Introducing an arc of 4 philosophical discussions: from Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification to Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble
We (Evita & Chrystalleni) have found ourselves trying (both intellectually and emotionally) to get a handle on some of the paradoxes of our time: the shared need to navigate (& repair?) a collective sense of doom in relation to international and local politics / community & ecological collapse / the domination of exploitative tech and so on –even as we experience the utopian blossoming of networks such as this one! Out of our need to share notes with more people (you) came an offering of a series of Philosophy Shots, starting this Thursday November 6th.
This picks up from Cory Doctorow’s notion of “Enshittification” or the observation that the internet (considered by some as a manifestation of humanity’s collective unconscious) is just getting increasingly shit. From there we’d like to bring in contemporary thought on the workings of power, post-capitalist theory, and see if we can go into a bit of tech & AI ethics.
🌀 Philosophy Shots Series: Navigating the Breakdown 🌀
Grieving global politics, tending our gardens and re-enchanting the world.
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🩶 Part 1: Finding a name for “this”
When: 6/11
19:00 – 21:00
Where: Eimaste Motherhouse, https://www.eimaste.net
How did the internet, once a space of freedom, become a machine of exhaustion and manipulation?
Why do we feel so powerless in the face of systems designed to drain our attention and agency?
What happens to our conscience when cynicism feels like the only rational response?
This first session turns to Cory Doctorow’s idea of enshittification to name the demons of our digital and political age. Together we’ll ask how platforms, politics, and profit intertwine, and how we might reclaim clarity and care amid the noise.
✨ Bring your weariness and your curiosity; we’ll map the terrain together.
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🌿 Part 2: Tending the Inner Garden
When & where: TBA
How do we keep our integrity when the world feels like it’s falling apart?
Can inner peace coexist with moral responsibility?
What can ancient wisdom teach us about surviving empire and crisis?
With Seneca and the Stoics as companions, this session explores the art of self-care as ethical resistance. We’ll discuss the difference between detachment and indifference, and how tending our inner garden may be a first act of political renewal.
✨ Expect calm reflection, shared stories, and a few timeless Stoic tools.
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🕸 Part 3: Staying with the Trouble
When & where: TBA
When everything feels broken, should we still hope, or learn to stay with the mess?
How do we live responsibly within entangled crises, ecological, political, personal?
What new kinships and stories might emerge when we stop running from discomfort?
Guided by Donna Haraway, we’ll explore what it means to “stay with the trouble”: to inhabit complexity instead of seeking purity or escape. Through conversation and short readings, we’ll consider how to make meaning, action, and friendship in precarious times.
✨ Bring openness, and maybe a notebook for unexpected insights.
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🌸 Part 4: Re-Enchanted Worlds
When & where: TBA
How do we heal our sense of disconnection, from nature, from each other, from meaning itself?
Can imagination be an act of resistance?
What happens when we begin to see care, not control, as the centre of our world?
Drawing on Silvia Federici’s call to re-enchant the world, this closing session gathers the threads of the series. We’ll share practical and poetic ways of restoring wonder, solidarity, and communal joy: small acts of magic for difficult times.
✨ Come ready to dream together of livable futures.
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Additional Material
As a teaser for Thursday, some notes from Vuk Cosic’s both deep & hilarious presentation in Algorithms of Power, a few minutes ago:
“At present, everyday consumer technologies are increasingly being weaponised and used for political manipulation, surveillance, and control and in this process the distinctions between civilian use and military power become blurred. Critical questions have to be raised on how technology shapes international conflict and human rights. With emerging digital technologies, security and democracy threats like cyber warfare, disinformation operations, and AI manipulation take centre stage, challenging our security and democracy.”
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Here’s another ingredient in advance of Thursday! It’s an amazing shortcut across numerous ideas related to Enshittification, revealing its foundations from four years ago, & explaining its context: that we are not in capitalism anymore. So where are we?
It gets going around min 3:45