Keep at it! I recently decided to be more discursive in a 40-member “serious” subgroup of my 250-member “unserious” cozy web hangout. (Us who wanted to be unserious, or serious for that matter, about serious topics were requested to take our seriousness elsewhere.) Most of my word salads get little to no response, but at far flung in-person gathering it gets back to me that people are reading and thinking.
Also, as I have been bunny holing into history, it seems that having a clear right side / wrong side is the exception more than the rule, despite an established dominant narrative placing the in-group on the right side. Obvious examples are rugged western expansion via manifest destiny being a mass displacement of indigenous; and the British leadership in the late Industrial Revolution being more a function of their plunder of India than gentleman tinkerers breaking through.
Of course this shattering of their foundational We Are On The Right Side sense of group-self is what got the cultural conservatives in such a tiff to begin with.
With your essay “a big little idea called legibility” focusing on measurement/control and lack of curiosity in our culture. I think you have uncovered much of what I was trying to get at here. This is wonderful and I mean that completely unseriously
Great post - I have noticed the public disappearance of the Mullah Nasreddin or Birbal characters from culture and public discourse. Characters that take life profoundly unseriously but with a sense of morality. Modern comedy is situational, absurd, nihilistic or character driven. Maybe this is also a retreat of a type..
Great post. Puts a finger on a phenomenon I embody (the bewildered retreat to cozyweb inscrutability), while also diagnosing what’s wrong with it AND suggesting at least a partial path forward. Thanks, and yeah - keep writing, dammit!
Keep at it! I recently decided to be more discursive in a 40-member “serious” subgroup of my 250-member “unserious” cozy web hangout. (Us who wanted to be unserious, or serious for that matter, about serious topics were requested to take our seriousness elsewhere.) Most of my word salads get little to no response, but at far flung in-person gathering it gets back to me that people are reading and thinking.
Also, as I have been bunny holing into history, it seems that having a clear right side / wrong side is the exception more than the rule, despite an established dominant narrative placing the in-group on the right side. Obvious examples are rugged western expansion via manifest destiny being a mass displacement of indigenous; and the British leadership in the late Industrial Revolution being more a function of their plunder of India than gentleman tinkerers breaking through.
Of course this shattering of their foundational We Are On The Right Side sense of group-self is what got the cultural conservatives in such a tiff to begin with.
don’t subscribe to the atlantic, can we get a copy of the full article ?
I don’t either, use archive.is
failed on the first attempt to search, will regroup later
"You are not seriously unserious people."
I’ve been writing something attempting to connect this piece by Kyla scanlon: https://kyla.substack.com/p/compliance-is-the-new-american-dream
With your essay “a big little idea called legibility” focusing on measurement/control and lack of curiosity in our culture. I think you have uncovered much of what I was trying to get at here. This is wonderful and I mean that completely unseriously
Let’s lift one to the unserious among us. Thanks Venkat
Great post - I have noticed the public disappearance of the Mullah Nasreddin or Birbal characters from culture and public discourse. Characters that take life profoundly unseriously but with a sense of morality. Modern comedy is situational, absurd, nihilistic or character driven. Maybe this is also a retreat of a type..
Thanks. Would be nice to get a link to the Ribbonfarm/Contraptions post that The Atlantic mentioned. I can't seem to find it.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftenor.com%2Fsearch%2Fsuper-cereal-gifs&psig=AOvVaw0SkOfaW5_UBiVIzKednn8t&ust=1749443475229000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBMQjRxqFwoTCOCtjvv-4I0DFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
another banger
🤡🎢🤘
Really good (and important?) post.
Great post. Puts a finger on a phenomenon I embody (the bewildered retreat to cozyweb inscrutability), while also diagnosing what’s wrong with it AND suggesting at least a partial path forward. Thanks, and yeah - keep writing, dammit!