“Things Just Go On” – More Theses on Doomscrolling
“That things just go on is the catastrophe” – Walter Benjamin. One of the risks of declaring victory is the possibility that your declaration will prove to have been premature. … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-Eighth Week
If they came to us and said the plague would end in thirty-six days or in four months we would be able to manage days could be counted down black … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-Seventh Week
We blame the virus for the disastrous condition of our schools the catastrophic state of our hospitals the ruinous structure of our workplaces the collapsing authority of our institutions so … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-Sixth Week
To learn to live with the virus is an easy thing all it requires is that you learn to ignore those dying from the virus. * Apparently it is encouraging … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-Fifth Week
Let us hope that in this new year we will not need to learn any more letters of the Greek alphabet. * There was the colleague then the casual acquaintance … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-Fourth Week
Perhaps it was selfish at the very least it was naive but I had really hoped that just for that day I would be able to forget the plague I … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-Third Week
You who find yourselves unexpectedly ill after trying so hard after trying to stay safe after trying to be responsible must not view your sickness as a moral failing you … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-Second Week
It was this week two years ago when we started to see stories ominous stories about a virus spreading but we did not worry for it was happening over there. … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninety-First Week
You have not survived the plague. You are surviving the plague. And your survival depends on understanding that distinction. * We wish to do the right thing the responsible thing … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Ninetieth Week
Surely there must be a better way to learn the letters of the Greek alphabet. * We are warned that if we are unwilling to change we shall wind up … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Ninth Week
By vehicle by train by airplane thus shall we travel this week to be together with one another. By vehicle by train by airplane thus shall the plague travel this … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Eighth Week
Tired and angry as you are be aware that by week’s end you will be exhausted and furious. * At first they said the plague would never reach our shores. … Continue reading
Against Technological Inevitability – On 20th Century Critics of Technology
“The myth of technological and political and social inevitability is a powerful tranquilizer of the conscience. Its service is to remove responsibility from the shoulders of everyone who truly believes … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Seventh Week
According to the scale that I keep in my bathroom I weigh now more or less the same as I did when the pandemic began so I suppose this hollowness … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Sixth Week
The plastic skeletons have disappeared from the stores. The cardboard gravestones have been tossed into the recycling bin. The ghost in the tree is now just a sheet in the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Fifth Week
If you wish to see the pandemic continue even longer by all means act as though it has already ended. * We will not stop to mourn. We will not … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Fourth Week
If you must worry do not focus on the plague instead worry that compared to the other challenges bearing down upon us addressing the plague has been easy. * Near … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Third Week
It is not that you are living in fear. But that even after so many months you are still living in a pandemic. * We are eager for the pandemic … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Second Week
It would be inaccurate to claim that the decline in new cases and the decline in daily deaths will mean that we shall stop paying attention to the pandemic. Such … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-First Week
If you must name the current season do us all a favor and refer to it as the autumn thus may we enjoy the crispness in the air and the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eightieth Week
You need not know the exact number or the statistical details that will allow you to place that first number into a broad historic or population sized context for you … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Ninth Week
So you did not finish writing the novel you were going to write. So you neglected the sourdough starter you were going to bake with. So the weights You were … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Eighth Week
At the start of every month I tell myself that this is the month in which the pandemic will finally come to an end. Of course I know that I … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Seventh Week
Fortunately, I am not religious for if I were a believer I imagine that the sight of the four horsemen trotting back and forth across the headlines week after week … Continue reading
The Climate of Despair – Climate Change, COVID-19, and the Feeling of Impending Doom
“It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.” – Walter Benjamin Whenever the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issues … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Sixth Week
No matter how ardent is your attempt you will never succeed in keeping a hurricane from making landfall by standing alone on the beach and blowing at the sky. * … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Fifth Week
Of course we know that there are events occurring in the world other than the plague but that does not mean that we can blithely ignore the plague. * Prometheus … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Fourth Week
How distressing it is to be reminded that this wretched pandemic is not the only worsening catastrophe in which we are embroiled. * We can howl with grief. We can … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Third Week
How exhausting it is to begin your week knowing that by week’s end the situation will have become even more dire. And how exhausting it is when you come to … Continue reading
Technological Lessons from the Pandemic
“The public be damned is the private motto of the majority of our citizens: which means that they are damning themselves; and at a serious crisis like the present one, … Continue reading
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