u/SolarpunkMythos

In this essay, we discuss Federici's marxist-feminist analysis of how the emergence of capitalism contributed to the witch-hunts that murdered untold thousands of women.

How did the process of enclosure of public land into private property fracture social relations and violently devalue women’s place in society?

How are these very same processes now taking place today as capitalism buckles under the weight of technofeudalism and the power of the tech billionaires?

Thanks for your time and attention :)

I'm writing a series on post-human ontology informed by complexity science and integrative metatheory. The long term intent is for it to inform other facets of the worldview I'm trying to articulate.

What I'm looking for is advice on where I might be going wrong, what I could be more right about, and what authors I should read to help round out my perspective.

Here's a blurb for the essay's contents:

In this essay, I challenge the notion that all hierarchies are oppressive by applying the post-human tool of “complexifying binaries”, in which the binary dialogues to transform itself beyond itself.

This leads us to challenge Christopher Boehm’s claim that egalitarian hunter-gatherer social structure constitutes a reverse dominance hierarchy.

How can a more complexified understanding between the simplistic binary of hierarchy vs. anti-hierarchy help us understand how to better create a solarpunk society?

Thank you so much for the help. I look forward to reading your perspectives.

In this essay, we discuss the origins of patriarchal hierarchy within the egalitarian societies of our ancestors. While material accumulation certainly matters, there are examples of surplus not leading directly to hierarchy for many generations. Understanding the overwhelming complexity of our technofeudal moment requires a historical narrative true to that complexity.

YouTube and Spotify links are in the linked article.

In this essay, we discuss the controversy over whether or not evolution drives toward complexity or mere diversity. One of the obstacles is the fascist implications of any sort of purpose or direction to evolution. From far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics to organisms as hypotheses made by entire species, and with the complexification of exorcism into Internal Family Systems, we consider evolution's complexifying march.

YouTube and Spotify links at the top of the article.

In this essay, we discuss how our culture fills us with profit-driven stories, mass-produced archetypes, and narcissistic desires. Why do we desire things that harm us rather than things that contribute to human flourishing? Who defined what makes a truly good life and why do you continue to believe them despite the emptiness you feel inside?

YouTube and Spotify links in the article.

In this essay, I bring Francesca Ferrando’s post-human philosophy into dialogue with the Neo-Piagetian educational philosophy of Theo Dawson and Zak Stein. Post-humanism stands for a post-dualism that refuses the oppression of dualisms, but if not taken carefully risks the oppressive dualism between anti-dualism and dualism. Through Neo-Piagetian complexification, we can see how simplistic dualisms have the potential to become pedagogical tools toward a more complex, though not necessarily inherently Good understanding of reality.

YouTube and Spotify links in the article.

In this essay, I discuss the roadblocks in the way of Western egalitarianism through considering our nomadic prehistory, the emergence of gender hierarchy, and social status. Contrary to popular belief, human beings have spent the majority of the last several hundred thousand years in egalitarian bands. When inequality seems to be accelerating faster than ever, what's the special sauce that made egalitarianism possible in the first place?

YouTube and Spotify links are available at the top of the article.

Thank you so much :)

In this essay, I discuss the contradiction embedded in the claim that ethical relations can make us more human. To say such a thing is to imply that some of us are less human than others. This creates a morally dubious hierarchy in which solarpunk humanization is itself, effectively, dehumanizing.

In this essay, I discuss contemporary theories of Jungian archetypes so that we can understand how they can be effective for creating solarpunk culture. Far from being "universal principles" that recreate patriarchal culture and gender roles, archetypes are better conceived as performing certain functions. Put simply, an archetype is an image that inspires us, threatens us, attracts us, or expands us beyond our current worldview.

From this base, I then discuss archetypes as dynamic map that allow us (sometimes) to see more deeply into the world, which allows us to see more deeply into ourselves, into the archetype, into the world. This complexifies the archetypal map, differentiated and re-integrating it into more sophisticated structures.

Thank you so much for your time and attention :)

In this essay, I discuss the differences between Jungian archetypes and "parts" from Internal Family Systems. I first consider them on axes of complexity, autonomy, and mythology, with archetypes having greater potentials along each. I then discuss how these differences are not merely horizontal, but that archetypes have the potential to represented nested wholes that contain entire systems or more than system of parts.

Also just to say, I frame this as a versus in the title for marketing purposes. As I argue in the essay, I think IFS is more therapeutically valuable for most people and they are mutually supportive methodologies.

Either way, thank you so much for your time. I look forward to comments, criticisms, or anything else!

In this essay, I discuss contemporary theories of Jungian archetypes so that we can understand how they can be effective for creating solarpunk culture. Far from being "universal principles" that recreate patriarchal culture and gender roles, archetypes are better conceived as performing certain functions. Put simply, an archetype is an image that inspires us, threatens us, attracts us, or expands us beyond our current worldview.

You can find links for the Substack and Spotify version in the top comment on YouTube.

In this essay, I introduce the concept of worldview as a lens through which one reads reality. How and why do we interpret the experiences we have in the way that we do? Given that, how can we update our current worldview toward a worldview that can make solarpunk a reality?

I’m writing a series of essays to attempt to define the self in the context of a solarpunk society. Each one stands on its own so you can start with this, but obviously all hang together.

In the final essay of my Solarpunk Self series, I discuss the importance of building community for finding and creating love. Not only for actually finding a partner, but for becoming the kind of person a partner would want to be with. The greatest error of most dating advice is to give in to the hyper-individualism that sees the creation of love as a lonely pursuit rather than a communal activity.

YouTube and Spotify versions at the top of the linked article!

Some stage setting info:

1. I offer a definition of the self that can be used as a map toward becoming the kind of person who can make solarpunk a reality.

2. I try to present that map in a way that allows you to fill in key information based on your own personality, passions, interests, and relationships. Your key information includes the points of interest that fill in the space between where you begin and where you aim to go.

3. Apply the map and key information to a project of your choosing, which will give you something to do to make solarpunk a reality. I end each essay with principles for application to help apply these ideas to your own situation. While I discuss relationships in these essays, you can apply this to any facet of your identity, politics, ideology, etc.

4. I start from the idea that the self is relational, or created out of its relations with others and the world. This calls us to consider the ethical quality of our relationships.

5. Levinas and Beauvoir state that the sexual relation is exemplary of the ethical. As such, I use romantic relationships as a case study in building the solarpunk self.

6. I use heterosexual relationships primarily because that is my own experience. I'm a heterosexual cis man, so I can't really speak about experiences outside that.

7. However, I think I can and should speak with people outside the undeniably oppressive norm. I think there is a lot that such relationships could learn from LGBTQ+ relationships that would make them far more ethical.

The end goal is to understand ethical relations in the context of romantic relations, which can help us understand the kinds of relations necessary to produce the kinds of selves necessary to create solarpunk. This is not necessarily the kinds of selves that will be "in" a solarpunk culture because we can't actually know what that would be.

All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have been shaped by neoliberal capitalism, and so we have to develop the kind of self-conception that can heal ourselves and the world.

With this new conception of the self, informed by psychological and cognitive science, we are better positioned to create selves that can create solarpunk.

We want to think of the movement toward solarpunk as a development toward a series of adjacent possibles. An adjacent possible is the smallest step we can take toward where we want to go. Often visions fail to realize because we try to skip too many steps.

We can only be directed toward the better and so we must start where we are. In other words, this definition can only ever be aspirational.

Anything I say must be subject to development and I hope you'll be a part of that whether as a viewer or co-creator.

Thank you so much for your time and attention :)

Thinking about starting a once per month book club. There are a couple books by Byung-Chul Han I'd like to start with (~200 pages in total, titles listed below). I'd be looking at about 6-10 people in total. I have 3 so far including myself. If it can work, it would also be interesting to have weave some somatic mindfulness practice in as we discuss the books.

The organizing theme would be trying to create solarpunk, an egalitarian, nature-oriented, technological culture. Starting with Han is to get a sense of the current psychological landscape so we know where we're starting.

Our first meeting would be mid-late August.

If you're interested leave a comment or message me. Please share.

Books by Byung-Chul Han (200 pages total)

1. The Burnout Society
2. Psychopolitics
3. The Crisis of Narration

Thank you so much.

I’m writing a series of essays to attempt to define the self in the context of a solarpunk society. Each one stands on its own so you can start with this, but obviously all hang together.

In this essay, I discuss the necessity of a caring society in the development of people capable of autonomous rationality and of pursuing justice. We take these capabilities for granted and then wonder why we're surrounded by people wholly incapable of what seems to us to be basic decency. What if we actually have to be educated with care to be able to more ethical?

YouTube and Spotify versions at the top of the linked article!

Some stage setting info:

1. I offer a definition of the self that can be used as a map toward becoming the kind of person who can make solarpunk a reality.

2. I try to present that map in a way that allows you to fill in key information based on your own personality, passions, interests, and relationships. Your key information includes the points of interest that fill in the space between where you begin and where you aim to go.

3. Apply the map and key information to a project of your choosing, which will give you something to do to make solarpunk a reality. I end each essay with principles for application to help apply these ideas to your own situation. While I discuss relationships in these essays, you can apply this to any facet of your identity, politics, ideology, etc.

4. I start from the idea that the self is relational, or created out of its relations with others and the world. This calls us to consider the ethical quality of our relationships.

5. Levinas and Beauvoir state that the sexual relation is exemplary of the ethical. As such, I use romantic relationships as a case study in building the solarpunk self.

6. I use heterosexual relationships primarily because that is my own experience. I'm a heterosexual cis man, so I can't really speak about experiences outside that.

7. However, I think I can and should speak with people outside the undeniably oppressive norm. I think there is a lot that such relationships could learn from LGBTQ+ relationships that would make them far more ethical.

The end goal is to understand ethical relations in the context of romantic relations, which can help us understand the kinds of relations necessary to produce the kinds of selves necessary to create solarpunk. This is not necessarily the kinds of selves that will be "in" a solarpunk culture because we can't actually know what that would be.

All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have been shaped by neoliberal capitalism, and so we have to develop the kind of self-conception that can heal ourselves and the world.

With this new conception of the self, informed by psychological and cognitive science, we are better positioned to create selves that can create solarpunk.

We want to think of the movement toward solarpunk as a development toward a series of adjacent possibles. An adjacent possible is the smallest step we can take toward where we want to go. Often visions fail to realize because we try to skip too many steps.

We can only be directed toward the better and so we must start where we are. In other words, this definition can only ever be aspirational.

Anything I say must be subject to development and I hope you'll be a part of that whether as a viewer or co-creator.

Thank you so much for your time and attention :)

I'm curious about how the field has evolved around the idea of a primordial goddess. From the research I've done, it seems like the feminist Goddess subculture that emerged around Merlin Stone's When God Was Woman and other similar sorts of books is based around shoddy or older research.

Are there any books, papers, researchers you'd recommend I read from? I'd like to get a better idea of how the Goddess myth has evolved through the ages to get a sense of its relation to the emergence of patriarchal culture.

If you'd more information on what I'm actually looking for, please let me know. Thank you so much for the help!

I’m writing a series of essays to attempt to define the self in the context of a solarpunk society. Each one stands on its own so you can start with this, but obviously all hang together.

In this essay, I discuss the Greek form of love known as "xenia", or the love of foreigners, strangers, and guests. The more diverse a population becomes, the greater the demands for xenia in order to have enough coherence despite that plurality. With the internet, we have even greater blending of people that crosses the boundaries of any nation or culture, but also even less in-person contact with the people who we vote with.

YouTube and Spotify versions at the top of the linked article!

Some stage setting info:

1. I offer a definition of the self that can be used as a map toward becoming the kind of person who can make solarpunk a reality.

2. I try to present that map in a way that allows you to fill in key information based on your own personality, passions, interests, and relationships. Your key information includes the points of interest that fill in the space between where you begin and where you aim to go.

3. Apply the map and key information to a project of your choosing, which will give you something to do to make solarpunk a reality. I end each essay with principles for application to help apply these ideas to your own situation. While I discuss relationships in these essays, you can apply this to any facet of your identity, politics, ideology, etc.

4. I start from the idea that the self is relational, or created out of its relations with others and the world. This calls us to consider the ethical quality of our relationships.

5. Levinas and Beauvoir state that the sexual relation is exemplary of the ethical. As such, I use romantic relationships as a case study in building the solarpunk self.

6. I use heterosexual relationships primarily because that is my own experience. I'm a heterosexual cis man, so I can't really speak about experiences outside that.

7. However, I think I can and should speak with people outside the undeniably oppressive norm. I think there is a lot that such relationships could learn from LGBTQ+ relationships that would make them far more ethical.

The end goal is to understand ethical relations in the context of romantic relations, which can help us understand the kinds of relations necessary to produce the kinds of selves necessary to create solarpunk. This is not necessarily the kinds of selves that will be "in" a solarpunk culture because we can't actually know what that would be.

All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have been shaped by neoliberal capitalism, and so we have to develop the kind of self-conception that can heal ourselves and the world.

With this new conception of the self, informed by psychological and cognitive science, we are better positioned to create selves that can create solarpunk.

We want to think of the movement toward solarpunk as a development toward a series of adjacent possibles. An adjacent possible is the smallest step we can take toward where we want to go. Often visions fail to realize because we try to skip too many steps.

We can only be directed toward the better and so we must start where we are. In other words, this definition can only ever be aspirational.

Anything I say must be subject to development and I hope you'll be a part of that whether as a viewer or co-creator.

Thank you so much for your time and attention :)

I’m writing a series of essays to attempt to define the self in the context of a solarpunk society. Each one stands on its own so you can start with this, but obviously all hang together.

In this essay, I discuss how environments can force us to develop certain capabilities in order to survive, such as hyper-competitiveness. Once combined, these capabilities offer us access to new worlds, but also limit us to those worlds. How can we create a better society when our current society limits what we're capable of to greedy hyper-competition in order to survive?

YouTube and Spotify versions at the top of the linked article!

Some stage setting info:

1. I offer a definition of the self that can be used as a map toward becoming the kind of person who can make solarpunk a reality.

2. I try to present that map in a way that allows you to fill in key information based on your own personality, passions, interests, and relationships. Your key information includes the points of interest that fill in the space between where you begin and where you aim to go.

3. Apply the map and key information to a project of your choosing, which will give you something to do to make solarpunk a reality. I end each essay with principles for application to help apply these ideas to your own situation. While I discuss relationships in these essays, you can apply this to any facet of your identity, politics, ideology, etc.

4. I start from the idea that the self is relational, or created out of its relations with others and the world. This calls us to consider the ethical quality of our relationships.

5. Levinas and Beauvoir state that the sexual relation is exemplary of the ethical. As such, I use romantic relationships as a case study in building the solarpunk self.

6. I use heterosexual relationships primarily because that is my own experience. I'm a heterosexual cis man, so I can't really speak about experiences outside that.

7. However, I think I can and should speak with people outside the undeniably oppressive norm. I think there is a lot that such relationships could learn from LGBTQ+ relationships that would make them far more ethical.

The end goal is to understand ethical relations in the context of romantic relations, which can help us understand the kinds of relations necessary to produce the kinds of selves necessary to create solarpunk. This is not necessarily the kinds of selves that will be "in" a solarpunk culture because we can't actually know what that would be.

All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have been shaped by neoliberal capitalism, and so we have to develop the kind of self-conception that can heal ourselves and the world.

With this new conception of the self, informed by psychological and cognitive science, we are better positioned to create selves that can create solarpunk.

We want to think of the movement toward solarpunk as a development toward a series of adjacent possibles. An adjacent possible is the smallest step we can take toward where we want to go. Often visions fail to realize because we try to skip too many steps.

We can only be directed toward the better and so we must start where we are. In other words, this definition can only ever be aspirational.

Anything I say must be subject to development and I hope you'll be a part of that whether as a viewer or co-creator.

Thank you so much for your time and attention :)

I’m writing a series of essays to attempt to define the self in the context of a solarpunk society. Each one stands on its own so you can start with this, but obviously all hang together.

In this essay, I discuss how our culture of narcissism has reduced friendships to selfish transactions. I then discuss "circling" as a practice for developing the deep mutuality that can facilitate healthy friendship and culture. Circling is an interpersonal practice meant to cultivate emotional awareness, interpersonal care, and healthy boundaries.

YouTube and Spotify versions at the top of the linked article!

Some stage setting info:

1. I offer a definition of the self that can be used as a map toward becoming the kind of person who can make solarpunk a reality.

2. I try to present that map in a way that allows you to fill in key information based on your own personality, passions, interests, and relationships. Your key information includes the points of interest that fill in the space between where you begin and where you aim to go.

3. Apply the map and key information to a project of your choosing, which will give you something to do to make solarpunk a reality. I end each essay with principles for application to help apply these ideas to your own situation. While I discuss relationships in these essays, you can apply this to any facet of your identity, politics, ideology, etc.

4. I start from the idea that the self is relational, or created out of its relations with others and the world. This calls us to consider the ethical quality of our relationships.

5. Levinas and Beauvoir state that the sexual relation is exemplary of the ethical. As such, I use romantic relationships as a case study in building the solarpunk self.

6. I use heterosexual relationships primarily because that is my own experience. I'm a heterosexual cis man, so I can't really speak about experiences outside that.

7. However, I think I can and should speak with people outside the undeniably oppressive norm. I think there is a lot that such relationships could learn from LGBTQ+ relationships that would make them far more ethical.

The end goal is to understand ethical relations in the context of romantic relations, which can help us understand the kinds of relations necessary to produce the kinds of selves necessary to create solarpunk. This is not necessarily the kinds of selves that will be "in" a solarpunk culture because we can't actually know what that would be.

All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have been shaped by neoliberal capitalism, and so we have to develop the kind of self-conception that can heal ourselves and the world.

With this new conception of the self, informed by psychological and cognitive science, we are better positioned to create selves that can create solarpunk.

We want to think of the movement toward solarpunk as a development toward a series of adjacent possibles. An adjacent possible is the smallest step we can take toward where we want to go. Often visions fail to realize because we try to skip too many steps.

We can only be directed toward the better and so we must start where we are. In other words, this definition can only ever be aspirational.

Anything I say must be subject to development and I hope you'll be a part of that whether as a viewer or co-creator.

Thank you so much for your time and attention :)