The Book of Genesis comes to mind. When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they are instantly ashamed and afraid. They make loincloths for themselves from the leaves and hide from God because they learn they are naked.
Our knowledge of our “nakedness” is what makes us human. It’s so essential to us. This is why the most violent political uprisings exploited this weakness within us through Struggle Sessions.
We are seeing this repeat itself. The most powerful recent example of this can be seen in the video of Mayor Frey of Minneapolis being shamed by a BLM leader and crowd during a rally. And of course we see small examples of this all over social media amongst our peers.
It is so important for us to know who we are as individuals so that we are not exploited by the mob. And yes! You hit the nail on the head with giving ourselves the space to think and process and ground ourselves. This is a process that is so important, but it is destroyed by the expediency of social media.
There’s almost nothing for me to add here! (Proceeds to write an essay lol). I love that you brought up this biblical story; it’s a great and ancient indication of the human relationship to our sense of shame. It’s something we’ve been grappling with likely since we began grappling with ourselves consciously.
The struggle sessions have never been more disturbingly relevant and juxtaposed with the biblical origin story of shame adds a deeper level of understanding for how equally powerful and cruel using shame against each other can be.
It makes me wonder what leads us to revel in the shame of others? Is it just a kind of primitive sadism, like herd animals culling their own weak, or is it (and I lean towards this) a kind of perverse version of “There by the grace of god go I?” If you are the subject of shame, that means I’ve been spared the stage for the time being, resulting in a kind of gleeful prisoner’s relief.
What I really see in the way we use shame now in Western society (and we are absolutely ramping up to “virtual struggle sessions” as social media becomes the new town square where our beheadings and denouncements occur, or rather our “call outs” and “cancellings”), is the kind of “turn in your brother before he turns you in” race to the bottom.
To shame you places me above your crime, even if just for that moment, I’m the more righteous — I get the gold star. It’s almost like a strange shame pyramid scheme; shame enough people to keep yourself out of suspicion, but “out of suspicion” never comes.
You’re so right — space is not only necessary to know ourselves, but to create just enough distance between that ever-looming fear of being shamed that we can stop and question what kind of world we’re creating by participating in a never-ending parade of punishment. I think a lot of people are beginning to see the parade never ends.
Glad you enjoyed this edition and thanks so much for this super insightful comment! It gave me a lot to think about — always something to be grateful for.
This is so beautiful! You've made my day, thank you for sharing your kind words with me; it truly means a lot. I hope you indulge in plenty of nothing!
"but don’t read that just yet" is a sentence I have never seen on the internet. It almost seemed a personal attack especially since my cursor was already hovering over the hyperlink to open the article. I paused for about a minute and saw that I had 14 tabs open on my browser and I don't even care about 10 of them. Going forward I'll wait for 30 seconds when I see a hyperlink before I hit "open a new tab" . When our attention is a commodity "but don’t read that just yet" has the same feeling of burning money. But whose money? Those behind the supercomputers aimed at my brain?
I'll still read the information overload article but only after I've finished doing. nothing.
I love this comment! I'm so glad that sentence stood out to you; as I wrote it I thought "you're crazy for telling readers *not* to open your link..." but I was hoping it would do exactly what you described -- create that pause, the space.
I think I might also adopt your 30-second waiting period for opening new tabs; it's almost like we have to be our own bartender now, cutting ourselves off when we're fully drunk on information.
Attention is absolutely a commodity, I'd say one of the most valuable today. And yet, with our sea of tabs open, everything except us seems to know that value.
Hope you enjoy the next article after you've enjoyed plenty of nothing!
The Book of Genesis comes to mind. When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they are instantly ashamed and afraid. They make loincloths for themselves from the leaves and hide from God because they learn they are naked.
Our knowledge of our “nakedness” is what makes us human. It’s so essential to us. This is why the most violent political uprisings exploited this weakness within us through Struggle Sessions.
We are seeing this repeat itself. The most powerful recent example of this can be seen in the video of Mayor Frey of Minneapolis being shamed by a BLM leader and crowd during a rally. And of course we see small examples of this all over social media amongst our peers.
It is so important for us to know who we are as individuals so that we are not exploited by the mob. And yes! You hit the nail on the head with giving ourselves the space to think and process and ground ourselves. This is a process that is so important, but it is destroyed by the expediency of social media.
Your thoughts are so crucial for this moment!
There’s almost nothing for me to add here! (Proceeds to write an essay lol). I love that you brought up this biblical story; it’s a great and ancient indication of the human relationship to our sense of shame. It’s something we’ve been grappling with likely since we began grappling with ourselves consciously.
The struggle sessions have never been more disturbingly relevant and juxtaposed with the biblical origin story of shame adds a deeper level of understanding for how equally powerful and cruel using shame against each other can be.
It makes me wonder what leads us to revel in the shame of others? Is it just a kind of primitive sadism, like herd animals culling their own weak, or is it (and I lean towards this) a kind of perverse version of “There by the grace of god go I?” If you are the subject of shame, that means I’ve been spared the stage for the time being, resulting in a kind of gleeful prisoner’s relief.
What I really see in the way we use shame now in Western society (and we are absolutely ramping up to “virtual struggle sessions” as social media becomes the new town square where our beheadings and denouncements occur, or rather our “call outs” and “cancellings”), is the kind of “turn in your brother before he turns you in” race to the bottom.
To shame you places me above your crime, even if just for that moment, I’m the more righteous — I get the gold star. It’s almost like a strange shame pyramid scheme; shame enough people to keep yourself out of suspicion, but “out of suspicion” never comes.
You’re so right — space is not only necessary to know ourselves, but to create just enough distance between that ever-looming fear of being shamed that we can stop and question what kind of world we’re creating by participating in a never-ending parade of punishment. I think a lot of people are beginning to see the parade never ends.
Glad you enjoyed this edition and thanks so much for this super insightful comment! It gave me a lot to think about — always something to be grateful for.
Thank you so much for your words, Salomé. You express so succinctly the things I can not find words to say. I am off to do ... nothing.
This is so beautiful! You've made my day, thank you for sharing your kind words with me; it truly means a lot. I hope you indulge in plenty of nothing!
You are a voice of reason in a howling storm of insanity. Thank you, please keep being you.
Thank you for this support; it's wonderful to know my voice resonates with even just one person! Your words are truly appreciated.
"but don’t read that just yet" is a sentence I have never seen on the internet. It almost seemed a personal attack especially since my cursor was already hovering over the hyperlink to open the article. I paused for about a minute and saw that I had 14 tabs open on my browser and I don't even care about 10 of them. Going forward I'll wait for 30 seconds when I see a hyperlink before I hit "open a new tab" . When our attention is a commodity "but don’t read that just yet" has the same feeling of burning money. But whose money? Those behind the supercomputers aimed at my brain?
I'll still read the information overload article but only after I've finished doing. nothing.
I love this comment! I'm so glad that sentence stood out to you; as I wrote it I thought "you're crazy for telling readers *not* to open your link..." but I was hoping it would do exactly what you described -- create that pause, the space.
I think I might also adopt your 30-second waiting period for opening new tabs; it's almost like we have to be our own bartender now, cutting ourselves off when we're fully drunk on information.
Attention is absolutely a commodity, I'd say one of the most valuable today. And yet, with our sea of tabs open, everything except us seems to know that value.
Hope you enjoy the next article after you've enjoyed plenty of nothing!
Your words are beautiful, healing and timely. Thank you for this.
I really appreciate your kind words! I'm glad my writing speaks to you. Thank you right back!
la paciencia que es relajante