6 ms·

Hopepunk, optimism, purity, and futures of hard work

118 points by homarp 5y ago

manpagereader 5y ago
[flagged]
hprotagonist 5y ago
>In Hopepunk, people—often ordinary people, including minor characters—take a stand, resist, work together, follow through and help each other, and in the end, while some characters make bad choices, enough make good choices to leave a positive sense of the capacity of humans to choose good. The consolation of fairy stories, the joy of the happy ending, or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous "turn" (for there is no true end to any fairy tale); this joy, which is one of the things which fairy stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially "escapist," nor "fugitive." In its fairy tale--or otherworld--setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace, never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure. The possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of such evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelism, giving a fleeting glimpse of joy; joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories", 1939 “It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.” The Two Towers
- pitspotter2 5y ago
  Two different philosophies of hope: (1) Optimism. The world has been getting better and all present evils can eventually be cured by developing the specific know-how (think Apollo programme) (2) Eucatastrophe. The world has been getting steadily worse yet looming evil may be defeated by an unexpected turn of events among a few good people (think small fellowship of hobbits) The first says that if we apply creativity and work energetically at solving problems in a scientific manner then we can solve them. No guarantees but also nothing in the laws of physics to prevent it. It sounds reasonable but in practice the argument seems to persuade very few, least of all in Hollywood where science fiction has all but given up on spaceships and the future. As Douglas Adams pointed out the stories are mostly set in LA about 5 years from now and it's raining. The second is almost the opposite. It says that if a few unimportant but good people get involved, things may unpredictably and dramatically improve, perhaps by the intervention of grace or Providence. It sounds supernatural. Hope was indeed one of St Paul's big three ('Faith, Hope, and Love'). Yet consider how many scientific discoveries and inventions occurred purely by accident. How evolution succeeded in making ears out of jaw bones. Etc. Historically I've sided with (1) and I've always wanted it to be true however however many times it is pointed out by the likes of Steven Pinker with graphs and statistics that conditions have improved through most of history, the pessimists still prevail in public news and debates. They get more headlines and seem more serious than their naive opponents. Why do pessimists carry the day and with such preternatural authority? The very fact that they do hints that they're unwittingly cashing in on the fact that (2) may be correct or at least the predominating factor. That is, most good things happen by accident, but they do require a few good people to show up.
  - Nasrudith 5y ago
    I think the reason pessimists carry the day for legitimate reasons is simple - those promising sunshine and rainbows tend to be the same one's picking your pocket or try to turn you into a puppet to be disposed of when no longer useful. Another of pessimism's virtues is that it breeds preparation. Unlike cynicism it can persistently endure pleasant surprises as well. The reasons for dominance of pessimism culturally are also cynical - negative campaigning tends to work well and it is easier to find something disliked by many diverse subfactions than something unclaimed and liked by many. Plus it is easy to tear down compared to building something. Hollywood's lack of science optimism has another obvious reason aside from anger at being disrupted by competition from newer technology. It requires far more creativity to come up with something plausible, optimistic, and having a problem that you can hang a plot and spectacle upon than making some shallow nonsensical dystopia which makes as much sense as using nuclear fusion reactor powered robots with energy weaponry are used as overseers for coal miners with pickaxes. Which leads into my next point. What has generally been a death knell for darker aesthetics and genres is inability to be taken seriously anymore; whether by overexposure with a lack of variety and/or a biting parody. It probably affects them worse because there are far more ways to make a "neutral" genre like say Western, than a darker one say a slasher film - the emotional ranges are inherently more limited by definition.
nynx 5y ago
Really beautiful post. We need hopepunk stories more now than ever before. While I didn't think Walkaway was a particularly well-written book, the setting was fascinating and pretty unique as far as I could see: it told the story of civilizations transitioning from essentially our world to post-scarcity. We need more stories that talk about that transition.
- nitrogen 5y ago
  If you haven't already read it, one of the "two views of humanity's future" in Manna is a post-scarcity utopia, and the other is a dystopia: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1
  - nynx 5y ago
    I just read through it, and realized that I had read it before. To be honest, it's very poorly written and the story isn't particular believable.
    - nitrogen 5y ago
      To be honest, it's very poorly written and the story isn't particular believable. I kind of agree with that assessment, but I still found some interesting ideas in it.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
  This is the interesting thing about life and art. It can be pure escapism. It can be a warning. It can be a veiled account of what is or was. Personally, while I don't really think we 'need' hopepunk, I understand the inherent need for it in others. I may have stated this explicitly on this forum before, but I believe we already live in an dystopian future amalgam envisioned in some of the novels I read as a child. In such an environment, it is not a surprise those stories can thrive. Compare it post-WW 2 era, which allowed unprecedented peace across the western world that allowed people to explore darker sides of humanity in media ( grim dark, fascination with serial killers, various future dystopias to name a few interesting currents ). The solace one may get from hopepunk is a false hope.
kome 5y ago
"Hopium" is the antithesis of punk.
- Applejinx 5y ago
  Depends on whether you're taking matters into your own hands or relying on vague/imaginary authority figures to make everything all right FOR you. 'Hopium' is the antithesis of fascism. There will not be the Great Leader to whom you can devote yourself in perfect faith. There's just us. And that's gonna be enough.
  - kome 5y ago
    very good point.
tomc1985 5y ago
Everything about this just seems to scream of wholesomeness, and wholesomeness is boring as hell.
- nynx 5y ago
  Wholesomeness does often end up being boring, but hopepunk is almost the antithesis of wholesome. It's about how working hard, getting your hands dirty, and making hard decisions can lead to a better world.
  - tomc1985 5y ago
    How is that the 'antithesis' of wholesome? It sounds more like the plotline of a Sunday sermon, or a Disney movie Or is this another situation where the original word is stolen from its vibe and repurposed solely for its meaning?
    - nynx 5y ago
      Okay, maybe not antithesis, but I think of wholesome stories as being full of easy choices where no one dies at the end. From the books I've read that I'd say fit into hopepunk, they're not like that at all. Good people die at the end sometimes.
      - tomc1985 5y ago
        I think you're mistaking feelgood for wholesome. Wholesomeness instills people with positivity and good morals, oftentimes through good but difficult choices.
        nynx 5y ago
        I might be. I think the term wholesome has been somewhat redefined to mean feelgood colloquially though. Could you explain why wholesome stories are boring to you?
        5y ago
DoreenMichele 5y ago
I'm reminded of some classical movie where the guy, having been wrongfully imprisoned or something, decides to make a comedy because people need to laugh during dark times, not be reminded of their struggles. Though I think we need solutions more than we need upbeat, feel good stories of some sort. I just don't know how one finds that thread to pull.
- nik5 5y ago
  Life is beautiful is a similar movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/
  - nicbou 5y ago
    I feel like this recommendation should come with some sort of warning. This movie might tear you apartm
- xamuel 5y ago
  The film you're thinking of is Sullivan's Travels (1941), a real fantastic film I'd highly recommend. The American Film Institute ranked it the #61 greatest American film of all time.
Subsentient 5y ago
Well considering the author of the article also authored a series of "Hopepunk" books that she shamelessly plugs at the end of the article, I think I'll be staying with my cynical misanthropy, since she just validated it. Thanks.
- Applejinx 5y ago
  If ya mean it, wouldn't you be absolutely obligated to push it? Failing to do that would be like early punk musicians going 'it was easy it was cheap, you can do it! …but don't actually do that, stick to buying our records in the shops kthxbai' It's like open-source/free software. If you get it, you WILL be acting on that belief, not at all hypothetically. Makes perfect sense to me.
HKH2 5y ago
> We need those stories, always, but especially right now. Why do you need those stories? Is it because you don't have your own narrative? Is it because you've prevented yourself from following your inconvenient thoughts to their conclusions? Your cosmopolitanism is not far from globalism; would you have me believe that MNCs are not 'the man'?
davidw 5y ago
I could go for some books with a positive outlook. I read "The Washington Post" for grim accounts of the present. I really don't need any more depressing material in books I read for fun.
Vecr 5y ago
"Post-2016 resistance culture" as the author puts it has produced extreme cringe, you have millionaire band members and DAs (literal agents of the state) wearing Star Wars "the resistance" pins. I don't think doing this is as clever or makes as much sense as these people think it does.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  The cringeability of DA's in "resistance" pins hangs on the notion of a unitary state, singular in its motivations and goals. That's something we hardly have in the USA (partly because of the geographic size of the country, partly because of the ideological diversity). I'm not saying that I think DA's wearing such things is a good idea, but merely that it's not absurd just because the are literal agents of "the state".
- soundnote 5y ago
  Dismantling the sinful racist system, lecture brought to you by Shell Corp.
phreeza 5y ago
Reminds me a bit of Kim Stanley Robinson. He is really from a previous generation of authors, but still publishing.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
causi 5y ago
opponents of change have learned that, much like greenwashing or the myth of individual responsibility, they can strategically deploy purity language and the accusation of selling out to undermine resistance groups and leaders. This seems like a cop-out. It's not the battle-flag wavers and the red hats who attack people for not being pure enough, it's us. We're our own worst problem and we sound as crazy as the false-flag-shooting claiming nutcases when we're continuously in denial about the way we treat each other when we see the slightest hint of moral failing, past or present.
- HKH2 5y ago
  Forgiveness means letting go of leverage. Retaining leverage by foregoing forgiveness trains people not to apologize, and the most unapologetic rise to the top.
- Applejinx 5y ago
  No, I do think it's weaponized. Not exclusively… but for the very reason that you mention, that this is a behavior easy to elicit, I think smart malefactors do exactly this 'strategic deployment of purity language', especially on very low inertia platforms like Twitter, using armies of bots for amplification, to crank up this reaction way beyond its natural presence. It would be a cop-out to say it is ONLY the bad actors imposing this on an otherwise content populace. You're right that 'it's us' who provide the amplified response, especially when we're terminally online and plugged-in. But it's not at all hard to observe this and weaponize it. This is well established by this point. I feel it's almost the new battleground for WWIII: attempts to really-truly demolish and cripple an enemy power by intelligently exploiting this in ALL possible directions. Not towards a unified response, but toward 'the Zone' and chaos and mistrust of everything.
giorgioz 5y ago
The article gave me hope and inspired me. It aligns with many of my ideals like: "Good is the enemy of perfect" "Done is better than perfect" Iterative (agile) improvement "2 steps forward and 1 step back" and then then one of the 2 next steps forward will fix the previous step back.
s7r 5y ago
I've been thinking about a series/anthology like this. Similar to Black Mirror — each story starts with a window into our current reality, often dystopic. We see what happens if we continue going down that path. And then, we see a change. An intervention. And we see a new future unfolding, based on the choices and changes we made. If this sounds interesting to you, let me know! Would love to connect with others — whether storytellers, artists, creatives, or anybody who's interested in thinking about problems we're facing and what change could look like. Feel free to drop a comment or contact me at https://twitter.com/sambutlerUS https://twitter.com/sambutlerUS or https://sambutler.us https://sambutler.us!
dash2 5y ago
I'll put on my evil capitalist hat. * If your biggest problem is "feeling tired", you don't have a problem. * People work less than ever before (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-working-hours-per-worker https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-working-hours-per-...) * Nobody over 14 should be allowed to use the word "resistance". * Nobody who isn't a coalminer should be allowed to use the word "exhausted". * Purity isn't a great way to build a political movement? No shit. In other news, black lipstick and fishnets aren't a great foundation for a wardrobe. * "The 25th century of my Terra Ignota has fixed some of today’s problems but is still working on others..." Congratulations and how modest of you!... Wait, this is fiction? * "As I observed in my half-joking 2013 review of Iron Man 3..." Aaaaaaaaaagh. * "For many people, especially in America, the ideological residue of Puritanism and providentialist Christianity means that pursuing personal purity can feel like a way of helping indirectly with crises like climate or authoritarianism when direct action is intimidating or exhausting." The ghost of Cotton Mather is here to spank your ass for taking his name in vain. * Why are the paragraphs so long? * Why are the books so bad? * Who are these whining bores? * Update. OMG. "ADA PALMER is a professor in the history department of the University of Chicago...." The tweens have taken over the asylum.
Borrible 5y ago
Is there a subgenre for PunkPunk or PurePunk? OriginalPunk? Can't find one on TVTropes.org. I guess Vivienne is to blame for that fashion ploy[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood The morally most interesting moment is, when purity is lost.
pontifier 5y ago
In other news, my entry for shortest sci-fi/horror/grimdark story: Bureaucrats got to space first.
wayoutthere 5y ago
I honestly find these stories 1) not very satisfying 2) hopelessly saccharine and 3) naïve. It’s why I can’t watch Star Trek anymore. Even if you’re an optimist, you recognize it’s going to get worse — a lot worse — before it gets better. I find the modern punk scene is only becoming more and more political — and because we lack a functioning democracy, violent. I would expect to see more ecoterrorism (there’s been a bunch in the PNW recently that you never hear about because the media doesn’t want to report on anti-capitalist activity lest anyone get any ideas that there might be a movement) and violence protests as the “punks” (often called “anarchists” in the media) arm themselves to match the right-wing loonies. The guys Kyle Rittenhouse shot? Likely all anarchists / punks. The next Grosskreuz will pull the trigger, guaranteed. I’m an aging punk myself and I’ve never seen a firearms culture in punk spaces until the last few years. These days every Gen Z punk I know has an AR-15 and a pistol. Gun culture is suddenly cool among the urban / suburban set in a way that it hasn’t been with millennials. In the face of all this, I think the author mistakes what she needs in her personal life with what praxis looks like from the perspective of a working class punk.

118 points by homarp 5y ago

[flagged]

>In Hopepunk, people—often ordinary people, including minor characters—take a stand, resist, work together, follow through and help each other, and in the end, while some characters make bad choices, enough make good choices to leave a positive sense of the capacity of humans to choose good. The consolation of fairy stories, the joy of the happy ending, or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous "turn" (for there is no true end to any fairy tale); this joy, which is one of the things which fairy stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially "escapist," nor "fugitive." In its fairy tale--or otherworld--setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace, never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure. The possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of such evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelism, giving a fleeting glimpse of joy; joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories", 1939 “It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.” The Two Towers

pitspotter2 5y ago
Two different philosophies of hope: (1) Optimism. The world has been getting better and all present evils can eventually be cured by developing the specific know-how (think Apollo programme) (2) Eucatastrophe. The world has been getting steadily worse yet looming evil may be defeated by an unexpected turn of events among a few good people (think small fellowship of hobbits) The first says that if we apply creativity and work energetically at solving problems in a scientific manner then we can solve them. No guarantees but also nothing in the laws of physics to prevent it. It sounds reasonable but in practice the argument seems to persuade very few, least of all in Hollywood where science fiction has all but given up on spaceships and the future. As Douglas Adams pointed out the stories are mostly set in LA about 5 years from now and it's raining. The second is almost the opposite. It says that if a few unimportant but good people get involved, things may unpredictably and dramatically improve, perhaps by the intervention of grace or Providence. It sounds supernatural. Hope was indeed one of St Paul's big three ('Faith, Hope, and Love'). Yet consider how many scientific discoveries and inventions occurred purely by accident. How evolution succeeded in making ears out of jaw bones. Etc. Historically I've sided with (1) and I've always wanted it to be true however however many times it is pointed out by the likes of Steven Pinker with graphs and statistics that conditions have improved through most of history, the pessimists still prevail in public news and debates. They get more headlines and seem more serious than their naive opponents. Why do pessimists carry the day and with such preternatural authority? The very fact that they do hints that they're unwittingly cashing in on the fact that (2) may be correct or at least the predominating factor. That is, most good things happen by accident, but they do require a few good people to show up.
- Nasrudith 5y ago
  I think the reason pessimists carry the day for legitimate reasons is simple - those promising sunshine and rainbows tend to be the same one's picking your pocket or try to turn you into a puppet to be disposed of when no longer useful. Another of pessimism's virtues is that it breeds preparation. Unlike cynicism it can persistently endure pleasant surprises as well. The reasons for dominance of pessimism culturally are also cynical - negative campaigning tends to work well and it is easier to find something disliked by many diverse subfactions than something unclaimed and liked by many. Plus it is easy to tear down compared to building something. Hollywood's lack of science optimism has another obvious reason aside from anger at being disrupted by competition from newer technology. It requires far more creativity to come up with something plausible, optimistic, and having a problem that you can hang a plot and spectacle upon than making some shallow nonsensical dystopia which makes as much sense as using nuclear fusion reactor powered robots with energy weaponry are used as overseers for coal miners with pickaxes. Which leads into my next point. What has generally been a death knell for darker aesthetics and genres is inability to be taken seriously anymore; whether by overexposure with a lack of variety and/or a biting parody. It probably affects them worse because there are far more ways to make a "neutral" genre like say Western, than a darker one say a slasher film - the emotional ranges are inherently more limited by definition.

nynx 5y ago

Really beautiful post. We need hopepunk stories more now than ever before. While I didn't think Walkaway was a particularly well-written book, the setting was fascinating and pretty unique as far as I could see: it told the story of civilizations transitioning from essentially our world to post-scarcity. We need more stories that talk about that transition.

nitrogen 5y ago
If you haven't already read it, one of the "two views of humanity's future" in Manna is a post-scarcity utopia, and the other is a dystopia: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1
- nynx 5y ago
  I just read through it, and realized that I had read it before. To be honest, it's very poorly written and the story isn't particular believable.
  - nitrogen 5y ago
    To be honest, it's very poorly written and the story isn't particular believable. I kind of agree with that assessment, but I still found some interesting ideas in it.
A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
This is the interesting thing about life and art. It can be pure escapism. It can be a warning. It can be a veiled account of what is or was. Personally, while I don't really think we 'need' hopepunk, I understand the inherent need for it in others. I may have stated this explicitly on this forum before, but I believe we already live in an dystopian future amalgam envisioned in some of the novels I read as a child. In such an environment, it is not a surprise those stories can thrive. Compare it post-WW 2 era, which allowed unprecedented peace across the western world that allowed people to explore darker sides of humanity in media ( grim dark, fascination with serial killers, various future dystopias to name a few interesting currents ). The solace one may get from hopepunk is a false hope.

kome 5y ago

"Hopium" is the antithesis of punk.

Applejinx 5y ago
Depends on whether you're taking matters into your own hands or relying on vague/imaginary authority figures to make everything all right FOR you. 'Hopium' is the antithesis of fascism. There will not be the Great Leader to whom you can devote yourself in perfect faith. There's just us. And that's gonna be enough.
- kome 5y ago
  very good point.

tomc1985 5y ago

Everything about this just seems to scream of wholesomeness, and wholesomeness is boring as hell.

nynx 5y ago
Wholesomeness does often end up being boring, but hopepunk is almost the antithesis of wholesome. It's about how working hard, getting your hands dirty, and making hard decisions can lead to a better world.
- tomc1985 5y ago
  How is that the 'antithesis' of wholesome? It sounds more like the plotline of a Sunday sermon, or a Disney movie Or is this another situation where the original word is stolen from its vibe and repurposed solely for its meaning?
  - nynx 5y ago
    Okay, maybe not antithesis, but I think of wholesome stories as being full of easy choices where no one dies at the end. From the books I've read that I'd say fit into hopepunk, they're not like that at all. Good people die at the end sometimes.
    - tomc1985 5y ago
      I think you're mistaking feelgood for wholesome. Wholesomeness instills people with positivity and good morals, oftentimes through good but difficult choices.
      - nynx 5y ago
        I might be. I think the term wholesome has been somewhat redefined to mean feelgood colloquially though. Could you explain why wholesome stories are boring to you?
        5y ago

DoreenMichele 5y ago

I'm reminded of some classical movie where the guy, having been wrongfully imprisoned or something, decides to make a comedy because people need to laugh during dark times, not be reminded of their struggles. Though I think we need solutions more than we need upbeat, feel good stories of some sort. I just don't know how one finds that thread to pull.

nik5 5y ago
Life is beautiful is a similar movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/
- nicbou 5y ago
  I feel like this recommendation should come with some sort of warning. This movie might tear you apartm
xamuel 5y ago
The film you're thinking of is Sullivan's Travels (1941), a real fantastic film I'd highly recommend. The American Film Institute ranked it the #61 greatest American film of all time.

Subsentient 5y ago

Well considering the author of the article also authored a series of "Hopepunk" books that she shamelessly plugs at the end of the article, I think I'll be staying with my cynical misanthropy, since she just validated it. Thanks.

Applejinx 5y ago
If ya mean it, wouldn't you be absolutely obligated to push it? Failing to do that would be like early punk musicians going 'it was easy it was cheap, you can do it! …but don't actually do that, stick to buying our records in the shops kthxbai' It's like open-source/free software. If you get it, you WILL be acting on that belief, not at all hypothetically. Makes perfect sense to me.

HKH2 5y ago

> We need those stories, always, but especially right now. Why do you need those stories? Is it because you don't have your own narrative? Is it because you've prevented yourself from following your inconvenient thoughts to their conclusions? Your cosmopolitanism is not far from globalism; would you have me believe that MNCs are not 'the man'?

davidw 5y ago

I could go for some books with a positive outlook. I read "The Washington Post" for grim accounts of the present. I really don't need any more depressing material in books I read for fun.

Vecr 5y ago

"Post-2016 resistance culture" as the author puts it has produced extreme cringe, you have millionaire band members and DAs (literal agents of the state) wearing Star Wars "the resistance" pins. I don't think doing this is as clever or makes as much sense as these people think it does.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
The cringeability of DA's in "resistance" pins hangs on the notion of a unitary state, singular in its motivations and goals. That's something we hardly have in the USA (partly because of the geographic size of the country, partly because of the ideological diversity). I'm not saying that I think DA's wearing such things is a good idea, but merely that it's not absurd just because the are literal agents of "the state".
soundnote 5y ago
Dismantling the sinful racist system, lecture brought to you by Shell Corp.

phreeza 5y ago

Reminds me a bit of Kim Stanley Robinson. He is really from a previous generation of authors, but still publishing.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

causi 5y ago

opponents of change have learned that, much like greenwashing or the myth of individual responsibility, they can strategically deploy purity language and the accusation of selling out to undermine resistance groups and leaders. This seems like a cop-out. It's not the battle-flag wavers and the red hats who attack people for not being pure enough, it's us. We're our own worst problem and we sound as crazy as the false-flag-shooting claiming nutcases when we're continuously in denial about the way we treat each other when we see the slightest hint of moral failing, past or present.

HKH2 5y ago
Forgiveness means letting go of leverage. Retaining leverage by foregoing forgiveness trains people not to apologize, and the most unapologetic rise to the top.
Applejinx 5y ago
No, I do think it's weaponized. Not exclusively… but for the very reason that you mention, that this is a behavior easy to elicit, I think smart malefactors do exactly this 'strategic deployment of purity language', especially on very low inertia platforms like Twitter, using armies of bots for amplification, to crank up this reaction way beyond its natural presence. It would be a cop-out to say it is ONLY the bad actors imposing this on an otherwise content populace. You're right that 'it's us' who provide the amplified response, especially when we're terminally online and plugged-in. But it's not at all hard to observe this and weaponize it. This is well established by this point. I feel it's almost the new battleground for WWIII: attempts to really-truly demolish and cripple an enemy power by intelligently exploiting this in ALL possible directions. Not towards a unified response, but toward 'the Zone' and chaos and mistrust of everything.

giorgioz 5y ago

The article gave me hope and inspired me. It aligns with many of my ideals like: "Good is the enemy of perfect" "Done is better than perfect" Iterative (agile) improvement "2 steps forward and 1 step back" and then then one of the 2 next steps forward will fix the previous step back.

s7r 5y ago

I've been thinking about a series/anthology like this. Similar to Black Mirror — each story starts with a window into our current reality, often dystopic. We see what happens if we continue going down that path. And then, we see a change. An intervention. And we see a new future unfolding, based on the choices and changes we made. If this sounds interesting to you, let me know! Would love to connect with others — whether storytellers, artists, creatives, or anybody who's interested in thinking about problems we're facing and what change could look like. Feel free to drop a comment or contact me at https://twitter.com/sambutlerUS https://twitter.com/sambutlerUS or https://sambutler.us https://sambutler.us!

dash2 5y ago

I'll put on my evil capitalist hat. * If your biggest problem is "feeling tired", you don't have a problem. * People work less than ever before (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-working-hours-per-worker https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-working-hours-per-...) * Nobody over 14 should be allowed to use the word "resistance". * Nobody who isn't a coalminer should be allowed to use the word "exhausted". * Purity isn't a great way to build a political movement? No shit. In other news, black lipstick and fishnets aren't a great foundation for a wardrobe. * "The 25th century of my Terra Ignota has fixed some of today’s problems but is still working on others..." Congratulations and how modest of you!... Wait, this is fiction? * "As I observed in my half-joking 2013 review of Iron Man 3..." Aaaaaaaaaagh. * "For many people, especially in America, the ideological residue of Puritanism and providentialist Christianity means that pursuing personal purity can feel like a way of helping indirectly with crises like climate or authoritarianism when direct action is intimidating or exhausting." The ghost of Cotton Mather is here to spank your ass for taking his name in vain. * Why are the paragraphs so long? * Why are the books so bad? * Who are these whining bores? * Update. OMG. "ADA PALMER is a professor in the history department of the University of Chicago...." The tweens have taken over the asylum.

Borrible 5y ago

Is there a subgenre for PunkPunk or PurePunk? OriginalPunk? Can't find one on TVTropes.org. I guess Vivienne is to blame for that fashion ploy[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood The morally most interesting moment is, when purity is lost.

pontifier 5y ago

In other news, my entry for shortest sci-fi/horror/grimdark story: Bureaucrats got to space first.

wayoutthere 5y ago

I honestly find these stories 1) not very satisfying 2) hopelessly saccharine and 3) naïve. It’s why I can’t watch Star Trek anymore. Even if you’re an optimist, you recognize it’s going to get worse — a lot worse — before it gets better. I find the modern punk scene is only becoming more and more political — and because we lack a functioning democracy, violent. I would expect to see more ecoterrorism (there’s been a bunch in the PNW recently that you never hear about because the media doesn’t want to report on anti-capitalist activity lest anyone get any ideas that there might be a movement) and violence protests as the “punks” (often called “anarchists” in the media) arm themselves to match the right-wing loonies. The guys Kyle Rittenhouse shot? Likely all anarchists / punks. The next Grosskreuz will pull the trigger, guaranteed. I’m an aging punk myself and I’ve never seen a firearms culture in punk spaces until the last few years. These days every Gen Z punk I know has an AR-15 and a pistol. Gun culture is suddenly cool among the urban / suburban set in a way that it hasn’t been with millennials. In the face of all this, I think the author mistakes what she needs in her personal life with what praxis looks like from the perspective of a working class punk.