we can’t tell ourselves whom to fall in love with – means that our wrestling with the passions is what brings the self into being. Habits consolidate what control we can have of our passions. Hume gives habit pride of place in his moral accounting, but the key here is to continually assess whether we […]
The Kind of Hunger People Don’t Talk About
During this time of isolation, small moments of tenderness can help us feel more connected than ever. During the quarantine, I’ve noticed a lot of recipes being shared on social media. It makes sense: people are home with extra time to cook. Home-cooked food is a way to cope with these difficult times. But, as […]
A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse
A quarter of the American population is now engaged in “guard labor”—defending property, supervising work, or otherwise keeping their fellow Americans in line. Economically, most of this disciplinary apparatus is pure deadweight. Revolutions are thus planetary phenomena. But there is more. What they really do is transform basic assumptions about what politics is ultimately about. […]