Happy Sunday evening, thanks again for a wonderful thoughtful column. Been very mentally exhausted lately with all that is going on, and frankly worried it could easily get worse next week. I read a wonderful David French column (https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/only-the-church-can-truly-defeat) that I felt crystallized some of my thoughts on several topics, including lies. I'm not religious but I do respect a lot of what David says (and I loved his book, unfortunately a lot of what he said might happen is happening! :-( ). I kinda wish I was out in the bush somewhere now.. but here I sit. Have a great week!
Also, I agree with French. I realized that about climate change and Christianity some years ago, and was grateful to find a group here of climate activists who are evangelical Christians because I realized there is no way and atheist like myself would be able to build trust with certain groups. I feel the same way about gun debates. The views in pro-gun circles are even more hardened, and I don't think anyone outside of them is going to be persuasive. Most of that change, if it is goin to happen, has to come from within (I know some people doing that, though not publicly yet).
As I tried to drag myself away from Twitter yesterday, turns out David French's column was being quoted all over! I just read it -- very good -- and read a bit of the interesting conversations in the comments, which I appreciate because I can see they're difficult and respectful. What a welcome rarity!
I could go on and on about that subject, but then that's what this newsletter is for!
Also, Rod Dreher (not that I'd ever recommend anyone reading him by choice) wrote an interesting piece on a Trump rally and Christianity a few weeks ago in The American Conservative, and it was interesting to see his eyes being opened, and also people in the comments pointing out that certain evangelical sects have been promoting this kind of "trust that when you feel ecstasy in some kind of action, especially collective, it's God's work" and there's a lot of that at play in all of this (also the constant insertions of My Pillow advertisements just makes it all ... so American?): https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/what-i-saw-at-the-jericho-march/
Hi Antonia, Happy Monday :-). Thanks for the excellent links! Yea, me too on gun debates, and happy to hear some 'within' work is going on. Old Zen saying "Break in from the outside and your power is weak; break out from the inside and your power is great". Mark Manson ("The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F$ck" )has a weekly newsletter and today he talks about a new study that finds when people are angry they are more susceptible to believing misinformation. Will send it to ya (it's short, goodness I know how much you must be reading :-) ).
That was a great article. Thank you for sending! I guess it's always essential, when feeling anger, to step back and ask oneself to specify: angry about what?
You are most welcome! And continued thanks to you for the wide variety of material (yours, others) you share with us. I had a coach once in a life far away :-) and he told me something about anger that resonated and has stuck with me. That is, when you get angry, most likely you are angry with yourself. Still makes me pause..
I've heard that somewhere before, maybe in parenting advice, like the things that annoy you most about your kids is the thing that annoys you about yourself.
And so it turns out we should expect the worst from bad actors (if we can identify them) and plan accordingly. Turn the wheel early in the course so corrections don’t take so much energy.
It astounds me how smart she's been, how clear-seeing, how hard she's worked on getting her message out there constantly and clearly, and yet how she's still not really mainstream.
Happy Sunday evening, thanks again for a wonderful thoughtful column. Been very mentally exhausted lately with all that is going on, and frankly worried it could easily get worse next week. I read a wonderful David French column (https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/only-the-church-can-truly-defeat) that I felt crystallized some of my thoughts on several topics, including lies. I'm not religious but I do respect a lot of what David says (and I loved his book, unfortunately a lot of what he said might happen is happening! :-( ). I kinda wish I was out in the bush somewhere now.. but here I sit. Have a great week!
Also, I agree with French. I realized that about climate change and Christianity some years ago, and was grateful to find a group here of climate activists who are evangelical Christians because I realized there is no way and atheist like myself would be able to build trust with certain groups. I feel the same way about gun debates. The views in pro-gun circles are even more hardened, and I don't think anyone outside of them is going to be persuasive. Most of that change, if it is goin to happen, has to come from within (I know some people doing that, though not publicly yet).
As I tried to drag myself away from Twitter yesterday, turns out David French's column was being quoted all over! I just read it -- very good -- and read a bit of the interesting conversations in the comments, which I appreciate because I can see they're difficult and respectful. What a welcome rarity!
If you want to share a couple of essays on the commons with commenters there, this one on capitalism's inability to coexist with a healthy commons by Dirk Philipsen (an economist who's been working to try to get countries to abandon GDP as a metric of economic well-being) is excellent: https://aeon.co/essays/the-challenge-of-reclaiming-the-commons-from-capitalism?comment_id=33865&reply_id=56701
And I wrote one a few years ago that was kind of the seed for this whole newsletter: https://aeon.co/essays/is-it-time-to-upend-the-idea-that-land-is-private-property
I could go on and on about that subject, but then that's what this newsletter is for!
Also, Rod Dreher (not that I'd ever recommend anyone reading him by choice) wrote an interesting piece on a Trump rally and Christianity a few weeks ago in The American Conservative, and it was interesting to see his eyes being opened, and also people in the comments pointing out that certain evangelical sects have been promoting this kind of "trust that when you feel ecstasy in some kind of action, especially collective, it's God's work" and there's a lot of that at play in all of this (also the constant insertions of My Pillow advertisements just makes it all ... so American?): https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/what-i-saw-at-the-jericho-march/
Hi Antonia, Happy Monday :-). Thanks for the excellent links! Yea, me too on gun debates, and happy to hear some 'within' work is going on. Old Zen saying "Break in from the outside and your power is weak; break out from the inside and your power is great". Mark Manson ("The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F$ck" )has a weekly newsletter and today he talks about a new study that finds when people are angry they are more susceptible to believing misinformation. Will send it to ya (it's short, goodness I know how much you must be reading :-) ).
I've never heard that saying! It's perfect.
That was a great article. Thank you for sending! I guess it's always essential, when feeling anger, to step back and ask oneself to specify: angry about what?
You are most welcome! And continued thanks to you for the wide variety of material (yours, others) you share with us. I had a coach once in a life far away :-) and he told me something about anger that resonated and has stuck with me. That is, when you get angry, most likely you are angry with yourself. Still makes me pause..
I've heard that somewhere before, maybe in parenting advice, like the things that annoy you most about your kids is the thing that annoys you about yourself.
This is so good. I wish we could sit down and talk about it. You're such a good writer.
Yes she is- fabulous. And so are you. 👏
It's really all about community ... which means everyone :)
Dude. I only aspire to be like you and others of the best. Hope you're taking care of yourself.
And so it turns out we should expect the worst from bad actors (if we can identify them) and plan accordingly. Turn the wheel early in the course so corrections don’t take so much energy.
It would be nice if we did!
It's why I'm grateful for Sarah Kendzior; she just needs a better publicity agent and cheering section.
It astounds me how smart she's been, how clear-seeing, how hard she's worked on getting her message out there constantly and clearly, and yet how she's still not really mainstream.