Solution Space

My show describing and elaborating on my paper “The Metonymy Economy: Cognitive-Affective (Poetic) Social Science.” I tried to drop off this paper at CIA headquarters. They were not amused. But I really do think it contains insights which help us adapt to the process of adaptation itself, and to see in change the chance to assume the position of the epic poet, who is able to see emerging patterns and guide others through unfolding events.

A selection from my conversations with Zummi when I went to visit him. We talk about linguistics, and how the development of writing led to cognitive-affective developments which are under-regarded by most cultural and political commentators. These reflections have relevance for generating post-political movements in our time and embracing the shift to the new paradigm.

I talk a bit about my grad application essay and text passages I feel speak to its theme of connecting individual and mass-scale cognitive-affective personality shifts.

On this week's show, I am joined for the fourth time by Dr. Peter Lindsay as well as by Omar Howard and Colleen Higgins. We discuss recidivism, when people returning from being incarcerated wind up going back to jail. This is very common in the US, as returning citizens (and non-citizens, as we sadly fail to note on the program) face steep barriers to re-entry to society. We discuss the hardships involved in attempting to move on from a stint of incarceration, and what it says about our society that we have been so punitive toward our most vulnerable members while high crimes by the powerful go unchecked.

Dr. Lindsay co-founded the Georgia Prison Education Project in 2017. Omar Howard is the founder of Freedom is a Choice, inc., a mentoring company which seeks to keep at-risk youth and adults out of jail.  Colleen Higgins is a client advocate in the City of Atlanta Public Defenders' Office

This is the first edited episode of my conversations with Zummi over the weekend November 23-4. I traveled to see him and it was one of the most transformative experiences of my life, not because I consider Zummi my mentor exactly, but because in him I felt as though I could stop seeing myself in the "Elephant in the Forest," who suffers in solitude. We really got along and learned a lot from each other, and the companionship and compelling thinking and joyous laughing we did together gave me a lot of energy. I hope our conversation is educational and encouraging to listen to.

In this episode, we introduce the main theme of our conversations: how language itself is a factor in social life which is usually unheeded. We don't think enough about the advent of language and the alphabet, and how the beginning of linguistic tool-making are the basis for our computerized utopia/dystopia. In the middle there is a jam we did together.

This week, the show was unfortunately not broadcast over the airwaves, so no call-ins, except people telling me I'm inaudible. But, I lay out my notes on the New Paradigm, as I'm calling it here, and outlining some traits and strategies that I think will be helpful for us. The beginning was not recorded, sadly, and the end got cut off too, so you'll have to wait for a more complete presentation. Look for the show notes as an article published on SpeakingBroadlyShow.com as well.

On this week's show, I was joined by Dr. Elizabeth Knapp of Hood College in Frederick, Maryland (faculty page). I learned of her only a few days ago, upon seizing on the idea that Baudrillard is, properly speaking, a poet, a not a philosopher as such. Searching for "Baudrillard is a poet," I stumbled on Dr. Knapp's new collection, Requiem With an Amulet in its Beak, which has won the fittingly named Jean Feldman Poetry Prize for 2019. Her poems reference Baudrillard directly and indirectly, consciously and (perhaps) in some other way. As an example, here is

My Brain is Mad for Baudrillard

Today, I read of scientists’ warnings

about the potential dangers of sex

robots and thought of you. Some blame

the rise of right-wing populism

on postmodern windbags like you, holed

up in your university office, giving head

to your shadow. But Jean, you were right—

we are living in the desert of the real,

where signs metastasize like cancer cells,

and who hasn’t felt the Foucauldian

grip around her wrists, her ankles?

Even desire a simulacrum of itself.

I drowned in you as if in a frozen lake,

but either I or the lake was dreaming.

We tackle some of the themes from this poem, and more, as we discuss Jean Baudrillard's prophetic and poetic prose, and the place of poetry in our discursively hectic world.

On this week's show, I talk headlines: the OK boomer meme. I reference a 25 year old politician who responds to criticism with "OK Boomer," talk about the escalating climate crisis, and talk about the quickly moving front of corporate Orwellian totalitarianism. 

In the second half, I articulate my research project, which has us exploring culture, innovating with expression, and plumbing the depths of intergenerational trauma.

Everyone's making analyses of Joker, so I guess I have to also! Here's 80 minutes of a deep dive into Joker and the first few pages of Baudrillard's Carnival and Cannibal. It's just the beginning, but I already get into the themes of whiteness, childhood and intergenerational trauma, world history, and aesthetics. Whew! More to come, sometime, but until then this insomniac recording will have to tide you over.

Note: I edited this to make to make it louder, but I don't know how to remove the distortion so this is as loud as it can comfortably go. Hope you can hear it. I will be going over all of this again in the time to come

On this improvised recording, I brainstorm my idea for an open source think tank and possible research questions. I wind up talking a lot about my philosophy of life, the world, history, cultural anthropology, and much more. Not much jargon, just straight dope ideas. If you would like to join my research project, send me an email at [email protected] or DM me. Talk about your research interests or what you think you can bring to the project. Also getting into providing affective/cognitive support for those struggling with circumstances and making a change. Hmu to get involved