out of fashion. War, Plague, Death and Conquest: no civilizational end of cycle is without its godly scourges. Kingdoms rise and fall,…
wEeKeNd LiNkS
Suddenly, On Halloween (Wrath of Gnon) Why don’t I know any of my neighbors? Why are the young couple down the street not around anymore? When did they move out? They seemed so nice. The Reality War (The Upheaval) Maybe now you are willing to believe that a good portion of our world’s political strife…
w҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉k҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉n҈҉҈҉d҈҉҈҉ ҈҉҈҉l҈҉҈҉i҈҉҈҉n҈҉҈҉k҈҉҈҉s҈҉҈҉
The Putney Spoons Interviews: Malcom Kyeyune – Knowing Me, Knowing Kyeyune (Fisted by Foucault) There’s a scene in the old Jurassic Park movie that is pretty instructive… After the hacker Dennis Nedry basically knocks out the entire computer system necessary to run the park in order to disable the security and cameras so he can…
ẅ̷̷̢̟͇͈̒ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊k̶̸͙̭̹͆͟ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘d̸̡̩͍̔ͥ͜ ḻ̸͈ͧ͑̓̓̀͡i̵͓͙̱͚̎͟n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘k̶̸͙̭̹͆͟s̩͙͖̋͛͟
2#: Notes on the Desertification of Signs and Men (Some Private Diagonal) After America, Baudrillard often returns to this theme of banalisation. With his Stateside serenity having vanished, he frames the unstoppable advance of the desert of banality in increasingly bleak terms. He speaks often of loss – of the Westerner having ‘lost his alterity’, or sometimes ‘his…
Lost and Found in the Cartographical Matrix
I’ve been thinking about “place” a lot lately. Thinking about “place” led to me write this blog post, which got me digging through the great book Applied Ballardianism again, and a chapter called “Cartographies of the Infinite,” where author Simon Sellars contemplates whether future cities can be “tuned to produce a kind of stereoscopic urbanism.”…
w̴̫̫̬͎̘̻͍̜͉̥̪͇̃̾̑̅̅ȩ̵͚̝̜̣̖͍͈̞̹̼̭̼̯̟̍̃͋̚ȩ̷̦̦̫͉̃̎͒̉̉̊̎̊͠͝͠k̷̡̛̛̯̲͍͉̤̯̦̪̫̳̪͎̦͒̍̂̍̈́́͌́̇̈́̐̈́͜e̸̲̖̝̝͉͈̽̈́ņ̷͈̻̱͙̱̺̣̘̼̰́͊̀͠ͅd̸̰̲̯̤͙̰̮͔̼̯̈́̊͊̀̋͗͠ ̴̠͉̯̗̀̀̓͗̀̍̃̀̋̍̀̈́͒̏͝l̷̢̡̛̟̱͈̰̼̟̜̝͍̝̫̣͔̒̓͘ǐ̴̧̦̝̤̟̙̘͔̼̙͚͌̐͐̔̀̅̈́̕͝n̴̨̦͍̟̺̲̣̻̱̦̥̺̠̜̑̀͌͗͑͌̌̀̽͑́̚ķ̶̡̲͓̪̱̬͇̯͎͈̎͜s̶̩͙̗̆̾̃̑̔̉̾
All Tomorrows Parties: “…What we are catching glimpses of is what [Jacques] Vallée, and indeed [William S.] Burroughs—the greatest American philosopher since William James—described as Control or the Control System (which, as per Burroughs, needs ‘words,’ ‘time’ and ‘opposition’ to unfold).” Covidian Aesthetics ——— Girard and Digital Technology: “The public mainstreaming of runaway social psychosis may…
ШЭЭԞԐЙD LЇЙҠS
Cybernetics of Migration in the Covidian Age (The Outpost) κυβερνητική (kybernētikḗ) means “governance” in Greek. While the world’s hoi polloi accumulate at the gates of sinking empires, the great powers (the US, China, Russia) scramble for influence over the vast territories left behind. Meanwhile, second-tier petty kings in Europe and Africa navigate the stormy waters…
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w e e k e n d LINKS
The best links on the Internet this weekend are located here. Barbarians Past the Gate: Legacy institutions are at war with distributed collective intelligence, but the legacy institutions are losing—badly. 2 million full-time “content creators,” outside any professional sanction; the election of Donald Trump against an airtight media consensus certain of its impossibility; mass, hysterical…