Two days ago I deleted my Twitter account and hibernated my LinkedIn account, with a view to deleting it soon—I didn't quite have the courage to do it immediately.
Highly concur re Walter Wink and Jesus’ Third Way. Read it with a Spirituality at Work group back in '01. (Highly recommend it: The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium, by Walter Wink).
Good on you, Tobias. Purging toxic and dead information was long overdue. This looks like a decent place for now. Reminds me of the early days of Medium.
As long as the "islander" mentality persists in the Occident, we will have these deeply irrational attempts to create buffer zones and secure pivots to protect the hinterland from the "savage Mongols and Slavs". Pitting us against each other has, historically, proven to be the most effective way to feed this irrational sense of security and control.
Thought-provoking. In your other article, what really stood out is us screaming this is GOOD & this is BAD and in the process losing all nuances, angles & colours that may have led to the situation that led to the GOOD vs BAD screaming rather than having a balanced discussion around it. I am now not talking from just the angle of war but from the angle of our day to day life and dealings with people in society.
Aninda, I recommend Caitlin Johnstone's recent post: Big Brave Keyboard Warriors, in which she writes (among other sharp observations):
"Condemning Putin is the easiest, safest, most redundant, least courageous thing that anyone in the western world can do right now. What's a lot harder at the current moment is taking a bold stand against the west's depraved role in getting this war started and in keeping it going."
Great article Tobias. I remember the last Iraq war. I was doing my PhD at the time and everyone was so self righteous about “sorting out this bad man”. It’s a scary sort of thinking that hands crazy mandates to political leaders who invariably use everything to their own end. Biden, Macron and Johnson are all benefiting from their stance on the Ukraine. They are coercing the rest of us to condemn Russia and help the plucky Ukrainians (until the next major shift in the news cycle, at which point we will leave the Ukrainians to solve their own problems). It’s all so disingenuous and if you say anything short of “Putin is a very bad man”, you get crucified. How on earth did it ever come to this? Why does jingoism come into fashion every 20-30 years? You think we would learn…
Brian, I think we've learnt not to learn (from history). Not learning suits the ruling power much better, as we are collectively easier to rile up in indignation, which is very useful, politically, as you point out. Thanks for your comment.
Well said - ‘I’m done with being told what to think, done with the polarisation, the left/right, good/evil, them/us divisions.’ I’ve just started to read The Critic and it’s a good reading. Love the Substack app
Ps. This article is why I don’t try to engage with the masses on social media. #knowyouraudience
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/76144/why-no-one-wanted-aws-third-pound-burger
That's hilarious. Man!
Highly concur re Walter Wink and Jesus’ Third Way. Read it with a Spirituality at Work group back in '01. (Highly recommend it: The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium, by Walter Wink).
Good on you, Tobias. Purging toxic and dead information was long overdue. This looks like a decent place for now. Reminds me of the early days of Medium.
As long as the "islander" mentality persists in the Occident, we will have these deeply irrational attempts to create buffer zones and secure pivots to protect the hinterland from the "savage Mongols and Slavs". Pitting us against each other has, historically, proven to be the most effective way to feed this irrational sense of security and control.
Thought-provoking. In your other article, what really stood out is us screaming this is GOOD & this is BAD and in the process losing all nuances, angles & colours that may have led to the situation that led to the GOOD vs BAD screaming rather than having a balanced discussion around it. I am now not talking from just the angle of war but from the angle of our day to day life and dealings with people in society.
Aninda, I recommend Caitlin Johnstone's recent post: Big Brave Keyboard Warriors, in which she writes (among other sharp observations):
"Condemning Putin is the easiest, safest, most redundant, least courageous thing that anyone in the western world can do right now. What's a lot harder at the current moment is taking a bold stand against the west's depraved role in getting this war started and in keeping it going."
— https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/big-brave-keyboard-warriors-notes
Great article Tobias. I remember the last Iraq war. I was doing my PhD at the time and everyone was so self righteous about “sorting out this bad man”. It’s a scary sort of thinking that hands crazy mandates to political leaders who invariably use everything to their own end. Biden, Macron and Johnson are all benefiting from their stance on the Ukraine. They are coercing the rest of us to condemn Russia and help the plucky Ukrainians (until the next major shift in the news cycle, at which point we will leave the Ukrainians to solve their own problems). It’s all so disingenuous and if you say anything short of “Putin is a very bad man”, you get crucified. How on earth did it ever come to this? Why does jingoism come into fashion every 20-30 years? You think we would learn…
Brian, I think we've learnt not to learn (from history). Not learning suits the ruling power much better, as we are collectively easier to rile up in indignation, which is very useful, politically, as you point out. Thanks for your comment.
Well said - ‘I’m done with being told what to think, done with the polarisation, the left/right, good/evil, them/us divisions.’ I’ve just started to read The Critic and it’s a good reading. Love the Substack app