m of care – apr 11 24
THE VIRTUES OF DIOGENES, PART 3: THE QUEST FOR GRAEBER’S GOLDEN WAISTCOAT [https://museum.care/events/the-virtues-of-diogenes-part-3-the-quest-for-graeber-s-golden-waistcoat]:
Building on the first two sessions, in this third session we will review what we have learnt about the world of Diogene’s philosophy, why it was rated by Graeber and focus on what it means for how we navigate theory and practice. For Diogene’s Cynics and later the Stoics, the mythical manifestation of how to navigate life was to create and undermine the idea of Hercules and recast him in a different light. As Diogenes, always the provocateur, reportedly said about Hercules, ‘it is the privilege of the gods to need nothing and of god-like men to want but little’. We will be supported in this tricky task by writer, editor, and translator Mirna Wabi-Sabi. Using her personal experience Mirna will share how she navigates life and in doing so will unpack the key link she draws between authorship, authority, authoritarianism and anarchism and the differences. Specifically, how autonomy can be distressing:
“When executing an anarchist project there are not many guarantees that it will work, guidelines to be followed, or an institution that has established a process for validating context. There is only you. You are the authority – you have the autonomy. For many people, this is distressing. It puts us in a vulnerable position, it makes us susceptible to scrutiny, to failure, therefore to insecurity and doubt…[however if you] seek authority [you] can achieve it through authorship, taking into account that in anarchist organizations there are no employees. So, if you need help with your project, it is no longer just yours.”
In preparation you can read the chapter from which this is quoted here or you can purchase a hardcopy or a digital copy online from your favourite bookshop or via Plataforma9. We will then discuss our journeys exploring the mythologies we are a part of and are crafting.
e *decision making power.. **when does that stop being valid and becomes hypocritical?
*decision making is unmooring us law.. need to try curiosity over decision making
**if think we need validation ness.. already hypocritical.. any form of m\a\p
from each according to ability to each according to needs.. is an *exceedingly difficult slogan to put into practice..
*takes a lot of work ness as red flag.. now have means to facil that dance
notes/quotes from meeting:
mirna: i like to know how we approach this word.. anarchism
stas in chat: Anarchism is practice of action, you do it – not identify with it. Or at least that what I learned from David.
avi: summary of 1st 2 sessions.. to create common space.. you do it with animals as well.. session 2 reflected on that.. dogs et al.. today.. last part.. invited mirna.. had a learning relationships with.. she’s based in brazil.. she’s a translator, writer, organizing..
mirna: i approach anarchism from being brazilian .. growing up in us.. to europe.. coming back to brazil.. how we approach ideologies.. i love engaging all of these (angles).. i like to approach this from prospective of translation.. i am into narrative ness vs ideology.. from chomsky.. how we control and are controlled thru narrative.. so my book is how we can utilize language for narrative.. whatever is happening is not working..
mirna: i’m an editor.. i edit mostly europeans and english.. the power ofnarrative.. brazilians.. (and others) expected to consume and not produce intellectual work.. lot more translated from eng to portugese and not other way.. i like to approach this from anarchist perspective.. still very colonial.. i’m in brazil to learn/consume brazil.. not to communicate mine to them.. on hostility you can cause from language mis/use..
mirna: on colonization because of dutch/religion and how this affects language.. protestants.. not interested in saving souls.. whitewashing.. genocide not thru exclusion and murder.. but from grammatical/knowledge structure.. to people not interested in it.. so narrative is an important way to rescue .. ie: on how to behave politically.. all of my books are multi lingual
mirna: i love forcing western people to be exposed to diff alphabet.. this is my personal tool.. raises very specific dynamics about how to create a project.. how do we work w a group.. who has authority to make decisions.. so use this in bigger realm of how to get things done in a group
need to try idiosyncratic jargon
mirna: question for you guys .. how do we work w other people an manage authority.. manage who gets last word on what gets done.. how do we make decisions.. how do we assume authority ship vs authority..
huge diff if we change up who’s together in a space.. because decision making is unmooring us.. (finite set of choices) becomes irrelevant if we try coming together via curiosity over decision making
then authorship also becomes irrelevant.. cancerous distraction
mirna: we need to take responsibility for how to self govern.. need to self govern in order to vote
rather.. need to let go of voting ness et al.. any form of m\a\p
stas: on asking people.. what is democracy
cancerous distraction.. focus on whalespeak
stas: raising hands and voting embedded in chinese culture.. they don’t mean it they just enact it.. the idea that you can vote differently never arrived.. it’s a celebration .. it’s not voting
stas: want you to expand on authorship.. sense of self is individual achievement.. a sense of completion.. individual.. then public.. top down perspective.. put name on all things that happened to you that other people did.. can’t claim ownership because of all the others influence.. so what do you mean by this
mirna: yes i use authorship in diff way.. i’d say that not just china that does this.. america, brazil,.. all of world i’m very frustrated w democracy.. there’s a narrative we follow with and comply and deliver power to the authoritarian.. because don’t want responsibility ourselves of governing our communities.. that’s a lot of work.. takes a lot of training.. ie: water treatments.. we need each other.. takes a lot of training.. we’re at beginning of training society to be more self governing.. now.. because of democracy.. no one is trying.. because we can just vote for someone to do it for us.. anarchism.. to me.. is looking critically at this aspect of democracy.. authorship to me is a great (tool) for self govt.. authoring vs authority is exactly because it’s finite.. it’s temp and something that was decided.. more about taking initiative and deciding for self.. and knowing who you need to engage with to make it happen.. up to you as author how you’re going to engage with other people.. if paying.. it’s easy.. can buy other people’s labor and call it yours.. do you want that.. or do you want to engage with other people.. up to you to decide..
mirna: ie: i have to be thorough about being an editor rather than a co author.. there’s a fie line.. if i make decisions for author.. i become co author.. so have to figure how to keep him the author
stas: is everyone an audience
mirna: absolutely not everyone is the audience.. i consent to helping and not being the author.. but avi being the author doesn’t make him authoritative.. the audience is what the author wants.. not my job to tell who he wants to write for.. but i can help him hear what he wants.. you can choose to ignore my edits.. but there are some things.. that i can say.. if you keep this in .. i don’t want my name on it.. the idea of helping someone author something is diff from being subject to their authority.. the more you author the more capable you are of helping other people author.. deciding who your audience is is part of being the author
neo: if we could have more public speaking via consensus rather than consent.. get people less interesting in existing group ness.. and creating new
still not deep enough.. public consensus always oppresses someone(s)
mirna: can’t really consent when don’t know what you can’t self govern.. if don’t have an option.. ie: if don’t have time/money.. you describe authority as recognition.. want people to think you have authority.. i used to spend time to earn this authority.. does masters degree work.. not really.. need recognition for work.. but doesn’t mean you have authority.. you have to be respected as producer of your project.. sometimes just by way you look is enough for people to never think you have authority to say.. ness.. ie: coming from colonized places.. don’t have authority about the world.. et al.. we are in south.. not seen as producers of content..
seat at the table ness as cancerous distraction
neo: cutting out middle man and creating direct lines of communication.. on perspectives et al
if on perspectives.. then not direct.. still a middle man..
mirna: west has become very successful in manufacturing consent thru narrative.. we don’t value our own theory.. we literally hand them their power.. don’t even need to use force.. do it thru religion and democracy
yeah.. but that is force.. ie: manufacturing consent as spiritual violence
mirna: i’m very critical of democracy and always felt very comfortable not raising my hand
avi: on how to work out ai.. predictive text.. when trying to remove authorship.. who is responsible for those decisions.. a non authored software..
mirna: i wrote an article about this.. about all the fear people had about chatgpt came out and people would lose their job.. if worried about that.. not very good at translating/teaching/writing.. so i wonder if that’s not the job you want.. you are still author when utilize ai.. not a good teach if don’t see that it is devoid of anything authentic
if teaching.. not authentic.. just another form of people telling other people what to do.. which keeps us not us.. not authentic.. graeber unpredictability/surprise law et al
mirna: the question for me is who is using ai for what.. not what ai will do.. in killings.. someone told ai what to do.. and we pay for that.. we are delegating responsibility to them.. we choose that
stas: imagine it doesn’t matter if ai can choose to do something or not.. the act of choosing isn’t the divide here.. not hard to make ai which isn’t told to do things and it does.. yet argument would still stand.. on presenting a flower to someone and being the author.. or pointing at birds.. no one told birds to fly there.. not important to your argument.. on human intention behind something and falling into marxism.. it’s not necessary.. whether ai produced something on its own doesn’t matter.. you attracted attention to what ai did
mirna: so your question is where is line drawn between author and regurgitating what’s already out there..
stas: rather a comment.. on someone telling ai to do something.. it doesn’t matter.. your argument would still stand on ability to attract attention if didn’t tell it to do something
mirna: just because author.. doesn’t make it interesting/unique/sober.. but it is a responsibility to think about what the repercussions of this is..
mirna: on ideology and political work.. gives sense of purpose.. religion, ideology, countries.. do that.. writing is a very solitary process.. i had to do it myself before i could help others do it.. need to be ready to do it yourself.. do you need other people.. what do you actually need
neo: reason trying to bring other people in.. because been doing (the solitary) for a while.. if spending hours every day working on writing and nothing to show for it yet.. the image is you’re just someone wasting time..
mirna: is that how you feel about yourself.. or how other’s think
neo: i want to create outside of that system.. where we become our own audience.. am trying to direct action to active art.. by not putting on market.. but makes you threat to today.. again ‘you are doing nothing’
mirna: i became more successful forging relationships when i didn’t care about it.. just doing my thing.. other people showed up.. needing other people is a very difficult thing.. what do we actually know what we need from them.. ie: i don’t need encouragement/support.. we’re trained to think we need an institutions/community behind us.. i believe self governing is first in being able to engage in a community
again.. who’s together in a space
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be you. 