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Showing posts from June, 2019

Critical theory, dot-to-dot drawings, mandalas, and Boris Johnson

Joining the dots In order to better understand how society works, and how we are agents within it, I believe it may be helpful to conceptualize society through a critical lens as an animated 'dot-to-dot' drawing - a moving 3D picture that, in addition to form and content, has a time-constrained dimension of 'dynamism'. We can consider the 'dynamism' ( direction, speed, velocity, momentum, effects of drag, friction, and gravity)  along vectors pertaining to established notions of values or paradigms, for example, conservatism and liberalism, or capitalism and socialism. Do you remember the dot-to-dot illustration activities you did as a child? The ones where you had hold of the pencil, and were guided by two sets of forces: 1) external forces: the instructions printed to one side;  the location of the dots; the ascending numbers or alphabetical sequences; the previously learned rules for drawing activities; and the quality and type of the pencil; and

Infamy, infamy, they've all got it...

Have you heard the story about " the white cishet male " being an oppressed group?  Have you seen the  straight pride march ? Have you heard that " a Christian curriculum " is needed for proper cultural literacy? Or that the " moral question " [of sexuality is] far more complex than the liberal-dominated edu-community seems to understand "? Note that the first statement was made by a well-known misogynist and proponent of eugenics , who believes in a meritocracy but got his  university place and at least one  role through nepotism. Despite how very  tedious it is, note that it's one amongst many platformed cries from advantaged groups, disguised as victimisation and dressed in faux appeals to reason. There is one goal in mind: to keep the power with those who have always had it. Note that the 'straight pride' march was organised by a member of the far-right, a group typified by their racism, ethnofascism, and misogyny.