°
When nebulous things like desires or memes are measured—mapped as flows of social capital—they become commoditized and materially reliable: abstract quantities become ‘quantifiable’ at scale and thus more influential.
This epidemiological spread of influence swells through exposure: the more it floods our environment, the more it converts into belief and belief into action, bypassing logic and destabilizing what we consider ‘real.’
°
People love to take down power but do not want to take up power.
Michael Cuenco coined the term Cratophobia (fear of power) to describe those who are critical of power while avoiding taking on legitimate responsibility or authority. These people enjoy staying subaltern and avoid the fate they subject others to.
–
–
–
°
Today, the term “spirit” is associated with a soul that is inconveniently housed in the flesh: the body dies, and the immortal soul lives on. Yet, the origin of “spirit” in ancient Greece referred to respiration: breath.
Reconsider spirit as essentially (definitionally) a physiological act, an interchange between the external world and the internal self: to bring the world in, then expel your merged self back.
Segregating the spirit from the body sanctions the breath, penalizing living.
°
“Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.” ~ Albert Camus
A positive variation of this could be: “Those who have the courage often find philosophies to question it.”
°
Deleuze & Guatarri speak of "decoding flows" of information.
Once information does not flow along channels and then breaks into subsidiary functions, it is rendered useless. This "code," if not "decoded," becomes ineffectual.
D&G discusses "the body without organs," which can seem horrific if taken literally. When organs cease to decode information flows, they lose their former purpose, leaving a "body" (a form) but without functional components (intent/utility). As a human, not decoding flows renders your form and intent purposeless, a vague blob of decohered information.
°
Monitoring and micromanaging goes both ways: the manager’s lack of trust may not be a pathological control issue as much as a means of communication.
If they are insecure, over-communication can be the answer to building trust. Once established, they may cease to interfere and allow growth, perhaps by shifting their focus to a new battleground.
°
Anyone, any team, can perform a task. But to do it well repeatedly, they must care, and that comes from belief.
If the leader doesn’t believe in or effectively communicate the strategy, the project will fail, no matter how talented the people.
You must know and believe your “why” to motivate and lead.
from Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, Extreme Ownership
°
Create something to uplift your spirits—it won’t be a masterpiece, but the simple act of creation can anchor you while discharging the ruminative loop of your thoughts.
Engaging in a tangible, attentive activity (a concrete action) is a small step toward agency and a reminder of one’s ability to shape your environment, which in turn can shape one’s mood.
Oddly, the physical item (the remnant of action) embodies your time spent, mapping it into the real, while so much of our time is spent scrolling or pontificating with no memorable results.
°
In Animal Farm, there is a moment when the corpulent and gluttonous pigs invoke an enemy as a need for restraint. This harbinger required restriction and sacrifice.
When the populace recognizes that this artificially enhanced restriction encourages more opulent gluttony or ill-considered expenditures by the privileged leaders, we may declare, "We will not be fooled again."
And in desperation for reform, we enshrine our liar, our harbinger of revenge to displace their liar. In such repetitive ways we ensure trust is forgotten for tactical victories.
–
–
–
°
First, we should know not to poison ourselves for a high.
We love weird, violent, drama-filled television and media, and yet it upsets our dreams and arouses anxiety and suspicion. We then drink alcohol to mute the feelings that we provoke.
Simultaneously, we don’t work out, which counterintuitively leads us to eat worse: we either rush towards disaster or dive into self-improvement but can’t maintain a moderate stance.
Humans are oddly compulsive; even when we move in the right direction, we overdo it, begging for trouble at every turn.
–
–
