Reading Group Week 3
Hello! We’re rapidly approaching finishing Imagination: A Manifesto. I want to thank you all for joining me on this trip to read Dr. Benjamin's book and finishing the book as we approach the 1-year anniversary of the debut of the book as we enter Black History Month.
Readings
This week I’d like everyone to finish the book - for most of us, that means reading chapters 5 and 6. This is our last week to discuss the book, so I’m going to say ... more than usual this week.
Chapter 5: Imagining the Future
... the law is never enough to uphold (or overthrow) unjust systems. Oppressive (and liberatory) social structures require individuals to internalize social categories and cultural meanings, transmitting them through our language and everyday behavior, and socializing the next generation through education and play.
I realize it’s probably obvious with the current events in the world to point out that laws don’t end and remediate long histories of racism & dispossession, of misogyny, of transphobia, of ableism, and of eugenics. But I’m reflecting on the fact that this book came out about a year ago (February 8, 2024!), and Dr. Benjamin was calling on us to note the brittleness and the incompleteness of institutions that are currently being smashed apart - that it always needed to be more than just the institutions.
I won’t go on at length about how the durable bulwark, and the engine that will actually propel us forward, will come only from us personally - from our own willingness to engage and participate in the work to protect and elevate our communities, neighbors, comrades, and ultimately ourselves.
But I think the oppressive structures and the individuals committed and invested in them have such a monopoly at this particular moment that I want to divest from them entirely, and I would rather be overwhelmed by, and grow & nurture, liberation.
This theory of human nature [homo Economicus]—elaborated in the field of behavioral economics, codified in law and policy, glorified in myths and media–is just that, a theory...
I might have taken this beyond its reasonable conclusion, but... I wouldn’t just say that homo Economicus is merely one theory; I would question whether any theory of human nature has enjoyed more subsidy, more propping up over time and across borders, than any other theory of human behavior.
How far-reaching would we have to say the project to prop up the theory of homo Economicus has been, if we were to tally up the CIA-sponsored military coups through the Cold War, the billions of dollars funneled to tyrants who keenly agreed to murder communists and social justice advocates; the decades of specious awards, government-funded grants, titles, accolades, etc... for professors who ratted out worker movements and betrayed their own students (to say nothing of their own stated values).
I’m not exactly calling for a sweeping account of every psyop the CIA engaged in, but I don’t think it takes a totally radical shift in our paradigmatic senses to recognize that homo Economicus benefits from many thumbs on the scales at every opportunity.
Chapter 6: Imagination Incubator
By being very specific about the things we can imagine in the future, we sharpen our powers of discernment about what we want and do not want, identifying what dynamics are life-sustaining versus life-draining.
I was fixated on this idea of what’s life-sustaining versus life-draining. I think that, at times in my life when I have the most clarity, I’m able to tell what things in my life are sustaining versus draining; and conversely, when I’m the most lost, I often find that being able to identify something as life-draining has reliably helped me (even when all I can do is emotionally if not physically distance myself from the thing).
One of the futures I imagined when I started this reading group was a free Palestine. That means peace for Palestinians. It means justice for Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced and martyred. It means reparations for the destruction and dispossession of their homes. It means freedom to determine their future. What futures have you been imagining?
Often, we can be discouraged from participating in intellectual and political communities if we do not consider ourselves credentialized enough to offer something of value.
I posted on Bluesky about the experience of encountering exactly what you’d been looking for while you’re reading, and this was what I meant.
I’d been trying to articulate this for... at least months, maybe more than a year? I’ve been bristling against the sense that tech and AI ethics is increasingly consumed by people who are too keen to quietly monopolize and gatekeep the perceived authority on harms and movements against violence; leaning condescendingly on their academic credentials and technical expertise to reshape the trajectory of the discourse in social movements.
I’d been trying to write something from another angle - what would I tell organizations and movements if a credentialed academic approaches them and wishes to “help” them? Under what circumstances should they reject the supposed allyship of people who risk transforming the group into respecting the authority of CS engineers rather than people who literally and figuratively live under the technologies and systems they’re fighting against.
(I haven’t totally given up on writing this, but it feels a little goofy to give unsolicited advice about rejecting unsolicited advice from CS people... and for that to come from me, a [former?] CS person? [insert giphy spiderman meme if I feel like it (editing note: nah, but you can imagine it)])
Share your thoughts
Tell me what you thought about chapters 5 and 6. I reflected on more quotes than usual; I think chapters 5 and 6 left me with more thoughts (or maybe I'm just bringing everything together as I approached the end of the book).
If you want to join us to chat on Saturday, we'll get together at 12pm ET on Saturday to chat about chapters 5 and 6, and reflect on the book overall, via jitsi.
Other things
Some other stuff you might want to know about:
Next book
Our next book is If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer. You should buy the book right now if you haven't ordered it already.
Poetry reading group format?
I'm not sure exactly how to organize a reading group around reading a collection of poetry and prose. I've actually never been in a reading group around poetry and prose.
For now, my plan is to say that we'll read 7-10 pieces per week, in the order that they're presented in the book. That way, people can skip a piece, or spend time dwelling on a single piece, at their own pace (7-10 pieces per week would mean finishing the book in 5-6 weeks, if you're curious). I'd be really interested if people lingered on different pieces and had their own whole feelings about them.
One option is to do an occasional live reading and reflection of some of the pieces, but I can't do that for all of the pieces (and even if I could, that seems legally dubious). We might do this for one or two of the poems each Saturday, though.
I don't know - we'll see!
If you've ever been in a poetry reading group and you think you have ideas for how to make this productive and rewarding for everyone (especially considering the various ways people are in this group), I'd be keen to hear any suggestions.
Thank you!
You got to the end of this email. And we finished a book together. Thank you again for coming along with me and letting my thoughts populate your inbox. I hope you'll come along and read If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer. But if you're not able to follow along with poetry, please stay subscribed; next week I'll announce the book we'll be reading after we finish reading and reflecting on If I Must Die, which will be more of a return to the style and format of Imagination: A Manifesto.
Hope you have a good week. Please reach out if you need help.