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❱❱ This was not a coup.

links / totalitariansim / democracy | Jason Sutter |
These people are not revolutionaries. They are not patriots. This was a group of individuals organized on the Internet who rampaged through the Capitol to take photographs of themselves in costume. They have no real politics, no real political principles; they are self-interested individuals who mirror the narcissism of Trump and the vanity of social media culture which rewards stupidity with likes. This is evidenced by what they did once they got inside the building. They were not there to “take over.” They broke into Nancy Pelosi’s office and posed for photographs with her paper mail. They were there to take selfies, to triumph in being able to say, “Look what I did!”

[…]

The breakdown of class society, the loss of class mobility, the loss of faith in government, the distrust of experts, the ideology of racism preceded Trump’s presidency. In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt talks about the alliance between the mob and the elite. Yesterday we saw Donald Trump speak at a rally and incite an insurrection, activating a mob he created. But, as Arendt pointed out, the mob doesn’t magically manifest overnight. The seeds of discontent were sewn long before Trump ever ran for President.

Trump's mob by Samantha Rose Hill

Find meaning.

quotations / walking | Jason Sutter |
Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don’t find meaning but ‘steal’ some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.

—Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959

❱❱ Why the Best Art Isn’t Very Commercial

links / counter-culture / anxiety / creativity | Jason Sutter |
Of course, the work of filmmakers, artists, and novelists creating in this way is emphatically countercultural — if for no other reason than that it questions traditional narratives and heroic, individualistic values. Any art that asks its viewers to slow down or, worse, pause and reflect is hurting a market that depends on automatic and accelerating behaviors.

We live in a world where uncertainty is equated with anxiety instead of with life

Every morning

photos / quotations | Jason Sutter |
was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

❱❱ New Seattle pantries fight food insecurity one fridge at a time

links / mutual aid | Jason Sutter |

Powered by community, the refrigerators offer fresh food for those in need — no questions asked.

“It’s one piece of a whole system that’s needed,” volunteer Charlton says. But, she says, if a small collective can help, everyone can. The group is not a nonprofit or foundation, she points out. “We’re just regular folks that were like, this is something that we have the capacity to do, and there’s a need for it,” Charlton says. “So let’s just do it.”