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 th…

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 Ha…

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 amu…

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 ch…

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 rev…

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 i…

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 …

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 multiplier…

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 …