Most Interesting Reading From Last Week
The conversations that made me think
As promised, been diving into some really incredible work the past week. I’ve slowly started to cull and find a flow, usually through recommendations of great thinkers out there today. Here’s some of the top readings.
Deep Time Diligence
I’ve mentioned that Tyson Yunkaporta is the kind of thinker you have to dive in to experience and believe. He was interviewed for Emergence Magazine on Deep Time, which is an aboriginal concept of sorts around understanding what happens to the world over very large time scales. The interview might be somewhat difficult to follow if you haven’t read some of his other works, but it’s still worth a try. Here’s the link to read or listen to the conversation and here’s a quote to give you a sense of it:
You wrote that “the key to keeping track of stable innovation processes across multiple generations is story.” You said—I love this quote—“that it can be more creative than a Cambrian explosion, or more destructive than a nuclear explosion. Story that maintains the continuity of creation requires a lot more work, however, and it develops over time from thousands of data sets held in relationships.”
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
I hate to put him twice, but as I prepare to read his next book Right Story, Wrong Story. I’ve been getting quotes from the book that transformed my thinking about the way the world works. I’m diving in and might re-read if you would like to join me. Here’s the quote that’s worth investigating:
“I am often told that I should be grateful for the progress that Western civilization has brought to these shores. I am not. This life of work-or-die is not an improvement on preinvasion living, which involved only a few hours of work a day for shelter and sustenance, performing tasks that people do now for leisure activities on their yearly vacations: fishing, collecting plants, hunting, camping, and so forth. The rest of the day was for fun, strengthening relationships, ritual and ceremony, cultural expression, intellectual pursuits, and the expert crafting of exceptional objects. I know this is true because I have lived like this, even in this era when the land is only a pale shadow of the abundance that once was. We have been lied to about the “harsh survival” lifestyles of the past. There was nothing harsh about it. If it was so harsh—such a brutish, menial struggle for existence—then we would not have evolved to become the delicate, intelligent creatures that we are.”
The Intimate Mirror
This has to be the strongest start and call to my heart of any piece of writing I’ve read in months. I’m immediately in, so I’ll let you know how it goes. Here’s the article in case you want to read it.
“When our choices depend on reasons and justifications, we remain half-alive, disconnected from the vivid movement of truth, beauty, and goodness as it flows through reality. The fact is that life—real life, true life—isn't reasonable. Things aren't true because of reasons, they're true because they're true. When we depend on reasons to move and orient we're at best functioning according to a facsimile of what's true. This facsimile is hopefully based on the best efforts of those who are attempting to express how truth 'works' through words and systems of justification—what Buddhism refers to as 'right view.'"
Or perhaps worse, we've adopted ideologies and superstructures that have low fidelity with the structure of reality, and then we're making choices that are more or less fully disconnected from how things actually work. We create suffering for ourselves and others because we're out of accord with the way things are.”
A Request For Sustenance - Peasantry School
I’ve been exploring people who stand on the far edge of regenerative economies and what we can do for the world. I recently subscribed and found a wonderful letter about learning to ask for help, and to allow yourself to receive (two things I’m not very great at). In this case when he was talking about giving of himself and giving deeply, he had this beautiful quote to share.
Whenever I find myself staring into the inky black abyss on the far side of a gift threshold, I repeat Lewis Hyde’s phrase as if I were fingering a rosary: “Our generosity may leave us empty but it is our emptiness that tugs gently at the whole until the thing in motion returns to replenish us.” To my ear, the statement describes healthy relations between humans and the ground—or sea—of their begetting.
If this interests you, follow him here.
The Far Right Is Going… Green?
In general I’ve been limiting my consumption of anything political because it’s more commentary then longer term thinking. But this piece from Vox encapsulated and helped me understand a phenomenon that has confused me since the election - the number of people who ended up voting for Trump because of RFK, JR and Make America Healthy Again. It helped explain a lot of the thinking, the flaws, and the points that they’ve made around environmentalism in the Far Right. It’s a longer read but it’s certainly a demographic shift worth knowing about.
We Are All Precariat Now: Understanding the current situation, plus what we can do about it
Daniel Pinchbeck always has great ideas, but man, he can couch them in some seriously lofty language. Le Sigh I had to look up “precariat” before even starting his latest article—it means people whose jobs and incomes are insecure, especially as a class. I’ve been trying to listen to leading thinkers from every corner of the spectrum, and here’s Daniel, leaning left enough to fall over and explaining that the global middle class is being hijacked by a “transnational elite.”
What really hits home is that he doesn’t just rant about problems—he digs deep and offers some actual solutions. This struck me hard because I kicked off this experiment fueled by my own feelings of helplessness. Daniel’s willing to entertain multiple viewpoints and even self-critique. One comment he shared said, “it’s all well and good to talk, but what are we doing?”—and I’ve been wondering that about my own very liberal, educated family members for years. The average educated liberal I know spends, roughly, 100 times more time reading about problems than taking any real action (including me). Maybe that’s exactly how we got here.
Anyway, check out the article and this quote from a comment that really resonates with me.
“𝐼 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒, 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒. 𝐵𝑢𝑡, 𝑑𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝? 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝐼 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑝, 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑑? 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑠 '𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑗𝑒𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓𝑓.' 𝐼𝑡 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 4 𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠, 𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑙𝑦. 𝐴𝑛𝑑, 𝑜𝑏𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢. 𝐼 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡. 𝐵𝑢𝑡, 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑥 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑖𝑠, 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑓 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠, 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙. 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑝𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒.”
