Thank you so much for posting the link to the "Psyche" article -- it was fascinating and illuminating, although I think it dropped off way too soon. So much to mull over. I've only recently learned about the painter Artemisia, and I'm just blown away by her. My mother is one of these anti-feminists, and I think of how zealously she has suppressed her own experiences of oppression, how she passed along the grossest of patriarchal values to her three daughters and how it's taken each of us our entire adult lives to push through. Yet, I feel compassion for my mother because I understand in small part the whys. The last four years of Trumpism, though, really damaged our relationship. It had to become something entirely superficial. Thank you, too, for the rest of your own post -- so much to mull and think about.
I agree about the essay dropping off too soon. I find that with a lot of the Psyche pieces. It's the same people who do Aeon but they seem to be approaching the longform "big idea" structure a little differently there.
People keep pointing out that the areas that handled Covid best had women leaders (New Zealand, Michigan, Taiwan), which is true, but other areas that dealt with it horribly also had women leaders (South Dakota is a prime example). The "what's wrong with white women" and oppression makes sense of the Handmaid's Tale--the only way a world like that could happen from the rubble of a liberal democracy is if women helped support it. I feel compassion, too, but it's hard. One of my close friends has gone through the same trajectory with her mother that you're describing. I think one of the hard things, from what she's said, is that she keeps trying to direct their conversations to the non-political, but once you're in deep enough everything becomes political :(
Whatever it is that is wrong with white women is a whole lot wronger with white men. Drunk on white supremacy is part of it. Although drunk isn't even the right word. Marinated. Suffused. Besotted. Stained to the core. There might be 300 words for how unapologetically dominant white supremacy has become in white society.
So many have written it better than I could. I keep thinking of white supremacy as an illness or a virus. That's not accurate but it does help me work on it without despairing.
This has my head spinning, but in all the right ways! I’m going to be thinking about this for days. I tend to believe that those who own the most land came about it through improper means. I don’t own much, but value what I have. I purchased my first land (a small parcel) last December, so property rights are suddenly important to me. I want to commune with my earth (hopeful that it wants to be mine and that I can keep it) and learn every inch of it. I wish I knew it’s whole history. I’ve been surprised by peony bushes and other annuals, which, when you buy in the winter, you weren’t aware you purchased. My push lawnmower is woefully inadequate and mowing consumed my entire Saturday (which was great, actually). I am tempted to trespass into the woods to find morel mushrooms. Also, my city has been going through a massive and emotionally raw up zoning debate. So, your essay is so relevant (and, as always, gorgeously written). It’s important to remember that property rights have been a problem historically instead of assuming that less people meant ample land. Thank you for reminding me!
The whole history is huge and complex, and I'm obviously obsessed with it! Especially the Charter of the Forest, which was a companion document signed a couple years after the Magna Carta and focused more specifically on subsistence rights for commoners.
Fundamentally, I don't believe that land itself should be private property. But it is and I don't see rewinding that (plus, as people constantly comment on the main essay I wrote about the subject, the Soviet Union did that and it turned out terribly), so what I really try to focus on is rights of use and owner's responsibilities to the commons. I think that redefining what kinds of rights are granted with ownership *and* our own relationship with land can achieve the same results in the long run. Like you, I want to commune with the earth I "own" and am often saddened that I have no traditions for that. The ones I make up myself seem thin and ineffective.
But I love that you bring up zoning because that's kind of how we make up for ownership. It's not enough in most cases, and very often backfires (like from what I understand in the Bay Area and some other cities, zoning for single-family homes contributes to lack of affordable housing) but it's actually an incredible tool. My town has used it extensively since the 80s to maintain a healthy and walkable downtown core and until recently to chip away at our lack of affordable housing (the legislature recently made that specific zoning illegal). It can be very effective at keeping communities intact.
I am chagrined to say that I'm not sure, though I think it was about the mind-body dualism in "Ethics." Usually the quotes I put up are from what I'm actively reading at the moment, but my dad was talking about Spinoza last weekend so I was browsing around some excerpts. This one doesn't say where it specifically is from, so I poked around his books in the Guttenberg Library and still couldn't find it. That was laziness from me.
That is a generous thought! Once it was turned down I took up some copy editing contracts, but when I'm done with those in a few months I'll probably be ready to turn back to it. Thank you!
Thank you so much for posting the link to the "Psyche" article -- it was fascinating and illuminating, although I think it dropped off way too soon. So much to mull over. I've only recently learned about the painter Artemisia, and I'm just blown away by her. My mother is one of these anti-feminists, and I think of how zealously she has suppressed her own experiences of oppression, how she passed along the grossest of patriarchal values to her three daughters and how it's taken each of us our entire adult lives to push through. Yet, I feel compassion for my mother because I understand in small part the whys. The last four years of Trumpism, though, really damaged our relationship. It had to become something entirely superficial. Thank you, too, for the rest of your own post -- so much to mull and think about.
I agree about the essay dropping off too soon. I find that with a lot of the Psyche pieces. It's the same people who do Aeon but they seem to be approaching the longform "big idea" structure a little differently there.
People keep pointing out that the areas that handled Covid best had women leaders (New Zealand, Michigan, Taiwan), which is true, but other areas that dealt with it horribly also had women leaders (South Dakota is a prime example). The "what's wrong with white women" and oppression makes sense of the Handmaid's Tale--the only way a world like that could happen from the rubble of a liberal democracy is if women helped support it. I feel compassion, too, but it's hard. One of my close friends has gone through the same trajectory with her mother that you're describing. I think one of the hard things, from what she's said, is that she keeps trying to direct their conversations to the non-political, but once you're in deep enough everything becomes political :(
Whatever it is that is wrong with white women is a whole lot wronger with white men. Drunk on white supremacy is part of it. Although drunk isn't even the right word. Marinated. Suffused. Besotted. Stained to the core. There might be 300 words for how unapologetically dominant white supremacy has become in white society.
So many have written it better than I could. I keep thinking of white supremacy as an illness or a virus. That's not accurate but it does help me work on it without despairing.
This has my head spinning, but in all the right ways! I’m going to be thinking about this for days. I tend to believe that those who own the most land came about it through improper means. I don’t own much, but value what I have. I purchased my first land (a small parcel) last December, so property rights are suddenly important to me. I want to commune with my earth (hopeful that it wants to be mine and that I can keep it) and learn every inch of it. I wish I knew it’s whole history. I’ve been surprised by peony bushes and other annuals, which, when you buy in the winter, you weren’t aware you purchased. My push lawnmower is woefully inadequate and mowing consumed my entire Saturday (which was great, actually). I am tempted to trespass into the woods to find morel mushrooms. Also, my city has been going through a massive and emotionally raw up zoning debate. So, your essay is so relevant (and, as always, gorgeously written). It’s important to remember that property rights have been a problem historically instead of assuming that less people meant ample land. Thank you for reminding me!
The whole history is huge and complex, and I'm obviously obsessed with it! Especially the Charter of the Forest, which was a companion document signed a couple years after the Magna Carta and focused more specifically on subsistence rights for commoners.
Fundamentally, I don't believe that land itself should be private property. But it is and I don't see rewinding that (plus, as people constantly comment on the main essay I wrote about the subject, the Soviet Union did that and it turned out terribly), so what I really try to focus on is rights of use and owner's responsibilities to the commons. I think that redefining what kinds of rights are granted with ownership *and* our own relationship with land can achieve the same results in the long run. Like you, I want to commune with the earth I "own" and am often saddened that I have no traditions for that. The ones I make up myself seem thin and ineffective.
But I love that you bring up zoning because that's kind of how we make up for ownership. It's not enough in most cases, and very often backfires (like from what I understand in the Bay Area and some other cities, zoning for single-family homes contributes to lack of affordable housing) but it's actually an incredible tool. My town has used it extensively since the 80s to maintain a healthy and walkable downtown core and until recently to chip away at our lack of affordable housing (the legislature recently made that specific zoning illegal). It can be very effective at keeping communities intact.
I am chagrined to say that I'm not sure, though I think it was about the mind-body dualism in "Ethics." Usually the quotes I put up are from what I'm actively reading at the moment, but my dad was talking about Spinoza last weekend so I was browsing around some excerpts. This one doesn't say where it specifically is from, so I poked around his books in the Guttenberg Library and still couldn't find it. That was laziness from me.
That is a generous thought! Once it was turned down I took up some copy editing contracts, but when I'm done with those in a few months I'll probably be ready to turn back to it. Thank you!