Noise To Signal
Hey everyone,
I hope you are safe and well.
Here are tomorrow’s events:
Rebelling with Data: The Future of Information w/ Emmi Bevensee. June 1st @ 3:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Bentoism: A Guide to Self-Coherence w/ Yancey Strickler. June 1st @ 4:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
The Daniel Thorson Welcome Back Party w/ Daniel Thorson. June 1st @ 6:30 PM ET. RSVP here.
Here are all of the events coming up later in the week and beyond:
Theory of Enchantment: From Kendrick Lamar to Jordan Peterson w/ Chloe Valdary. June 2nd @ 2:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Myth & Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson w/ drjordanbpeterson.ca Team. June 2nd @ 4:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
The Rise of Jordan Peterson Screening & Sensemaking w/ The Filmmakers. June 2nd @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
The Meaningwave Party w/ Akira The Don. June 2nd @ 8:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Situational Assessment: Riot Edition w/ Jordan Hall. June 3rd @ 11:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
COVID and Biosecurity Preparedness w/ MimeticValue. June 3rd @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Breaking the Frame w/ Travis Mann. June 3rd @ 7:30 PM ET. RSVP here.
The Promises and Perils of Double Consciousness w/ Carl H Smith. June 4th @ 10:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
Liminal News w/ Jeremy D Johnson. June 4th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Bio-Emotive Framework: An Introduction w/ Doug Tataryn. June 5th @ 4:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
The High Weirdness of COVID w/ Erik Davis. June 10th @ 4:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
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May 31, 2020
The regular readers of this journal, and visitors of The Stoa, know my cat is named Socrates. Camille and I love this little guy. We got him last October. He is an orange tabby cat who is always ready to bite. Every morning he wakes us up in the most annoying ways so he can be let outside to the porch. He just hangs out on the porch, lusting at the birds, and having cute staredowns with squirrels in trees.
Today is the first time we left the porch gate open. He can now roam freely and Socrates wants to roam freely. It is too beautiful out not to let our gadfly roam freely. I am concerned though. What if he never returns?
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
I am listening to It’s the End of the World as We Know it by R.E.M. at the moment. It is a very Stoic friendly song. I was motivated to listen to it after watching clips of the riots, as they filled my body with an anxious energy. My Stoic game is not always the best in the morning, so I decided to listen to a song that matches my meta-crisis narrative, and whose lyrics engage in negative visualizations for me.
My prepper proclivities are creeping in. My mind goes to the worst case scenario, but the world does not need another reactionary body that is hijacked by fear. What it needs now is a Stoic. So stop. Allow this anxious fear to do what it wants to do, without judgement or shame. It is a friend, trying to give you advice, but friends do not always give the best advice.
Good. Now I am ready to listen. What is the daemon asking me to do? At the moment it is asking me to change the song. Lovers in a Dangerous Time from Barenaked Ladies it is. I always liked the danger in romance and being romantic when there is danger.
When you're lovers in a dangerous time,
Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime.
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
You gotta kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.
I am glad I am forming a crush on every one who is a regular at The Stoa. That tender conversation I had with Maybe Gray yesterday left me in a vulnerable space. Seeing her cry has officially made me a spiritual OnlyFan. The warrior in me wants to go to war. For the pain she has, for the pain we have. I want to put an end to all of the fucked up relational dynamics that brought it about.
The world does not need more war, but the dangerous desire for it, coated in romance, can be used. Socrates has just returned. I had a feeling he would. I am listening and now my inner gadfly is ready to adventure out.
I am going to jump into a cold shower in a moment, and tame this crazy bedhead, then I will be speaking with David Fuller on Sensemaking the Media Landscape at the Rebel Wisdom Festival. I will also be hosting this week's Mediation Campfire at The Stoa later in the day.
I have listened and the daemon has a few ideas he wants to discuss with the collective intelligence. He suggested launching a one-off session, called Noise to Signal: Sensemaking All Sides, which might be placed into the wisdom gym. The idea here is to discuss the news, and make sense about what is true, in such a way where we do not get emotionally hijacked. It is time for us Stoic gadflies to filter the noise.
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