The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord.
I think about this a lot when my company gives us “Wellness Days” off:
Due to the very success of this separate production of separation, the fundamental experience that in earlier societies was associated with people’s primary work is in the process of being replaced (in sectors near the cutting edge of the system’s evolution) by an identification of life with nonworking time, with inactivity. But such inactivity is in no way liberated from productive activity. It remains dependent on it, in an uneasy and admiring submission to the requirements and consequences of the production system. It is itself one of the products of that system. There can be no freedom apart from activity, and within the spectacle activity is nullified – all real activity having been forcibly channeled into the global construction of the spectacle. Thus, what is referred to as a “liberation from work,” namely the modern increase in leisure time, is neither a liberation within work itself nor a liberation from the world shaped by this kind of work. None of the activity stolen through work can be regained by submitting to what that work has produced.
Introduction to the Philosophy of History by Hegel. 🎧
About the only thing I remember from this is something like “history is the physical working out of reason.” Even so, that’s helping me out with the Marx stuff.
Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung
This book convinced me that it would be great* if the Bible were innerrant, infallible, complete, and clear from a basic reading. It did not convince me that it actually is.
* for some people
To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by Evgeny Morozov.
The first half of the book covers three points:
-
Not all problems are simply issues of efficiency. Some “problems” are in fact necessary tensions between contrasting philosophies and are not something technologists should try to erase.
-
There’s nothing about the structure of “the Internet” or “Technology” that’s prescriptive for how we should set up our societies.
-
Technologies should be evaluated individually, not lumped together as “the Internet” and declared inevitable and therefore good.
Toward the second half of the book, he drills in on a more specific and interesting proposal. Morosov implores technologists to build technologies that make us think more about the complex structures of the world around us, not less. Most design strives to hide complexity and make the mechanics invisible to the user; Morosov proposes the opposite. We could design lamps and toasters that behave erratically when we are using too much power and parking meters that make us choose what to do with the leftover time. Instead, nudges and gamifications guide us into pre-determined paths and rob us of daily opportunities to consider the collective consequences of our actions.
He gives two examples of that last point:
- An in-home water system that awards points for water-saving behaviors might succeed in reducing individuals’ water usage while also ensuring that those individuals never think about whether changes are needed in how the water got to their house in the first place, or if whether all those points add up to any meaningful difference.
- A bus system in the 60s that perfectly predicted and adjusted to the number of Black and white riders might have eased tensions at bus stops while also erasing the opportunity for someone to protest the whole idea of segregation on busses.
The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. 🎧
Socialism: Scientific and Utopian by Engels. 🎧
I didn’t know that Marxism was all about the effects of the Industrial Revolution. “Everyone deserves to feel connected to the products and outcomes of their work” is what stuck with me.