#5SmartReads - September 9, 2022

Hitha on the looming threats to democracy and reality, and what dinosaurs actually sounded like

September 09, 2022

Things that keep me up at night:

  • really good books

  • the state of the electric grid

  • the constitutional Congress that far-right conservatives are fighting to mount

  • that the 2022 midterm election may be the last free and fair election we vote in as a nation

Secretaries of state are the statewide officials responsible for running the elections in their respective states. In most states, it’s an elected position. In others (like in the perpetually purple commonwealth of Pennsylvania), the secretary of state is appointed by the governor.

We witnessed firsthand how these secretaries’ of state refusal to bend towards the nonsensical arguments mounted by the former president literally saved democracy. But those officials are fending off formidable challenges by Trump-endorsed candidates who would swear allegiance to a person over the Constitution.

I’ll leave you with the words - and warning - of Colorado’s secretary of state:

“We must reject that it is partisan to protect the right to vote. It’s not,” she said. “It’s the most American and democratic thing you can do.”

In an effort to help me move through my recent depression episode, I didn’t look to meditation, exercise, or mindless TikTok scrolling.

I turned to needlepoint.

For a while, needlepoint was how I spent my work breaks. If I wasn’t writing or researching or clearing out my inboxes, I was stitching my latest canvas to keep my brain in “create mode” and cared about finishing a canvas as much as I cared about finishing one of the work tasks scribbled on the day’s to-do list.

It stopped being the pleasure it used to be. So I stopped. And I picked it back up when I needed to find my way back to myself.

This time, I had no agenda or plan or any intention to share my projects with the world (my finished canvases continue to fill up the old purse box I have in my closet). But I stitch for pleasure and to connect with myself - and for no other reason.

This piece is the first time I’ve seen the problem of performative hobbies be explored in detail, by the wise Tomi Akitunde. Prepare your favorite beverage, curl up in a cozy seat, and carve out some time to read this at your leisure.

When my friend Rahaf recommends something, I pay attention.

Normally, her recommendations are of the brain candy variety - paranormal fantasy romance (bless you for bringing Nalini Singh into my life) or Dramione fanfic (I’m still processing). ‘Longtermism’ is nowhere near as entertaining as her previous recommendations, but it’s a direly important one.

So what is it, exactly?

“Longtermism is a quasi-religious worldview, influenced by transhumanism and utilitarian ethics, which asserts that there could be so many digital people living in vast computer simulations millions or billions of years in the future that one of our most important moral obligations today is to take actions that ensure as many of these digital people come into existence as possible.”

Not caring for the folks who are here, now. Not contending with the threats of fascism, climate change, and authoritarianism.

We’re talking about the literal metaverse when the planet is literally on fire.

Summarizing this article would minimize it, so I encourage you to take the time to read it (and you may need to read it a couple of times - I certainly did) to process it fully.

And maybe, you know, spend some more time offline in the real world, which I still believe is worth saving.

If you’re reading this, you likely doomscroll just a bit (and you may not even realize you’re doing it - it’s only as I approach an hour spent on TikTok that I realize I do it!)

Quitting cold turkey is pretty near impossible, if you have a social media presence or are even a casual user of Al Gore’s Internet.

But we can manage it better.

Needlepoint has been an helpful antidote to doomscrolling (though the balance of a hobby purely for pleasure and a performative hobby is a delicate one), as has my Kindle (or any single-purpose device or analog books/puzzles/coloring sheets).

Training myself to be biased towards the positive is one recommendation from this piece that I’m going to try and incorporate in my own management of doomscrolling. And, you know, more time offline in general.

If you’re thinking Jurassic Park had it right…well, you may be mistaken.

The truth is that no one really knows. But I’ve never forgotten the whiny squeak that Rho’s teacher at his weekly science class at AMNH sang, as she explained the predicted vocal cords of a T-Rex to a bunch of two year olds and their parents (we, the parents, were far more engrossed in these classes).

We’ll end this week’s smart reads with this fun read, which I encourage you read to the kids in your lives and make a little game of “what does this dinosaur sound like?”

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