Archive • Open Mode • Buttondown

A mosaic of sorts - liberal egalitarianism, politics of association, etc

December 1, 2024

As ever I know I’ve said some of this before, ah well. (And you know it too, since obviously real readers of Open Mode make sure to read every word in every...

Not Economically Viable

November 19, 2024

hey friends,Sorry for the relative radio silence. I’ve got several posts started for this lil blog o’mine but I’m lazy, busy, and tapped out so I don’t...

"Come up screaming...!" (one to fast forward thru tbth)

October 20, 2024

I got most of the way through writing this and almost deleted it - what's the point really, eh? And what am I even doing here? You're guess is as good as...

The state sides with the virus

October 16, 2024

Social murder and the state on my mind again today. I was in a conversation with some coworkers and stuff related to this came up and I had a thought that I...

October 6, 2024

Hey everyone, I hope you're all keeping well. I'm back to teaching so I've not had much time to think or write (I remembered the other day that I used to...

educating desires/constructing majorities

September 20, 2024

Two phrases echoing in my head lately (my head is a largely empty cave in which the distress and exhaustion feedback, punctuated by these occasional echoes):...

'your sickness is insubordination, pleb!'

August 27, 2024

I wrote this the other day on the alphasmart then lost the cable to get the words off the alpha. Harrumph. I've now ordered like 4 of those cables in hopes...

pointless yet circuitous

August 23, 2024

Hey gang, Not a lot of point here (in general, existentially, it feels like some days, god damn, but I mean this post in particular - even more so than...

What is public health, and to whom?

I mentioned the other day that I’ve started Christopher Hamlin’s history of public health in the mid-19th century UK. As I said there, Hamlin argues that in...

Notes on Hamlin's history of public health

I started reading a book on the history of public health - Public Health and Social Justice in the Age of Chadwick, 1800-1854, by Christopher Hamlin - on...

A four cornered impasse? (Politics of 4 kinds; efficacy conditions; etc)

As usual at the edge of my peripheral vision I can see a silhouette of what might be an idea and I want to try to get a good look at it here but first I need...

correction! I goofed: 4 things! not 3!

Hey gang, I screwed up. In my last post I dropped in 3 things I wrote, efficiently labeled Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3. As it turns out, however, there...

The hits don't start v4: Scraps from the cutting room!

Greetings friends, enemies, and acquaintances wavering between amity and enmity, I hope you’re all treading water. Sometimes one keeps doing a thing despite...

unpacking social/labor power reproduction

I wrote nearly all of my last post, on Rafael Khachaturian's chapter in the capitalist state book, yesterday. I finished earlier today and sent it out. This...

notes on Rafael Khachaturian's account of the pandemic impasse

hey all, I hope you’re maintaining. I’m a little worse for the wear lately (and 1400 bucks poorer between the mechanic and the veterinarian, deep sigh) but...

mediation, fetishism, and social murder (more Marxish nerdery)

Lately I get backaches if I don’t walk enough. (I say ‘lately’ in the hope it’s a temporary phase I’m passing through and not a permanent phase I’m aging...

character masks and whatnot

Marx nerd post, sorry gang! This was on my mind as I took a walk today, typing it out here to turn quarter thoughts into half thoughts. Marx writes in...

briefly again: made a record

hi all, in case you’re interested, my friend Malik and I cowrote a record. I think you could call it noise rap. Malik wrote the lyrics and performed the...

briefly: two more talks friday July 12 and wednesday july 17

Hey gang, I hope you’re all well. For anyone subscribing to this thing, I’m sorry to be in your inbox again so soon, but I wanted to give you a quick head’s...

My Correct Views On A Couple Things: A Response to Tony Smith on Marxism and Reformist Struggle

As regular readers of my little blog are probly sick of hearing me say, I had a chapter in this book...

talks and discussion on the capitalist state (my social murder chapter)

hey all, I hope you’re maintaining. In case you’re interested, the fine people at Red May hosted a panel today with me and Jasmine Chorley-Schulz talking...

My review of Beverley Best's new book on Capital volume 3

This is my review of Beverley Best’s new book, The Automatic Fetish. (https://www.versobooks.com/products/3032-the-automatic-fetish) The book is a close...

murder o'clock?

I wrote a while back about how there’s an issue of scale when it comes social murder. (https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/theres-social-murder-but-...

Doris Lessing and new left notes; embattled curiosity

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all maintaining. I typically write things for my little blog when I have a specific thought I’ve only partially glimpsed and am...

partial knowledge and unpleasant shocks

I’m making my way through Beverley Best’s new book The Automatic Fetish with a mind to probably writing a review of it later. I have some quibbles that I’m...

Border Country and whatnot

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts I’ve been reading this Raymond Williams novel, Border Country. I finished it today and thought I’d jot down some...

quick update - money shit

hey gang, thanks for your interest in my little blog thing, I appreciate it greatly. As of today there are 98 people subscribing, which surprises me (far be...

shocking cancellation of the future

Railway worker Morgan Rosser poured himself into his position as secretary of his union branch and even more so into the railway workers’ sympathy strike...

no such thing as masses

hey everyone, I hope you’re all maintaining despite the bullshit. I’m feeling kinda ground down, personally, but am still keeping my head up. My semester at...

panel on a book Monday May 20, plus lots of other random stuff

hey all, I mentioned that my friend Rob Hunter and I cowrote a review of a Marxist theory book we like a lot (that’s here https://spectrejournal.com/on-...

Experience, theory, possibility, outrage

A comrade wrote me a thoughtful and kind note (hi Chris, and thanks again!), and I feel very fortunate to have someone reach out to think with me and invite...

Fragment on higher and lower communism

Someone wrote to me (no really!) asking about lower and higher phases of communism (‘higher and lower’ here meaning both the degree to which the exit from...

thinking about moral injury

I saw a tweet the other day that felt like a flash lighting up a lot of experiences I’d only seen the outlines of in the dark. It said “I was complaining to...

There’s social murder, but then there’s SOCIAL MURDER (a note on scale)

I’ve thought for a while now that social murder is an apt concept for understanding the covid pandemic. (I’m far from the only one to think that; the...

Tomorrow's future... today! ("The way-hey-ting is the hardest part." Or, "this crying, this screaming, [our] voice is being born")

I was talking with an old friend today who I hadn’t seen in ages, might be seriously eleven years. They happened to passing through town for work so we got...

book review for your consideration

Hello friends - I'm being uncharacteristically brief today, just passing along a link to something I think you should read: https://spectrejournal.com/on-...

connecting a few more dots (more notes on social murder and Williams)

I said in my last post that I might try to connect the new-to-me ideas from Raymond Williams that I’m excited about with the social murder analysis I’ve been...

Explaining the explanations (or, neither their crises nor their normality!)

I’ve often had a strong gut-level suspicion that the pandemic would have played out differently if we weren’t in the Trump years. What I don’t mean is that...

No such thing as long covid?! Well fu-uh-uck you, pal!

I got real mad about this earlier today and had trouble focusing on some other things I had to do. (“I get mad, I get mad, I get mad.”...

The hits don't start volume 3 (me in Bill of Health)

Me again - greatest hits collection installment three. Installment 1 is here https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/the-hits-dont-start-volume-1-me-in-...

The hits don't start, volume 2 (me in Peste)

Hey again friends, the greatest hits collection continues. The last post is here: https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/the-hits-dont-start-...

The hits don't start, volume 1 (me in LPE)

hey everyone, I’ve written, I don’t know, a medium-sized handful of pieces about aspects of the pandemic. One of the sites I wrote for is currently offline...

I don't want to donate but if I really have to...

Hello friends, enemies, and indifferent strangers, I hope you’re all keeping as well as the hellworld permits. I’m writing with a note just for my own sake....

Enforced meaninglessness plus more on the first New Left

February 24, 2024

I think I’ve mentioned before on here that I no longer want to say ‘manufacturing consent’ about the pandemic because ‘consent’ to me conjures up a content...

"where are the unions?"

February 13, 2024

I’ve repeatedly wondered and heard others wonder something along the lines of ‘where is the labor movement on covid?!’ I think this wondering is appropriate...

is fast car a concrete universal? is this affirming what should be negated?

February 5, 2024

Sometimes I think I should drink more or try weed or something because when I’m under the influence I can have a thought or feeling instead having my mental...

jungle can be pandemic art

January 30, 2024

I mentioned the other day that I’d read a little Raymond Williams and found the idea interesting that part of the time-and-placeness of a time and place is...

Nonmasking derives from context not beliefs (ps - Bartleby feelings)

January 26, 2024

I had masking, and mostly not masking, on my mind and thought I’d sit down to type about it because it was distracting me from some other tasks, and because...

update for accountability's sake

January 26, 2024

hey gang, I’m back to worsen your inboxes, sorry about that! Though, I mean, not to minimize how irritating I am but if this is the worst part of your week...

lil shorterish for once - is there any good pandemic art?

January 21, 2024

Hello again correspondents, Before I forget - the thought struck me that I could do a something like a letter to the editor kind of thing in this little...