I love these thoughts so much. I agree, it is our culture's need for everything to be productive. What are next steps? What do we do? Instead of sitting with the psychic shifts that true art can create, that aren't always measurable but are no less profound.
This obsession with the boom to provide a solution runs parallel with the devaluing of care work itself. Care work is repetitive and temporal, and this makes it invisible in our system. So too with analysis... if it’s not fixing the problem and sending it on its way, it’s not valuable. Hmm 🤨
"The self-helpization of memoir" feels adjacent to New Age philosophies taking root, which have grown increasingly far right since the start of the pandemic; though given our puritanical obsession with "work will set you free" (a doctrine apparently fairly unique to protestantism when compared to other religions from what I've read) the rise of neo-fascist libertarian ideals doesn't really surprise me. All serving to distract the mass populace from the systemic issues. Thank you for naming this!
I Am Not An Aspirational Character
The first step to solving any problem is simply caring enough to talk about it. Reading your words is like taking a deep breath.
I love these thoughts so much. I agree, it is our culture's need for everything to be productive. What are next steps? What do we do? Instead of sitting with the psychic shifts that true art can create, that aren't always measurable but are no less profound.
This obsession with the boom to provide a solution runs parallel with the devaluing of care work itself. Care work is repetitive and temporal, and this makes it invisible in our system. So too with analysis... if it’s not fixing the problem and sending it on its way, it’s not valuable. Hmm 🤨
"The self-helpization of memoir" feels adjacent to New Age philosophies taking root, which have grown increasingly far right since the start of the pandemic; though given our puritanical obsession with "work will set you free" (a doctrine apparently fairly unique to protestantism when compared to other religions from what I've read) the rise of neo-fascist libertarian ideals doesn't really surprise me. All serving to distract the mass populace from the systemic issues. Thank you for naming this!