Belly Button Lint

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Tag: Creativity

  • Theme:

    You don’t read power: play, delete, repeat

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    1–2 minutes

    What if power is not written in stone but like media recorded, played, erased, re-recorded, rewritten repeatedly, and rehashed as nostalgic storylines?

    Power, rather than written on high, appears amidst a kind of dumb, interactive exchange, where power occasionally dons the mask of symbolic order as needed: the “stability of power” makes a strong entrance when needed, but typically, higher truth is absent, letting the axiomatic rewrite us.

    This underscores Fisher’s comments: With power, you only need to see it; you won’t read it. Capitalism is “profoundly illiterate:” “you play it, it plays you.”

    Power is not uni-directional, but a mutual persuasion (you watch it, it writes you, you record over it). It does not need an ideological strategy to win you over but functions like a contagion upon contact, where you invite in repeatedly, aligning yourself to its process, over and over.

    (idea from Mark Fisher)

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    Therapeutic State

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    1–2 minutes

    Our once “administrative state” has been supplanted with the “therapeutic state” that manages Americans’ mental and emotional well-being, extending its reach into the role of individual communities.

    This aligns with the managerial regime’s goals to incorporate private life aspects into its realm of control, a.k .a. managerial overreach. This creates a realm of bureaucratic expertise where managers can marginalize and demonize the opposition: only the insane would argue against progress.

    The only cure is the complete alignment with the professional-managerial classes’ ideologies and lifestyles.

    We have produced a class of elite Nurse Ratched’s whose safetyism negates debate, preferring destruction.

    (from N.S. Lyons)

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    Moral Flip: Idealism leads to Evil

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    1–2 minutes

    High moral principles reduce room for compromise. In fact, compromise itself is often seen as suspect.

    Inverse to our lauded praise for "moral steadfastness" its rigidity and idealism lead to evil.

    This happens when the desirable ends provide justification for violent and oppressive means. Or, you want good so much that you become bad.

  • Theme:

    Idle, Idol, Idyll, Ideal

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    1–2 minutes

    Tempted by the serenity of the idyllic we become content unto idleness.

    Yet the virtuous ideal is a persistent, returning idol demanding the sacrifice of tranquility for potential.

    • Idle: not active; unemployed.
    • Idol: an effigy; a celebrity.
    • Idyll: a happy interlude; rural serenity, natural perfection
    • Ideal: the perfect standard
  • Theme:

    We don’t need new ideas

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    1–2 minutes

    The problem is not coming up with new ideas: there are already millions of ideas (since the dawn of time) from practical to insane that we don’t use or use horribly.

    The issue for mankind is not being creative or novel, though it feels great, but rather parsing through these old ideas and staying the course.

    To simplify: discipline is more valuable than creativity today.

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    Subtracting from the Ideal

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    1–2 minutes

    Beginning from perfection guarantees reality will come up short.

    However, if we start from a position of blankness (non-anticipation), every benefit or character trait is a novel addition instead of a subtraction from the ideal.

    Starting from the ideal promises unconentment and loss.

  • Theme:

    Concepts lie by omission

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    1–2 minutes

    "Concepts" are universalized and helpful in pointing out generalities. The danger of concepts is that they omit particularity’s complicated, messy truth.

    The simplicity of an abstract idea (concept) is a handy guide. Still, we must temper our lazy compulsion to assign these attractive concepts to, or privilege them over, a concrete experience rich with intuition.

  • Theme:

    The cybernetic creative

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    1–2 minutes

    Carl Jung speaks of the “daimon” of creatives, and the difficulty of balancing intense energies.

    The daimon is not necessarily a demon, but a muse that compels. Ignored or frustrated the pent-up energy builds as anxiety and is often countered with self medicating in an attempt to feel normal.

    Like any cybernetic system, positive energies must be regulated (released regularly) lest a tragic explosion occur.

  • Theme:

    nature is too real

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    1–2 minutes

    Ever since the reasoning mind was granted dominance, our war against nature has increasingly mirrored a split from reality.

    Since we can predict a narrow point of progress and achieve it, we have lost -in direct proportion- our ability to comprehend and sustain broader symbiotic relationships.

    (inspired by Calvin and Hobbes and Bataille)

  • Theme:

    Sharp ideas cut better

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    1–2 minutes

    The development of ideas is the history of the world. Arguing is the sharpening stone, scraping ideas across ideas and discarding irritating protruding shards to the floor of history.

    The benefit is a hardened, razor-sharp idea, perfect for poking someone or severing them a twain. Perfect for domination.