It's rather funny enough, more than its suprising that this is the first thing I see, while I open substack, after having an intense dicsussion of the very same topic "meditation" with my grandfather and a diagnosis of the digital condition, where our generation lives today with so much hyper-information around, which can never truly reach the core of the actual practice. Like I was almost arguing, that how this generation could be satisfied with just a meditative experience of sorts, which exactly relates to a person being nothing more than existing in a concious flow state.
It's haunting really, that how immediacy has supplanted mediation, and in doing so, has eroded our shared sense of meaning. And this written piece of yours, really brings that out to the surface, in rather an existentialist take. That fear of meditation, and looking inwards and feeling the tremors of oneself, only to realise we share a common space, where we do everything possible to subdue from the same.
And it it is not just the loss of contemplation, but the loss of a common language that allows us to locate ourselves in relation to the world, to each other, and to reality itself. The internet promises an endless stream of sensory stimulus, packaged in digestible digital fragments, yet the very nature of this delivery system strips away the necessary slowness required for true comprehension.
I remember how when I started writing this substack, essentially my first written piece was on lingering and the very aspect of slowing down, and to make that aspect very much comprehensible, I had to draw in the example of the movie, "Perfect Days" and its main character, "Hirayama". And I feel that's truly a necessary practice, that we need to hone.
The phrase “intensity intensifies” that you wrote, very rightly encapsulates this feedback loop; one in which we are both desperate for more and utterly unprepared to metabolize what we receive. The bombardment of images, references, and micro-narratives accumulates into a kind of digital sediment, but without the natural erosion of time and thought, these layers do not settle into something meaningful. Like, they keep stacking upon each other, demanding attention but denying coherence.
I mean dude, this write-up of yours is making me think so many things. But truly, it is about the landscape we navigate daily as a generation: a maze of flashing figures, ephemeral discourses, and algorithmically tailored horrors, all of which elude full comprehension because they are not meant to be understood in any traditional sense. They are meant to be seen, reacted to, and then replaced. The internet, in its current form, has turned even horror into spectacle, even knowledge into a dopamine cycle, even connection into something transactional.
But perhaps the most unsettling and rather a sad realization is the part where you mentioned, how we don't see but we all have lost our anchors. The common ground we once relied upon, that shared sense of cultural digestion, of meaning-making through language; all that has been eroded so gradually that its absence only reveals itself in hindsight. Like how you mentioned, what does it mean that we now float in an ocean of images that evade linguistic capture? What does it mean that we can no longer sit with a thought long enough to let it shape us?
I truly am thankful, for you to write this, and not just highlight a cultural shift, but to bring the idea of that collective notion of mourning something deeply human - the ability to process, to understand, to collectively navigate meaning. And in that mourning, it poses an unspoken question: can we reclaim mediation before we forget what it even felt like?
And this, I feel is kind of a sorcery that you have pulled off brother, because all of this is so relevant, and so so important.
Incredible response to it! The idea of the "digital condition" in the permanent way of any sort of proper practice (like the invisible ball of magnetism between two opposite ends of a magnet) is fascinating to me. Also all the questions you listed are a perfect addendum to the piece imo, so i'm gonna pin this
So good. I guess I’m kind of at a loss for words, because your writing says everything better than I could. The seemingly impossible gap between language and experience is an odd thing. Your heartfelt inquiry into the decay of postmodernist artistic expression and its relation to late stage streamlined capitalist decline reminded me a bit of Baudrillard’s writing. Anyhow I love this essay. The tragicomic absurdist poetic style still reminds me of the original Dylan mixed with the best of Ginsberg for good measure. Oh and your drawings are phenomenal as always. Same as it ever was.
You’re pulling at a lot of threads that remind me of Jenny Odell’s /How to Do Nothing/. She essentially argues that doing nothing is unequivocally necessary to help us digest information and think of solutions if we want to address the biggest concerns of our world.
She also writes that solitude and observation should be recognized as inalienable rights, which always reminds me of the David Foster Wallace quote where he says “true freedom means choosing what you pay attention to.”
"Everything strives to be valuable on the surface because otherwise there might be a need for contemplation, and, based on the American public’s treatment of Trans people these last couple months, such a thing is impermissible. The all-too-online American public seems more ready to shoot whatever they don’t understand in favor of the more readily understandable."
First of all, beatutiful essay as always.
This quote specifically relates to something I have thought quite a lot about. I believe the inmediacy of social media has made people feel like they need a quick reaction to everything. No time for research, for listening or maybe giving something a second thought.
This is the stimulu. Boom here is my response and on to the next thing. With things they don't understand or that do not apply to them, their kneejerk reaction is to say "that's stupid they are wrong". No time for anything else. Here comes the next tweet on my feed.
So, empathy or understanding can never be achieved if they do not even bother to stop and think twice about something. Something that at the very least is not confirming their biases and actually offers a different perspetive that requires some effort to comprehend.
And it is not even their fault. It is thoose terrible apps that have completly rewired our brains.
(Sorry for any spelling mistakes English is not my first language and it is too late here for anything other than ramblings)
It's a phenomenon unique to you and your work alone, my dude, where I read it, agree with it, thoroughly enjoy the depth and breadth of it, but feel sore after reading it lol. I'm workshopping metaphors for it but maybe it's like taking a B-12 shot, I feel energized from the learning but I fucking dislike needles lol.
It's rather funny enough, more than its suprising that this is the first thing I see, while I open substack, after having an intense dicsussion of the very same topic "meditation" with my grandfather and a diagnosis of the digital condition, where our generation lives today with so much hyper-information around, which can never truly reach the core of the actual practice. Like I was almost arguing, that how this generation could be satisfied with just a meditative experience of sorts, which exactly relates to a person being nothing more than existing in a concious flow state.
It's haunting really, that how immediacy has supplanted mediation, and in doing so, has eroded our shared sense of meaning. And this written piece of yours, really brings that out to the surface, in rather an existentialist take. That fear of meditation, and looking inwards and feeling the tremors of oneself, only to realise we share a common space, where we do everything possible to subdue from the same.
And it it is not just the loss of contemplation, but the loss of a common language that allows us to locate ourselves in relation to the world, to each other, and to reality itself. The internet promises an endless stream of sensory stimulus, packaged in digestible digital fragments, yet the very nature of this delivery system strips away the necessary slowness required for true comprehension.
I remember how when I started writing this substack, essentially my first written piece was on lingering and the very aspect of slowing down, and to make that aspect very much comprehensible, I had to draw in the example of the movie, "Perfect Days" and its main character, "Hirayama". And I feel that's truly a necessary practice, that we need to hone.
The phrase “intensity intensifies” that you wrote, very rightly encapsulates this feedback loop; one in which we are both desperate for more and utterly unprepared to metabolize what we receive. The bombardment of images, references, and micro-narratives accumulates into a kind of digital sediment, but without the natural erosion of time and thought, these layers do not settle into something meaningful. Like, they keep stacking upon each other, demanding attention but denying coherence.
I mean dude, this write-up of yours is making me think so many things. But truly, it is about the landscape we navigate daily as a generation: a maze of flashing figures, ephemeral discourses, and algorithmically tailored horrors, all of which elude full comprehension because they are not meant to be understood in any traditional sense. They are meant to be seen, reacted to, and then replaced. The internet, in its current form, has turned even horror into spectacle, even knowledge into a dopamine cycle, even connection into something transactional.
But perhaps the most unsettling and rather a sad realization is the part where you mentioned, how we don't see but we all have lost our anchors. The common ground we once relied upon, that shared sense of cultural digestion, of meaning-making through language; all that has been eroded so gradually that its absence only reveals itself in hindsight. Like how you mentioned, what does it mean that we now float in an ocean of images that evade linguistic capture? What does it mean that we can no longer sit with a thought long enough to let it shape us?
I truly am thankful, for you to write this, and not just highlight a cultural shift, but to bring the idea of that collective notion of mourning something deeply human - the ability to process, to understand, to collectively navigate meaning. And in that mourning, it poses an unspoken question: can we reclaim mediation before we forget what it even felt like?
And this, I feel is kind of a sorcery that you have pulled off brother, because all of this is so relevant, and so so important.
Incredible response to it! The idea of the "digital condition" in the permanent way of any sort of proper practice (like the invisible ball of magnetism between two opposite ends of a magnet) is fascinating to me. Also all the questions you listed are a perfect addendum to the piece imo, so i'm gonna pin this
i really appreciate how smoothly you’re able to connect the dots in places where the rest of us struggle to see patterns. it’s truly something special
i feel like your last (paid) post was also hitting on this really well — you should check out Kornbluh if you get a chance. really brilliant stuff
So good. I guess I’m kind of at a loss for words, because your writing says everything better than I could. The seemingly impossible gap between language and experience is an odd thing. Your heartfelt inquiry into the decay of postmodernist artistic expression and its relation to late stage streamlined capitalist decline reminded me a bit of Baudrillard’s writing. Anyhow I love this essay. The tragicomic absurdist poetic style still reminds me of the original Dylan mixed with the best of Ginsberg for good measure. Oh and your drawings are phenomenal as always. Same as it ever was.
it’s the fulfillment of the prophecy of warhol too, who ironically was literally shot
yes!!
You’re pulling at a lot of threads that remind me of Jenny Odell’s /How to Do Nothing/. She essentially argues that doing nothing is unequivocally necessary to help us digest information and think of solutions if we want to address the biggest concerns of our world.
She also writes that solitude and observation should be recognized as inalienable rights, which always reminds me of the David Foster Wallace quote where he says “true freedom means choosing what you pay attention to.”
Great read!!
"Everything strives to be valuable on the surface because otherwise there might be a need for contemplation, and, based on the American public’s treatment of Trans people these last couple months, such a thing is impermissible. The all-too-online American public seems more ready to shoot whatever they don’t understand in favor of the more readily understandable."
First of all, beatutiful essay as always.
This quote specifically relates to something I have thought quite a lot about. I believe the inmediacy of social media has made people feel like they need a quick reaction to everything. No time for research, for listening or maybe giving something a second thought.
This is the stimulu. Boom here is my response and on to the next thing. With things they don't understand or that do not apply to them, their kneejerk reaction is to say "that's stupid they are wrong". No time for anything else. Here comes the next tweet on my feed.
So, empathy or understanding can never be achieved if they do not even bother to stop and think twice about something. Something that at the very least is not confirming their biases and actually offers a different perspetive that requires some effort to comprehend.
And it is not even their fault. It is thoose terrible apps that have completly rewired our brains.
(Sorry for any spelling mistakes English is not my first language and it is too late here for anything other than ramblings)
I agree, Love is mediation, it’s not as face value as we want it to be.
It's a phenomenon unique to you and your work alone, my dude, where I read it, agree with it, thoroughly enjoy the depth and breadth of it, but feel sore after reading it lol. I'm workshopping metaphors for it but maybe it's like taking a B-12 shot, I feel energized from the learning but I fucking dislike needles lol.