{"id":12160,"date":"2018-01-09T14:22:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T06:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=12160"},"modified":"2018-01-09T14:22:50","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T06:22:50","slug":"jailworld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2018\/01\/09\/jailworld\/","title":{"rendered":"surviving in jailworld requires some complicity; dismantling it will take lifetimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notes from a conversation about Oprah and Neoliberalism<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

yeah so there are multiple things going on at the same time, and people struggle to consider all of them simultaneously<\/p>\n

1. we are born into an unfair jailworld \u2013 basically we are a sort of middle-slave-class (and there are people who are much, much worse off too).<\/p>\n

2. surviving and thriving in this unfair jailworld requires some amount of complicity with the system. because the system fights back, and it fights back with more fire and fury than you can conceive. roy ngerng will be paying PM Lee damages for over a decade, and that\u2019s probably a kind outcome for him, relatively speaking.<\/p>\n

3. some people reject it early and entirely, and end up living on the fringes. this is a valid choice if you like. (it\u2019s a hypocritical choice if you\u2019re living off some sort of inheritance). it\u2019s also a choice typically accessible only to the very independent \u2013 no kids, no disabilities, etc. but you know, even the independent white male youtube celebrity isn\u2019t going to get too aggressive about anything that might result in youtube cutting off his revenue.<\/p>\n

4. if you happen to get fuck-you money, then great\u2026 but getting that has requirements, and getting there opens up a new perspective on the world that I do not have. but clearly people who get there reassess things. My suspicion is you start thinking very-long-term \u2013 about building institutions of your own. (you can see some of the early techbro billionaires shifting uncomfortably \u2013 chamath and parker are getting nervous about zuckerberg roughly the way ling and yang are getting nervous about loong. it\u2019s interesting.) I don\u2019t doubt, though, that zuck and loong are both thinking, \u201cI don\u2019t trust the world to take care of itself. I am in a position of power; my will be done.\u201d and y\u2019know\u2026 if I knew what they know, and I get to where they are\u2026<\/p>\n

5. the criticism against oprah is that she\u2019s not taking enough direct action to dismantle the jailworld. she\u2019s one of the strongest inmates, or seemingly not even an inmate at all anymore, why isn\u2019t she leading the charge? why is she spreading these vague, generic platitudes?<\/p>\n

6. Nicole Aschoff is doing good and important work by criticizing Oprah for this, I\u2019m glad people like her exist. At the same time\u2026 I think I trust Oprah to know what she\u2019s doing. I think Oprah is playing a long game where she\u2019s choosing to store up her \u2018points\u2019 (this is vague, there\u2019s something here\u2026 something about brand points. because again, once you act the jailworld wardens will react, swiftly, crushingly) to act when it matters. or maybe never act at all, but plant seeds as appropriate<\/p>\n

7. it\u2019s interesting to think about how a powerful man like harvey was eventually taken down. it took over a decade of whisper network consolidation. and like 2 centuries of feminism before that, and the work and support of probably millions of people. harvey is just one abusive mid-tier warden. dismantling the actual jail will require probably a couple of centuries of implicit coordination.<\/p>\n

8. I actually think communist memes are a significant, non-trivial part of this. you need to educate the entire prison populace about the nature of the jailworld, and you need to do this without triggering retaliation from the wardens. george orwell, the matrix, v for vendetta, all of these are part of this elaborate historical game of secret messages that we\u2019re passing on.<\/p>\n

9. \u201cget your shit together\u201d is a valid message. what\u2019s missing is context, I guess. \u201cget your shit together, despite the jailworld, to spite the jailworld\u201d, as opposed to \u201cget your shit together, it\u2019s easy, anybody can do it, the only limitations are in your mind\u201d. What\u2019s funny is you know there are some soy boys who refuse to get their shit together because \u201cthat\u2019s what the neoliberals are selling you\u201d. yeah, maybe, but that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no truth or value in it. think for yourself my man<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notes from a conversation about Oprah and Neoliberalism: yeah so there are multiple things going on at the same time, and people struggle to consider all of them simultaneously 1. we are born into an unfair jailworld \u2013 basically we are a sort of middle-slave-class (and there are people who… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[602],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-3a8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}