Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Ours is a relational world, not a world of billiard balls knocking into one another trying to gain advantage. The space between things or people isn’t empty, it’s full of something invisible to the eye, yet viscous and buoyant, a carrier wave that we can sweeten with our thoughts and feelings.
As an 8 year-old, the author received her first exposure to the online world. As an adult, she reflects on what it took from her.
Indeed, we speak of our planet, our environment, and even our wildlife. That’s what mythology looks like: not facts, but an interpretive wrapping.
The mythology of “Mother Culture” [modernity] will become ever-present. It will be harder to interact with and tolerate the people around you who drink in this tale without awareness. In their eyes, you’ll be an unrelatable weirdo: isolated and alone.
Is there a contradiction between the Trump administration’s America First policy and its actions? Maybe not.
Today Nate is joined by Taiwanese Digital Ambassador at large, Audrey Tang, to explore real-world examples of how technology is being leveraged globally to address – and in some cases reverse – critical societal challenges, such as polarization, misinformation, and the erosion of trust in governments and institutions.
Ishmael characterizes the young people’s efforts in the sixties as trying to escape from captivity, but failing to do so “because they were unable to find the bars of the cage.” People of our culture would be relieved to escape captivity, and to simultaneously release Earth from its dire path toward collapse—except we can’t identify the bars.
In this Frankly, Nate unpacks the influence of beliefs on our feelings, and how it ultimately affects our actions. As global risks and complexity intensify and those with political power accelerate deeper divides, adopting an integrative perspective will become essential for fostering connection, cooperation, and civility.
The moral of this story is not to stop being activists. There’s already enough passivity on Capitol Hill. The message is straightforward — careful because the administration could come after you from many directions. So, be prepared.
Have I mentioned how important I think Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael is? I reread it recently for the first time in a while, and was again impressed with how many important modernity-challenging ideas are packed into one novel.
Will AI solve all of our major problems or cause the extinction of the human race? Extreme views can lead to extreme and unwarranted actions.
The colonizing rules, which seemed to work so well for a while, at least for some, have propelled us into the evolutionary cul-de-sac called modernity.
