Okay, i'm kind of already over the program schedule because I don't actually want to write about theory. These days you don't really need complex ideological frameworks to understand why the world is fucked. It's literally written in all caps everywhere you go.
Fuck, okay, I guess I should though. I have a whole shelf of these books for some reason, I might as well take a peak.
I got this copy of The Portable Enlightenment Reader. I know that's like the oppositie of the cool lefty post-humanism perspective that would probably fit the vibes better, but you gotta start somehwere. I think I got the book forever ago when I saw it for cheap somehwere and figured it was worth having around. It's also sort of interesting that these are sort of the ideas that formed this society that we live in now, at least serving as it's stated guiding principle if not an acting one. I feel like a lib saying this, but these are things MAGA and other contemporary right-wing nationialists are attacking moreso than left-wing perspectives.
I just read the first passage included, Kant's Essay What is Enlightenment? I don't think I've read Kant since I was in a philosophy course, and I bet even then I didn't actually read it. This was alright, though, I guess. The basic takeaway is obviously to think for yourself. Reading through it - and I'm sure I'd have to deal with this throughout most of the things included - I couldn't help think about how poisionend this appeal is at this point. The whole notion of a "marketplace of ideas" and "free-thinkers" has become a meme, and it's basically impossible to use them unironically. But they're not always being used in bad faith, right?
ugh i'm actually kind of interested in this now. I defintely won't read all of it, but I might skip through it a little more and read some other passgaes. Not tonight, though - it's passed my bedtime.
promise i'll do better next time,
- v0id
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