Uncoded qualitative data

I live in Ann Arbor for the moment. This is where I put some of my thoughts. Topics include amateur adulting, under-cooked philosophy, and psychology.

[dailymarx]

“The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have, i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being. Everything which the political economist takes from you in life and in humanity, he replaces for you in money and in wealth.”

— Marx - Human Requirements 1844

[yesterdaysprint]

The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Utah, December 1, 1937

[unqualdat]

Knowledge is no longer felt to be an ideal; it is seen as an instrument.

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, “The Higher Immorality”

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C. Wright Mills on the nature of "the public" in modern society.

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This is one of the figures from Card, English, & Burr (1978), illustrating learning curves for participants using computer mice versus joysticks and keyboard input. The paper applies Fitts’ Law to demonstrate how using a mouse is comparable to finger-pointing, and serves as the evidentiary basis for widespread adoption of the technology.

I’ve discovered I have a small fascination for histories of the mundane, and this is one of the better examples I’ve found.

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"Detroit Industry" -- Diego Rivera

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Keeping with the philosophy theme of today, this is another good essay on some limitations within modern moral philosophy (e.g. “the original position”), particularly their inability to totally reconcile an updated (& more egalitarian) conceptualization of personhood with philosophy conceived under more overt white supremacy.

[unqualdat]

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Recently, Sunday nights have been the easiest point to feel insecure about my future, my skills & talents, and why I'm doing the things I'm doing. I'm glad I'm in a position where materially I'm not at risk, but self-doubt is one of those human gnawing pains. I did better about making my morning feel useful, and I made dinner for my housemates. I just wish I didn't feel empty and scared at night.

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Jennifer Jones, Sarah Quinn, and Hannah Brown

Found this link while surfing through some graduate programs. Seems like a concise resource. I’ve been getting antsy about my writing skills recently; I’ve definitely been typing out more code than prose. Need to find an activity to motivate writing more regularly.

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Booked #3: What Exactly Is Neoliberalism? | Dissent Magazine

Political scientist Wendy Brown discusses her new book, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution, and the political consequences of viewing the world as a giant marketplace.

Brown on whether Foucault’s work was consistent/compatible w/ Neoliberalism:

...Foucault’s degree of sympathy with what he was studying is not, for me, particularly important. The usefulness of certain historical accounts and theoretical formulations turns on their capacities for illumination, not on the theorist’s political affinities. 

[unqualdat]

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I am bad at this blog

Totally went to Europe last summer and I don’t even mention it once

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Feminism’s online heart is driven by procrastinating undergrads (searches for “feminism” in blue, “social class” in red). Spikes in November and May.

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In an effort to get people to look into each other’s eyes more, and also to appease the mutes, the government has decided to allot each person exactly one hundred   and sixty-seven words, per day. When the phone rings, I put it to my ear   without saying hello. In the restaurant   I point at chicken noodle soup. I am adjusting well to the new way. Late at night, I call my long distance lover,   proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.   I saved the rest for you. When she doesn’t respond, I know she’s used up all her words,   so I slowly whisper I love you thirty-two and a third times. After that, we just sit on the line   and listen to each other breathe.

Jeffrey McDaniel, “The Quiet World”

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I've often said we had two major political figures in our childhood. One was Hitler, and that taught us that politics is very serious, it's not a plaything. And the other was Roosevelt, and the lesson there was that government can do good things.

Larry Sanders http://m.mic.com/articles/131472/bernie-sanders-big-bro-larry-serves-up-some-new-insight-on-his-kid-brother#.LbeeifC0F