Been mulling this ever since banana tweeted it. There's something here that goes beyond mere strategic incompetence (executives choosing not to know how to use the coffee machine) and strategic ignorance (Sherlock Holmes choosing not to know the earth goes around sun)https://twitter.com/literalbanana/status/1008714338574585856 …
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The degenerate form of this is what I'e been derisively calling waldenponding. A very personal and rather selfish pattern of retreat (if you're otherwise mentally healthy) that has none of the redeeming features of effective civil disobedience.
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What banana is talking about is a broader kind of disengagement that is focused and tactical. You don't retreat from all societal engagement. You retreat along specific information dimensions to deny specific zeitgeist demons the attention energy they feed on.
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Yep. The norms being disobeyed in this sort of retreat are specific "informed citizenry" norms of democracy. It's not a generic self-care retreat. Which is why I think she hit on a very valuable nuance here.https://twitter.com/hondanhon/status/1157357618723037184 …
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If all the political establishment does for their end of the bargain of *keeping* citizens informed is create FUD and push viral-bullshit buttons of all sorts, they broke the contract first :D
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In fact, "informed citizenry" is better understood as "staying informed where they want to keep you in the dark" (in the spirit of "journalism is printing what somebody doesn't want printed, everything else is PR")
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Of course, this also inevitably creates justification for conspiracy thinking. "What they don't want you to know" is an invitation to wild speculation. Duty to stay informed != aptitude for processing it in reasonably intelligent ways.
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In my work, intentionally not doing the homework of understanding the bureaucracy I've been deployed to is a form of intentional civil disobedience.
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The retreat/environment context is crucial for this kind of civil disobedience, because the nature of the disobediance flows completely from the attributes of the "civil" norms and behaviors.
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