Open Mode

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

July 7, 2024

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

June 22, 2024

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?

June 20, 2024

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

June 17, 2024

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

June 13, 2024

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

June 11, 2024

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

June 6, 2024

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

June 6, 2024

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

June 2, 2024

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

May 15, 2024

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

May 1, 2024

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

April 26, 2024

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

April 17, 2024

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)

April 16, 2024

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")

April 7, 2024

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

April 2, 2024

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)

March 25, 2024

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!)

March 23, 2024

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!

March 16, 2024

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)

March 12, 2024

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)

March 12, 2024

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)

March 12, 2024

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...

March 9, 2024

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...

no writing update - kitchen sink drama, sorry

January 14, 2024

Hello there good people, and the rest of you as well, I hope you’re all warm and well. Here in Des Moines we’re in an intense cold snap and snow fall. It’s...

writing update (no kitchen sink drama, sorry)

January 12, 2024

Hello again friends, comrades, and enemies, I hope you’re all weathering the world alright, not too hellworn. I’m alright. Honestly I’m very good personally...

thinking out loud about Simon Clarke and public health

December 27, 2023

Happy holidays all. I bet it'll be next year before we communicate again. I hope to remember to make a stupid 'wow a whole year ago' joke and more...

my talk from the capitalist state book event

December 17, 2023

Thank you to everyone who came to the book event today for the capitalist state book I have a chapter in. I thought all the presentations were great and the...

Bigger aspirations than system-compatible politics?

December 15, 2023

I assume everybody reading this thing already reads Abby Cartus’s newsletter. She’s got a great new post now about social murder and Søren Mau's book Mute...

one whole book

December 10, 2023

I hate to brag but I just finished a novel. Reading one I mean. That's right, one whole book. [Smirks, dusts hands] I read it sort of like chainsmoking in...

And so passed the time given to you (come here me speak!)

December 8, 2023

Hola, amigos, I know it's been a minute since I rapped at ya but I've been busy staring in horror, deleting work emails, and trying to remember how it felt...

Our deaths don't alarm them / rationality in bad contexts

November 30, 2023

Tonight I saw someone who works on climate policy say something like the following: ‘you’re painting a dire picture of where the environment is at and that’s...

Too big to fail, comrades but not peers, etc etc

November 23, 2023

I had a thought or three while washing dishes that I wanted to write down - or really, I glanced down at the dirt and caught a glimpse of what might be the...

Help, I watched some movies and felt some feelings!

November 18, 2023

Our dishwasher was always a bit shit and it’s been busted for ages. A combination of laziness, cheapness, and not wanting to fuck with having a new one...

RSV immunity debt's fake and misfortunes hunt in packs

November 18, 2023

A friend sent me this paper arguing that covid contributed to the big rise in RSV cases and hospitalizations last year (covid infections suppress the immune...

partial knowledges and the limited perception of social murder

November 16, 2023

Hi all, I hope you’re holding up alright. This newsletter/blog/thing’s been dormant lately. My energy’s been dissipated by work (I’m teaching three new...

favor request from people with library access

October 31, 2023

hi all, I hope you're keeping on keeping on despite [waves arms wildly] everything. I'm busy and tired from teaching and staring in horror and whatnot so...

"Industrial Medicine and the Work of Normalizing Violence"

October 21, 2023

Hey everybody. I hope you're all hanging in there. I had the thought tonight that this might interest some of you so I figure I'll pass it along in case so,...

Kettell and Kerr continued

October 17, 2023

I put up some notes on an article by Kettell and Kerr last time (https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/depoliticization/). Here are the rest of my...

depoliticization

October 15, 2023

I’ve slowed down on my little blog because my semester’s gotten in full swing so I’ve less time and attention and am also just more tired, and nightmarish...

Brecht and some scraps

October 13, 2023

Hey everybody, I tried to write tonight and it felt more like an object lesson in inadequacy the more I typed so I decided abandon it and just send a link to...

a note on determinism and conflict

October 11, 2023

To a significant degree I think it was a foregone conclusion that covid and the social and political management of the pandemic was going to bring about lots...

something liberal egalitarians something something moral economies

October 5, 2023

By the way, I noticed the formatting was all fucked up in this post - https://buttondown.email/nateholdren/archive/facilitative-bloodlessnesslaundering-...

open marxism excerpts link

October 2, 2023

I’ve mentioned on here that I think the Open Marxism tradition has important insights on how to think about capitalist society, the capitalist state, and how...