Welcome to Wayfinding(s)! Go here to learn more about the newsletter (and about me).
NOTE: I’ll see you next on July 7.
LOOKING AHEAD: June 23 (today) is National Hydration Day. June 24 is World UFO Day. July 3 is Disobedience Day. July 4 is INDEPENDENCE DAY! PLAN ACCORDINGLY!
As we approach Independence Day on July 4th, a few thoughts on being human, seeking truth, and defending democracy…
Welcome to the “newtro” movement (“a portmanteau of ‘new’ and ‘retro’”). There is a small but growing movement of people expressing their dissatisfaction with technology permeating their lives. A large number of them are younger people who are distrustful of the “data- and attention-harvesting tech” they’ve grown up with. They are turning away from smart phones, with one entrepreneur starting a company called “Dumbphones” which sells a wide variety of phones from basic calls-only models to some that add “WhatsApp” only functionality. The movement is also fueling the rise in sales of cassette tapes, vinyl recordings, film cameras, fanzines – all things analog media. And, physical books have yet to disappear.
In yet another example, to foster non-digital connection, some are turning to a site called Postcrossing, which connects people around the world by sending and receiving postcards. It currently has 800,000 members. 400,000 postcards are posted each month and people speak of the pleasure of having “material evidence of a friendship to look back on.”
David Sax, author of Revenge of the Analog, asserts that we are “haptic.” As he explains:
“One of the benefits of analogue is its tactility – things you can use and touch and taste and feel. There was this assumption that we would be living in a digital future … The experience of the pandemic showed us one truth we kind of downplayed: we have bodies that exist in the physical world and need to go places and touch things. We desire more of the world than what’s available on 20cm of glass.”
As one film student who has chosen film over digital photography said, “With analog you have to engage with what’s happening much more closely. You’re much more in touch with the environment and the light.” His summation:
“Over time, he observed how an over-reliance on digital technology had made him feel distant from the physical world. ‘It reduces the vibrancy of life and makes you feel like you’re floating around in a daze. It’s like being stuck in a cave watching a wall of shadows, instead of being out in the world. The analogue [trend] is really just an effort to counteract that, and take hold of embodied reality again.’”
Engaging with technology where “necessary” is not going away. But more people are becoming aware that we need to find a balance and know when tech engagement has gone too far.
‘We need to go places and touch things’: the people turning away from smartphones | The Guardian | June 12, 2024
A small thing (a grant) related to a big thing (resisting Christian nationalism) recently caught my eye. The Henry Luce Foundation, a foundation that “supports formal knowledge institutions and individuals who work in them,” has recently given a $300,000 grant to the Meanings of Democracy Lab at the University of Connecticut, headed by Ruth Braunstein (professor of sociology). The grant is to chart resistance to Christian Nationalism. Braunstein came to wider attention with two 2023 OpEds – one on House Speaker Mike Johnson and the other on resistance to Christian nationalism .
The grant will be used to maintain a database of individuals and organizations involved in the resistance movement and to produce a documentary-style podcast. Among those working in this movement are certain Christian groups (Christians Against Christian Nationalism, Vote Common Good), the Poor People’s Campaign led by Rev. William Barber, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
As Braunstein describes Christian nationalism,
“Essentially, it’s a mythological story about the United States … that at its founding, the country was perfect, sacred, and created for and by Christians — and that in the years since the founding, the country has slowly fallen away from the original promise of the country.”
Braunstein is buoyed in the work she does, noting that as Christian nationalism has gained power and influence in American politics, it has spawned a wave of resistance.
Braunstein is quoted in an article in Raw Story maintaining that,
"As Christian nationalists take advantage of a moment of political precarity to call for a turn toward authoritarian theocracy, the press should be paying attention to those rising up to preserve democracy in America.”
Braunstein, through this funded mapping project, is trying to facilitate doing just that.
Mapping the Battle Against Christian Nationalism | UConn Today | March 11, 2024
Meanings of Democracy Lab | University of Connecticut Department of Sociology
As you know, I have highlighted the Washington Post columns of Danielle Allen over the past year. Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard (political science), who embarked on a brief run for governor of Massachusetts, and is deeply involved in the project of “renovating democracy.” She is turning some of those columns into a 10-week email newsletter course. Each email will include “1) a key summary of a key democracy renovation, 2) links to related reading and resources, and 3) an activity you can do in your own community.”
For those who subscribe to The Washington Post, you can go to the linked article below to sign up for the newsletter. Over my upcoming newsletters, I will be highlighting some of her suggestions
Want to help renovate American Democracy? Welcome to Democracy, Refreshed. | The Washington Post | May 6, 2024
THE UNDER TOAD
The title character in “The World According to Garp,” whose son mistakenly hears someone referring to an undertow at the beach, “subsequently use[s] the phrase ‘under toad’ to refer to the omnipresent threat of disaster that lies beneath the surface of everyday life.” (as described in Wordsense)
This article in The Atlantic is a first-hand account of the information environment in which we find ourselves – an account which the protagonist, Renée DiResta, has dubbed the “fantasy-industrial complex.” We all know it’s out there, being fostered by Fox News, Alex Jones’ InfoWars, and far beyond.
DiResta is the former research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO). SIO, established in 2019 and part of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, is “a multidisciplinary program for the study of abuse in information technologies with a focus on social media.” Thom Hartmann of The New Republic called it "the gold-standard organization for determining the veracity of political information circulating online." Thus, SIO and DiResta, herself, have been relentlessly attacked by the Right Wing.
As she relates in her account, she has been dubbed “CIA Renee” for having participated during college in a CIA scholarship program for computer-science majors. Prior to her academic work beginning at SIO in 2019, she had worked in finance and tech. Her work at SIO involved studying,
“the ways in which a variety of bad actors—spammers, scammers, hostile foreign governments, networks of terrible people targeting children, and, yes, hyper-partisans actively seeking to manipulate the public—use digital platforms to achieve their aims.”
She, and the SIO, have been the subject of scrutiny by Jim Jordan’s Congressional subcommittee and viciously attacked by conservative groups in an effort to discredit her and the project. By the standards of these conservative groups, fact-checking is censorship.
In 2020 she helped lead the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) with Stanford working in conjunction with tech companies, civil society groups, and state and local election officials “to detect viral misinformation about election procedures.” Two years later, the right wing ecosystem has whipped up a conspiracy theory that the project was actually masterminded by the Department of Homeland Security. While she has tried, unsuccessfully, to correct the record on this and multiple other accusations, she notes “conspiracy theories are thrilling, reality is not.”
She points out that she is but one of many others being turned into characters in conspiracy stories, of note Dr. Anthony Fauci, but across the spectrum to anonymous poll workers. From her experience, she says she has learned two things:
“First, being associated with public-interest research that has political implications can expose a person to vicious and in many cases bizarre attacks.”
But of significance to all of us:
“Second, sweeping online conspiracy theories, far from dissipating upon contact with the real world, are beginning to reshape Americans’ political reality.”
And, she warns,
“Once established, characters never stop being useful. The story simply evolves around them. Indeed, as November’s election approaches, the plotlines have begun to morph once again; it’s time to start the next season of this show. The cost of becoming a character is borne by the target alone, but the cost of fantasy replacing reality affects us all.”
My Encounter With the Fantasy-Industrial Complex | The Atlantic | June 15, 2024
IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY
As a 2024 public service and for us to ponder, I am continuing to highlight one lesson each newsletter from Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, in each subsequent installment of this newsletter — with no additional editorial comment. This is the twelfth lesson.
12. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.
ON THE MUSICAL SIDE
For those that may have missed the 2024 American Theater Wing’s Tony Awards, I draw your attention to this piece written by Shaina Taub for Suffs, her Broadway musical tracing the history of the Suffragettes. As you may recall, I highlighted Taub’s music in a previous newsletter. Suffs won two out of the six Tony nominations she received this year – Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score Written for the Theater. At one point during the Tony’s, Hillary Clinton, a producer on Suffs, made a surprise appearance to introduce the show finale, Keep Marching. Although sung by the cast in the show, here is a version sung by Taub alone. It’s a very inspiring piece to accompany us as we move through this election year.
Keep Marching | Shaina Taub | From the Broadway musical, Suffs (written 2022)
All that marching can wear you out. So, here’s some more meditative music courtesy of Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Meditação (Meditation) | Antonio Carlos Jobim | Written 1963
Corcovado | Antonion Carlos Jobim | Written 1960
Chega de saudade (No More Blues) | Antonion Carlos Jobim | Written 1958
"Aquarela do Brasil" (Brazil) | Antonio Carlos Jobim | Album: Stone Flower (1970)
Thanks for reading…and listening to Wayfinding(s)! Click the “Share” button at the top of the post to welcome others into subscribing for free, to receive new posts, and to support my work.