On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.
Last night at the theater opening of ‘We Are As Gods’, I had occasion to declare:
“Science is the only news. The rest is gossip.”
Science is the only news. When you scan a news portal or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same cyclical dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness; even the technology is predictable if you know the science behind it. Human nature doesn’t change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly. —@StewartBrand
“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.” —Salman Rushdie (1988) The Satanic Verses
“People usually only figure out that things are turning bad when they turn bad for them, and by then it’s too late. The time to act is when you still have privilege and power, not when you’ve had it stripped from you.” —Attack Surface (2022)
‘Viruses Show Us That We Are Connected’
Neoliberalism structures our society in a way that the government or your place of employment or your school are not responsible for putting HEPA filters and open windows and good ventilation in your workspace, [and then] you’re blamed for breathing … [It] frames it all as individual choice, which dilutes the power of group action and dilutes the possibilities of solidarity while also leaving people at risk. That’s also ableism and disability, which I think were two of my real learning areas in writing the book. We have a real problem with equating sickness with poor personal characteristics, so that if you are sick, you’re made to feel like you’re a bad person.
A rant about lawns in America via @siobhan_fagan
The lawn began as a feature of UK feudal estates. The whole point was to flaunt wealth, to demonstrate that one owned so much land that one could afford to turn over swathes to nothing but ornamental green.
Then as now, maintaining that swathe of green required enormous amounts of resources and labor. That was the point, to show you had those resources.
The suburban dream of post-war America was that every white man could join the middle class and afford his own mini feudal estate, complete with its own stable (garage), its own compliant staff (wife and kids), and its own ornamental lawn.
Best of all, moving out to a suburban mini estate would free white families from being forced to share public resources with … those people.
The surprising way that wearing masks changed ‘emotional labor’ via @CelineSchill
Normally there’s a power differential right between the customer and the employee, and the smile is one way of showing that difference: ‘I’m there to please you, I’ll do what you want.’ And we found that when the mask is on, that removes that signal of deference. I could still be using a friendly vocal tone and showing you with my body language that I’m here to help, but without that smile, customers felt a little more equal.
And we actually found that that improved their interactions. They were less likely to sexually harass them or treat them in those kinds of ways.
