Belly Button Lint

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Tag: play

  • Theme:

    social media captures leisure, which is us

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    1–2 minutes

    Labor used to be bodily work with limits, meaning your leisure time was yours while your labor time created capital through products and services.

    Sociologists once thought the only way to know someone was by what they did in their free time; at work, they were compromised.

    The miracle of social media is how it has converted “disposable time” into fixed capital; the mechanics of capture bypass physical labor limits to consume thoughts, style, and representation, altering it into material, structural wealth.

    The machinery of capture has ensnared us, but we have gone willingly out of awe and fear. Beginning with industrial bodily factory ballet and permeating to our mind and time, we are now devoted to the mechanics of the algorithmic desire.

    “but this is the art of the machines—they serve that they may rule.” Samuel Butler, 1897

  • Theme:

    divisive by design

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    1–2 minutes

    Our nation is divisive and fracturing into tribes.

    Why? The radicalization machine is fed by alienation.

    Since alienation fractures communal bonds into tribal factions, we become myopic in our problem-solving. This is by design: self-centered rage is easily manipulable, providing pawns and cover for greater social ills.

    Rather than choosing a side, realize there is a larger game being played: you are playing Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey while real-life Battleship is bombarding.

  • Theme:

    siege perilous

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    1–2 minutes

    The “siege perilous” is the seat held empty by Merlin at King Arthur’s round table.

    It is a place of supposed honor reserved for the worthy one who will accomplish the improbable.

    To be granted the seat is often a curse, crushed beneath its pressure and politics.

    The trap is to provide a seat at the right hand of power, which draws forth the ambitious and unfailingly proves them undeserving. The king is always gracious in the offer; the ambitious are fools or naively pure of heart. If the seat is legitimately claimed, then the king is stronger for it.

    Either way, the opening up of a space adjacent to power is brilliant: a void begs to be filled while distracting from those who set the game board.

  • Theme:

    The blame game

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    1–2 minutes

    When we excessively shift fault to the negligence of others (by insisting they should’ve thought more of us or prevented hardship from happening to us), we create a space that disincentivizes responsibility and creativity.

    For example, automakers who fail to recall vehicles often intentionally mask profiteering as accidental negligence expecting only a harsh rebuke. Yet, the victim deserves total remuneration, and the false practice must be deterred.

    However, if we redefine “victimization” to a scale beyond any reasonable foresight and then punish makers for lacking Nostradamus-like predictive capacity, any intelligent creator will realize success makes you a target.

    If you are inventive, perhaps create, then take the money and run. There will no longer be responsible oversight or incremental advancement, but instead hit-and-run creativity to avoid a victimization mob.

  • Theme:

    leisure: the highest human virtue

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    1–2 minutes

    Aristotle suggests the highest human virtue is leisure.
    Not producing (or consuming) is when you can self-reflect and pontificate.
    Every other action, such as war, politics, or vacation, serves some other function.

    The real question is: if we have forgotten how to serve ourselves, we must always serve a function.

    {from Oliver Burkeman, “4,000 weeks” }

  • Theme:

    Bring your past into the present to have fun.

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    1–2 minutes

    To have fun, ignite an old hobby.

    It will change your day without requiring a learning curve.

  • Theme:

    Recruiting for dysfunction

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    1–2 minutes

    When recruiting for a cause, organic mutation leads to impossible promises and tainted origins.
    Only a few members will align with your long-term familial agenda: finding the appropriate dysfunctions to thrive is a numbers game.

  • Theme:

    Changing the game, but not the player

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    1–2 minutes

    We often switch the game without changing our motivation.

    Example: We drink until we are out of control, allowing us to lose inhibition and seek attention. We then get sober to stay in power. Feeling empowered, we start to moralize.

    The new game comes with new power and accolades from society, from which we can get more attention.

    Are we better off? Absolutely.
    Have we addressed the primal driver? No.
    What happens next? We find yet another game.

  • Theme:

    Play cures Burnout

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    1–2 minutes

    Creativity generates positive energy.
    You will be tempted to be creatively productive, to make something with utility, but don’t succumb to that instinct: Make something pointless that makes you laugh.
    Play is the ultimate cure for burnout.

  • Theme:

    beyond reason

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    1–2 minutes

    Is there a point where we can act spontaneously -instantly- manifest our uniqueness without the ponderous weight of rationality?
    This presumes a self that can function irrationally, which we do constantly, yet we still privilege reason as an ideal.
    This pursuit manifests as a programmable man, front-loading your reason into habits that become instinctive.