Adam Curtis

[luka]

vehemently endorse this advice.

 

[luka]

A reply to Mark Fisher on magical voluntarism

Short article exploring the idea of magical voluntarism and how it relates to questions of organisation.

libcom.org

The most dangerous time of any depression is the time when it begins to lift, when the depressive body is coming out of its helpless state. As that body becomes more energised, more able to move, to want to move, to act and to want to act, the presence of suicidal thinking may not have entirely lifted. Paradoxically, it is as the depression wanes that the risk of suicide is at its height

 

[woops]

The most dangerous time of any depression is the time when it begins to lift, when the depressive body is coming out of its helpless state. As that body becomes more energised, more able to move, to want to move, to act and to want to act, the presence of suicidal thinking may not have entirely lifted. Paradoxically, it is as the depression wanes that the risk of suicide is at its height

hm. this reminds me of reading that completing a goal can bring on depression! i was like oh right, cheers, i was gonna give up anyway

 

[sus]

Thread

 

[abodywithoutorgans]

but it doesnt join up does it?

Yes, this, but this is exactly it. things don't join up, do they? the opening quote by Graeber (rip) underscores this. the point is the lack of one.

 

[abodywithoutorgans]

The series opens with a quote from the late David Graeber, but I wonder whether you also took inspiration from Mark Fisher, particularly his argument that at the libidinal level there may not actually be that much desire for a move beyond capitalism?


I knew Mark, he reached out to me when he started writing about how culture is haunting us as he had realised that I’d been writing about that too on my blog. And you are right, both Mark and I shared that suspicion.


One of the things the left has yet to face up to is that if it really wanted to change things, they would have to give up a lot of their own privileges as individuals in the interests of actually helping a lot of people outside the system who are living anxious and uncertain times. In the second film, I tell the story of Michael X, who was a gangster but became a heroic figure for the left in the mid-1960s. But when he came out of prison, he found that all his white supporters had suddenly gone into a kind of commercial lifestyle hippie-dom. I was interested in him as a character because, although he was a nasty and violent man, he had a wry understanding of English white radicalism, that quite a few of the people who dressed as radicals and danced to Black music were still the children of the people who had run the Empire. And might still be wanting to run things.

From the Quietus interview

 

[shiels]

"his argument that at the libidinal level there may not actually be that much desire for a move beyond capitalism?"

i dunno if thats the argument... is it? an impossible thing to quantify obviously

 

[luka]

"his argument that at the libidinal level there may not actually be that much desire for a move beyond capitalism?"

i dunno if thats the argument... is it? an impossible thing to quantify obviously

to quantify perhaps but easy to see what people actually do as opposed to what they post on twitter

 

[shiels]

how should this desire be legitimated in your eyes? point is more... we dont really know what it is.... and we dont know what beyond would mean either. but theres quite a few people who realise this set up isnt working, is rigged, is probably gonna kill us all etc. should they have to articulate a new system or perfectly execute praxis before complaining?

 

[luka]

 

[luka]

Why is Matthew laughing?

 

[Corpsey]

Works for the CIA.

 

[luka]

That'll be it. Still he's got some lovely hardcore records. We won't hold it against him.

 

[Corpsey]

The CIA are cool now anyway, they helped get rid of the orange cunt (lets forget about the orange jumpsuits)

JESUS I'M LIKE A PROPER SATIRIST

 

[Corpsey]

"Have you ever thought of doing stand-up?"

 

[Mr. Tea]

Isn't the Deep State, properly defined, supposed to consist of organizations even more clandestine than the CIA, to the extent that their very existence is generally unknown to the general public?

 

[luka]

I don't think so, no

 

[luka]

It's more about networks I think.

 

[linee]

 

[luka]

The most dangerous time of any depression is the time when it begins to lift, when the depressive body is coming out of its helpless state. As that body becomes more energised, more able to move, to want to move, to act and to want to act, the presence of suicidal thinking may not have entirely lifted. Paradoxically, it is as the depression wanes that the risk of suicide is at its height

Spring is like this, the last few days, temperature shoots up from 1 to 11 and makes all this extra energy available as a result, suddenly life is intolerable, the narrow confines of the snow hole you've dug out to survive the winter, the cramped dimensions of your days, intolerable