Pinboard (matthewmcvickar) https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/public/ recent bookmarks from matthewmcvickar Jenny Odell: The Myth of Self-Reliance (The Paris Review) 2020-02-12T17:19:07+00:00 https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/01/15/the-myth-of-self-reliance/ matthewmcvickarI saw that I had absorbed from my family and my upbringing a specific brand of individualism, valorizing and transmitting it unknowingly. I’d done this throughout my entire life, but especially in How to Do Nothing. Around my favored versions of contemplative solitude, so similar to Emerson’s, a whole suite of circumstances appeared in full relief, like something coming into focus. The women in the kitchen made the mens’ conversation possible, just as my trip to the mountain—and really all of my time spent walking, observing, and courting the “over-soul”—rested upon a long list of privileges, from the specific (owning a car, having the time), to the general (able-bodied, upper-middle-class, half white and half “model minority,” a walkable neighborhood in a desirable city, and more). There was an entire infrastructure around my experience of freedom, and I’d been so busy chasing it that I hadn’t seen it.]]> books philosophy literature https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:e3852ffb2adb/ Lisa Charlotte Rost: Map vs. Territory 2019-07-25T03:38:04+00:00 https://lisacharlotterost.de/2016/04/21/Maps-vs-Territory/ matthewmcvickarThere is no accurate Map of the Territory. That we can’t see the Territory as it is is not the only reason for impossible accuracy. We would also fail in creating the perfect Map because the most accurate Map of the Territory can only be the Territory itself. ]]> thinking politics philosophy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:758c8cbfad61/ Robin James: The Other Secret Twist: On the Political Philosophy of The Good Place (LA Review of Books) 2018-10-12T03:38:26+00:00 https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/secret-twist-political-philosophy-good-place/#! matthewmcvickarEleanor recognizes that only in The Bad Place would people be forced to treat others as disposable…so they must be in The Bad Place. And when she makes decisions on the assumption that she isn’t in an ideal world, this throws a wrench in Michael’s plan. He has to reboot that world because Eleanor’s behavior has become incompatible with it. Eventually (in “Team Cockroach” S2E4) Michael joins them, realizing that he needs their help if he himself is to escape the ultimately punitive and carceral regime of which he is a part. That’s what the show spends the rest of season 2 doing: season 2 is about mostly white women and people of color (and one white male accomplice who literally is a mostly(?) reformed demon…plus Janet, who I’ll get to later) collectively practicing philosophy on the assumption that the world they live in is not in fact equal but designed to harm and oppress them. [...] Beginning from the assumption that everyone’s on more or less an equal playing field and thus entitled to equal weight in the conversation (and that people generally want to do the right thing, which Mills calls the assumption of “strict compliance”), this is the same “both sides” liberalism that Mills critiques as ideal theory. Despite what Schur tells us the show’s message is, season 2 shows us a very different message, one about the importance of beginning from the assumption that you—especially if you are a white woman, person of color, or non-human person—are in The Bad Place. And you’re there not because of anything you did, but because White Men engineered it that way for their benefit.]]> television philosophy politics ethics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:ae31ee8b9da7/ Aaron Hanlon: Postmodernism didn’t cause Trump. It explains him. (Washington Post) 2018-09-06T20:48:18+00:00 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/postmodernism-didnt-cause-trump-it-explains-him/2018/08/30/0939f7c4-9b12-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html?noredirect=on matthewmcvickarAcademic theorists weren’t looking to destroy truth, but to diagnose its collapse.]]> trump theory philosophy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:ecf4d4c83d17/ Mark Fisher: Phonograph blues 2018-06-03T19:12:30+00:00 http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/008535.html matthewmcvickarThe spectres are textural. The surface noise of the sample unsettles the illusion of presence in at least two ways: first, temporally, by alerting us to the fact that what we are listening to is a phonographic revenant, and second, ontologically, by introducing the technical frame, the unheard material pre-condition of the recording, on the level of content. We're now so accustomed to this violation of ontological hierarchy that it goes unnoticed. But in his Wire piece, Simon refers to the shock he experienced when he first heard records constructed entirely out of samples. I vividly recall the first time I went into studio and heard vocal samples played through a mixing desk; I really do remember saying, 'It's like hearing ghosts...']]> culture music philosophy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:9334e1e19b29/ Ruth Whippman: Actually, Let’s Not Be in the Moment (NY Times) 2016-12-03T05:06:36+00:00 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/actually-lets-not-be-in-the-moment.html?_r=0 matthewmcvickarThis is a kind of neo-liberalism of the emotions, in which happiness is seen not as a response to our circumstances but as a result of our own individual mental effort, a reward for the deserving. The problem is not your sky-high rent or meager paycheck, your cheating spouse or unfair boss or teetering pile of dirty dishes. The problem is you.
It is, of course, easier and cheaper to blame the individual for thinking the wrong thoughts than it is to tackle the thorny causes of his unhappiness. So we give inner-city schoolchildren mindfulness classes rather than engage with education inequality, and instruct exhausted office workers in mindful breathing rather than giving them paid vacation or better health care benefits.
]]> philosophy stress https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:dd0956c5db10/ Frédérik Lesage: Review of ‘Alien Phenomenology, or What It's Like to Be a Thing’ by Ian Bogost (Culture Machine) 2015-05-09T02:17:20+00:00 http://www.culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/article/viewArticle/487 matthewmcvickarIn an account of designing one of these litanizers for an OOO symposium website, Bogost writes how it inadvertently shocked a visitor to the site by randomly generating a sexist image of a scantily clad woman on the symposium’s main page. Bogost’s response to the visitor’s complaint was to modify the code for his litanizer so as to exclude these kinds of images. For me, this encounter and subsequent compromise is where carpentry becomes most interesting. If carpentry is about exploring how things playfully hang together, the point where this hanging breaks down or encounters resistance would seem to me to be of particular interest. Instead of recognising this disruption and attempting to develop a means through which carpentry can address this challenge, Bogost is happy to have the litanizer simply raise thorny questions ‘in a unique way’ and vents his frustration that resolving the complaint means compromising its flat ontology of objects.]]> literature philosophy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:31351a1d3b39/ Robin James: Some thoughts on "the mainstream" 2014-04-29T16:07:01+00:00 http://its-her-factory.blogspot.com/2014/03/some-thoughts-on-mainstream.html matthewmcvickarI think Hegel’s dialectic of sense-certainty can illuminate the concept of “the mainstream.” It unpacks the concept’s paradoxical locality and generality, and it shows how the concept of the mainstream produces its own constituent population. ]]> philosophy culture https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:61ce1193e7b1/ Juana Molina: Sin Guia No (Rookie) 2013-10-15T19:12:50+00:00 http://rookiemag.com/2013/10/juana-molina/ matthewmcvickarJust do it! Go and do it! There are no valid excuses [not to]. We see our excuses as real things, but they’re just a barrier you built between you and what you want to do because you are afraid to try it and fail. No one wants to fail, but you will never know if you don’t try it. Maybe the first few times, you’ll have a bad time…but then you won’t.]]> interview music motivation philosophy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:939e7bd69fd1/ GRAEYALIEN: @TriciaLockwood nailed it tricia! if i could just add a couple of quick rejoinders? 2012-03-08T08:03:03+00:00 http://www.twitlonger.com/show/gaeckj matthewmcvickar twitter humor philosophy irony https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:296dce8b422c/ IEET: Marcelo Rinesi: The Powerlessness of Transparency 2011-01-11T19:25:37+00:00 http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rinesi20110102 matthewmcvickar philosophy datamining rhetoric data information https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:0fd3475d8431/ The Guardian: Socrates – a man for our times 2010-11-01T09:52:43+00:00 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/17/socrates-philosopher-man-for-our-times matthewmcvickar socrates history greece books philosophy society media politics https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:7eb5d3e5dbf6/ Andrea Dorfman and Tanya Davis: How to Be Alone 2010-08-09T21:44:52+00:00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7X7sZzSXYs matthewmcvickar art inspiration music people philosophy poetry video alone independence https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:7b61416be46f/ Milton Glaser: Things I Have Learned 2009-09-04T20:20:47+00:00 http://www.miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html matthewmcvickar design art business inspiration creativity philosophy productivity life advice work wisdom miltonglaser https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:92678142d258/ Bruce Mau Design: Incomplete Manifesto 2009-03-12T22:10:24+00:00 http://www.brucemaudesign.com/incomplete_manifesto.html matthewmcvickar affirmations inspiration art creativity philosophy life manifesto https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:4d8e100c979f/ The Atlantic: The Existential Clown 2008-12-10T20:43:09+00:00 http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/jim-carrey matthewmcvickar jimcarrey existentialism human comedy humor writing film culture movies philosophy self criticism celebrity identity life acting actors https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:26b578f8d0bc/ Wikipedia: Ship of Theseus 2008-07-11T07:03:10+00:00 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus matthewmcvickar identity philosophy physics https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:5f046bd67276/ A List Apart: "On Creativity" by Andy Rutledge 2008-03-15T02:21:21+00:00 http://www.alistapart.com/articles/oncreativity matthewmcvickar creativity business design philosophy webdesign https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:ba4aa24743de/ 10 simple ways to save yourself from messing up your life 2007-12-16T05:56:11+00:00 http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/10-simple-ways-to-save-yourself-from-messing-up-your-life.html matthewmcvickar advice lifehack inspiration philosophy productivity psychology https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:8603e3cb8fbb/ Sakuzaku: Thoughts on Clay Shirky’s “Arrogance and Humility” 2007-10-13T12:26:18+00:00 http://blog.wearesakuzaku.com/12-thoughts-on-clay-shirkys-arrogance-and-humility/ matthewmcvickar design philosophy society self https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:7cdce7122aa3/ New English Review - Do the Impossible: Know Thyself 2007-06-05T12:07:36+00:00 http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=5863&sec_id=5863 matthewmcvickar philosophy neuroscience psychology mind science self https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:7240cf0ca139/ John Langdon 2006-04-16T00:41:04+00:00 http://www.johnlangdon.net/index.html matthewmcvickar art design philosophy https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:ae07e7be581f/ Eno's Oblique Strategies: Edition 4 (1996) 2005-07-17T01:55:50+00:00 http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Ed4.html matthewmcvickar philosophy lifehack https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:5047f406c92c/ Confucius: The Analects 2005-06-28T05:59:14+00:00 http://nothingistic.org/library/confucius/analects/ matthewmcvickarphilosophy japan history writing https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:dbd4b78ea4fc/ Squashed Philosophers 2005-02-02T05:41:34+00:00 http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/ matthewmcvickar history philosophy writing https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:756f1db03a1c/ Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues 2005-01-18T19:39:12+00:00 http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm matthewmcvickarphilosophy history https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:71dfcff98080/ LamRim.com 2004-08-21T16:00:33+00:00 http://www.lamrim.com/index2.html matthewmcvickar philosophy religion https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:a2aae39c3722/ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Chinese Room Argument 2004-06-16T17:49:18+00:00 http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/c/chineser.htm matthewmcvickar philosophy https://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:4caecce9c7d8/