let's THiNK about it

Following up on Arendt's 'active life' we discuss how watching mastery has become a replacement for learning or doing yourself. This leads to other issues, such as decreased time to participate in the real world, leading to further frustration or inadequacy in the real world. 

Boris Groys bring up the contradiction that movies are not about moving; they promote action on screen, but only at the cost of you sitting and being passive. The removal of your action, motion, and even contemplation (as you must passively absorb the narrative) frames a world in which low-risk passivity is preferred to actual risk, action, or uniqueness. 

The Will to DIY website has references: https://thewilltodiy.com/step-9-the-passive-life/

0:36 Watching people build things online: provides the emotion and illusion of competence

2:07 Observation over doing: the time watching prevents the fantasy from becoming reality.

4:00 The contradiction of the "active life" versus the "contemplative life" in movies

5:29 Tokyo Drifting: From "Activity" to "Activity worship" 

6:35 Spectatorship as Identity: a path towards nothing? 

We are still hammering on Tom Sawyer as the cognitive laborer, but also discuss how insidious cognitive labor can be. We talk more about the mind/body or mental/physical distinction by bringing up Hannah Arendt's "Active Life" and "Contemplative Life," and pointing out the ways categories are used to create hierarchy and simplify information into rational frameworks that allow for ease of understanding and distinction in our lives. 

https://thewilltodiy.com/step-8-vita-activa/

0:57 Dream time as work time: working for the "man" while you sleep

2:14 Hobby time is the only time you are authentic

4:18 Vita Activa: how community is made, how individuals are distinguished.

5:53 The danger of ideological toxins: new categories as "positive pressure."

8:33 An Example of how you become indoctrinated, and move through the 3 categories of the Active Life

Part 2 playing with the Tom Sawyer parable, where work can become play. Ryder jumps into how we identity ourselves through our leisure time, only to feed a capitalist machine. Then he swings into amusement and learning, criticizing edutainment, but more concerned with choice and attitude in how we approach hobby, labor and learning.

Tom Sawyer and Learning

This is the first in a set of episodes on chores and labor, and our relationship to them. During the quarantine, the DIY list suddenly seems of vital importance, and the dreaded chore has become a challenge to be productive. 

Referencing Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" Ryder discusses the attitude change between work and play, eventually considering the dread of chores as a dread of learning, thus a willingness to be duped. 

Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud, offers a way to live without relying on our weakness, trauma, and our passive guilt tripping of others to get our way. In short, how to be a good person. 

It reveals that most of us are in the midst of using our pain, inflicting and manipulating others, and just generally not doing the DIY work on ourselves to get past our past. 

https://thewilltodiy.com/step-5-inferiority/

The Ukrainian revolution brought 1 million people to the Maidon for months, and involved citizens fighting their government because they believed in law and a better future. 

This is amazing, and it is DIY citizenry at it's best. 

https://thewilltodiy.com/step-4-ukraine/

Doubling: the creation of an image of self serves multiple purposes, one of mimicry for society, and another as a way to alter the self. 

The image comes first, then follows the forms of society. The garb of society is already formed, and we are aligned to our roles with repetitive actions.

https://thewilltodiy.com/step-3-tools/

1:41 Wanting to be an active do-er versus being a whiney bitch

2:14 Finding your groove (the image of self): embodying the role society sets for you

3:09 The Societal form is the Uniform: perpetuating the self-image as societal archetype

4:42 Doubling as multi-self images: a sandboxing of flawed selves that is deferred (non-conclusive schizophrenia) 

5:35 Participate in the Form, without becoming the Form

Ryder discusses some of his recent paintings of pliers and snips, and all these dangerous, specialized tools as a simplistic metaphor for how we access and handle the world.

Tools are force multipliers, and when force is applied for personal reasons to an ideology (be it free-market economics or a notion of justice) it can be destructive to more than the individual, just like using a hammer because you don’t know what to say.

https://thewilltodiy.com/step-2-pliers/

0:41 Artists who paint and use tools in their work

1:04 "to throw a wrench in it" metaphorically speaking

1:19 Tools are force multipliers, to shape the world around you.

2:27 Access to knowledge to prevent damaging the world: sandboxing things

3:05 Wielding ideology (tools) as weapons for "destruction" rather than "construction." 

Why this orange? Co-opted governmental authority is now purchasable and branded. The citizen who spends money can now be an authority, or at least feel empowered, but perhaps this small rebellion is signalling something else. Considering blue-collar stereotypes and groups like the Sovereign Citizens, Home Depot offers a starting point for a conversation about division and voice and the appeal of simplicity. 

Ryder also discusses some of his early works using home depot orange and how clamps are both comedic and sinister. Yet, when put to work properly, they become mute. 

https://thewilltodiy.com/step-1-home-depot-orange/

0:35 Labor as invisible and voiceless

1:20 Home Depot Orange: from Government Authority to Consumer Authority

2:23 Home Depot as Ground Zero for tiny Rebellions

5:33 Simple solutions (brute force) for Complex Interpersonal Problems

4:42 Clamps have Jaws and Teeth, but when active they become mute.