Being a PTA member and naive about global politics didn’t stop the '50s housewife from megadosing diazepam. This + the family article, offer clever rationalisations for domestic life, but you’re essentially reverse-engineering Ned Flanders’ conservatism.
Bad take. It has nothing to do with changing your political opinions. It has to do with burning out for nothing, the very real and pervasive influence of media and the way it gets under your skin.
Talking about Trotsky, he relates somewhere in his writings that Russian revolutionaries went days without sleeping and barely eating to do as much as they physically could for the Soviets, in the big hours of the Revolution. That's the passion and exhaustion that is acceptable, depending on the political cause you're defending of course. The rest is useless malding and seething and overthinking which is what Russel talks about here.
Also let's grow up a little bit about the leftist' meme of "everything was actually hell in the 50's" please.
Benedict Option-ing by making a 1:1 replica of Travis Bickle’s apartment and filling it with Hitler biographies isn’t “burning out”, actually.
And yes, on balance, our world is infinitely better than the 1950s. Conservatives like you have done nothing more than replace a liberal shibboleth with a stupid one of your own.
Well, thanks for being crystal clear on how useless it is to talk to you, saves everyone's time. Talk about projecting lmfao, after all I said is that "everything was bad in the 50's" is a shit take with no nuance (which objectively it is) now I'm a mainstream "conservative".
"Our world is infinitely better than-" yeah, opinion automatically discarded. I'll take Russell's advice and turn the telescope off. Godspeed
Extremely thoughtful essay. Chesterton is one of those guys I’ve always been on the fence about. I’m normally not big on religious epiphanies, but I think his late in life conversion to Catholicism gave him a perspective that was both unique and engaging. I should probably re-visit him.
Well, if nobody minds a white boy having a white boy moment, lemme say I needed (to read) this. The cortisol spikes have been non stop lately, and they were all about death, decay, war and the future. It's good to be a man that worries about his land and people, but we all have a life to live. Thanks Russell
The telescope vs microscope framing is interesting.
In geopolitics we see a similar distortion—people obsess over distant crises while ignoring the structural forces that actually shape outcomes (industrial capacity, supply chains, institutions).
The paradox is that the more global the information flow becomes, the more helpless individuals feel about it.
I think the telescoping is moreso a response to a world that has made people helpless. The open society means there are no more ponds but an ocean. The ocean is less moveable by small energy inputs, but also produced high waves when things coalesce. It has never been less rewarding to invest locally. It has never been more at risk. It is still the best shot, but most telescopists have seen the wave crash through their lives after long toil. That too is something the limbic system can't handle.
I was just telling someone the other day, "i think the reason I'm following the Iran protests so closely is because it's a lot more interesting than my daily life right now" lol
While being terminally online can sometimes act as a superpower through the kaleidoscopic frame of references it opens up, all too often it ends up just limiting and paralysing us. Another good article, one I needed to hear today!
This is, excuse me, a damn fine cup of Coffee. I wholeheartedly agree. Just log off. Go analog, as the Kids say. Not full unabomber, Just take it easy. One thing i would like to add, is this hyper online politics things seems to make People cynical. And these days i thing it is really bad to be cynical, for the world but also for you. I've started going to church a few months ago and one, really good message that's repeted there and in the évangiles is, open your heart. Or, reject cynicism. Which is, i think, very linked to egotism and learned helplness / depression. Get out there, open your heart, kick the telescope out.
Banger. I've been a telescopist and a microscopist at different points in my life, and the microscope is by far the better option. You still hear about the important things, but you avoid the inevitable blackpilling that comes with daily exposure to horror and tragedy.
For most of my adult life, up until two years, I only lived with a microscope. I hardly paid any attention to current events and politics and had barely any idea what was going on.
Then I was bait and switched, thinking I was working on flagging instances of Title IX style violations of equal opportunity, when it turned out that there is a large initiative of "Fair Machine Learning" devoted to automating the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
An instance of Zizek's sublime ideology. I like to eloquently describe it as ideology breaking into my apartment and taking a shit on my carpet. So I could no longer ignore it, it smells and I'm wondering why the hell is something walking around shitting on peoples' carpets.
I was utterly horrified. I thought Marxism was over, and 100 million casualties was enough of a sample size for the learned to conclude it's time to give that up. But no, apparently Marxism-Leninism was just re-branded as "equity" and the college kids found it cool again, I guess like how many of them find Che cool.
I dusted off my telescope. I'd already consumed plenty of guidebooks to the stars through voracious reading of academic texts on history, economics, philosophy as a teenager before I decided the real world was more fun in college. I caught up, largely thanks to you wonderful substack writers. I voraciously read for the next couple of years trying to figure out WTF is going on. And that was actually useful. I learned that the growth of Stalinism within the AI research world and academia at large is part of grander systemic dynamics of dysfunction in these institutions. Moreover I found that these dynamics were epiphenomena of a broader civilizational decline and collapse.
That's pretty useful information to know! Just practically speaking, as far as one's investments and career decisions. Being aware that the world is ending is pretty important!
But as Alan Watts says about psychedelics "once you open the doors of perception, don't just stand in the doorway playing with the door, walk through and move on"
Being a "precariat", a downwardly mobile elite, actually lets me off the hook. Meaning, I won't be an influential intellectual, so I won't have any influence on these telescope dynamics. So I can eschew civic responsibility, live carefree and childfree, and ignore any "maturity" hoopla of "living for something beyond yourself", it's all going to shit, and it's not my problem.
And so letting go of any need to "be on top of current events" and consuming telescope contents is thoroughly justified and is for me (and should be for any other precariat) a relief! So I'll go back to my microscope. Composing music about civilization's fall is more fun than writing essays about it anyway.
Generally good advice, but... being telescopic about COVID and the mRNA vaccines certainly helped me at the microscopic level too. Going with the telescope metaphor, maybe the best negotiation is to keep a "parallax" view, and remember that what's closer in your view could actually hit you, but maybe, put what it's doing in the distant context? I dunno.
Great advice, well written.
How do begin microscoping? Take a pen and paper. Draw a small circle. Inside that, list everything you can personally influence.
That’s all you should focus on. Everything outside your circle of influence will likely drive you crazy.
You know it’s over when the Hitlerians (correct me if I am wrong) say “just go outside bro” 💔
I am not a Hitlerian!
So good. Nailed it.
I literally just published something today saying the same thing, but from another angle (and funnily enough actually tagged your status article).
I hope Chesterton’s Microscope does find its way into more than just Wikipedia
I’ll read and restack.
Much appreciated.
Being a PTA member and naive about global politics didn’t stop the '50s housewife from megadosing diazepam. This + the family article, offer clever rationalisations for domestic life, but you’re essentially reverse-engineering Ned Flanders’ conservatism.
Maybe I need to write an article titled "Reverse-Engineering Ned Flanders' Conservatism."
The magnum opus of the Russell Walter Goy Trilogy
This article was not written for people in danger of becoming "Ned Flanders conservatives". The author clearly understands his chudience.
Bad take. It has nothing to do with changing your political opinions. It has to do with burning out for nothing, the very real and pervasive influence of media and the way it gets under your skin.
Talking about Trotsky, he relates somewhere in his writings that Russian revolutionaries went days without sleeping and barely eating to do as much as they physically could for the Soviets, in the big hours of the Revolution. That's the passion and exhaustion that is acceptable, depending on the political cause you're defending of course. The rest is useless malding and seething and overthinking which is what Russel talks about here.
Also let's grow up a little bit about the leftist' meme of "everything was actually hell in the 50's" please.
Benedict Option-ing by making a 1:1 replica of Travis Bickle’s apartment and filling it with Hitler biographies isn’t “burning out”, actually.
And yes, on balance, our world is infinitely better than the 1950s. Conservatives like you have done nothing more than replace a liberal shibboleth with a stupid one of your own.
Well, thanks for being crystal clear on how useless it is to talk to you, saves everyone's time. Talk about projecting lmfao, after all I said is that "everything was bad in the 50's" is a shit take with no nuance (which objectively it is) now I'm a mainstream "conservative".
"Our world is infinitely better than-" yeah, opinion automatically discarded. I'll take Russell's advice and turn the telescope off. Godspeed
Extremely thoughtful essay. Chesterton is one of those guys I’ve always been on the fence about. I’m normally not big on religious epiphanies, but I think his late in life conversion to Catholicism gave him a perspective that was both unique and engaging. I should probably re-visit him.
Well, if nobody minds a white boy having a white boy moment, lemme say I needed (to read) this. The cortisol spikes have been non stop lately, and they were all about death, decay, war and the future. It's good to be a man that worries about his land and people, but we all have a life to live. Thanks Russell
The telescope vs microscope framing is interesting.
In geopolitics we see a similar distortion—people obsess over distant crises while ignoring the structural forces that actually shape outcomes (industrial capacity, supply chains, institutions).
The paradox is that the more global the information flow becomes, the more helpless individuals feel about it.
I think the telescoping is moreso a response to a world that has made people helpless. The open society means there are no more ponds but an ocean. The ocean is less moveable by small energy inputs, but also produced high waves when things coalesce. It has never been less rewarding to invest locally. It has never been more at risk. It is still the best shot, but most telescopists have seen the wave crash through their lives after long toil. That too is something the limbic system can't handle.
Yeah, I actually 100% agree.
I was just telling someone the other day, "i think the reason I'm following the Iran protests so closely is because it's a lot more interesting than my daily life right now" lol
While being terminally online can sometimes act as a superpower through the kaleidoscopic frame of references it opens up, all too often it ends up just limiting and paralysing us. Another good article, one I needed to hear today!
This is, excuse me, a damn fine cup of Coffee. I wholeheartedly agree. Just log off. Go analog, as the Kids say. Not full unabomber, Just take it easy. One thing i would like to add, is this hyper online politics things seems to make People cynical. And these days i thing it is really bad to be cynical, for the world but also for you. I've started going to church a few months ago and one, really good message that's repeted there and in the évangiles is, open your heart. Or, reject cynicism. Which is, i think, very linked to egotism and learned helplness / depression. Get out there, open your heart, kick the telescope out.
Masterpiece.
Banger. I've been a telescopist and a microscopist at different points in my life, and the microscope is by far the better option. You still hear about the important things, but you avoid the inevitable blackpilling that comes with daily exposure to horror and tragedy.
Chesterton's microscope will not catch on because "clean your room" expresses already (essentially) the same idea...
Great points though.
Yes!
For most of my adult life, up until two years, I only lived with a microscope. I hardly paid any attention to current events and politics and had barely any idea what was going on.
Then I was bait and switched, thinking I was working on flagging instances of Title IX style violations of equal opportunity, when it turned out that there is a large initiative of "Fair Machine Learning" devoted to automating the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
An instance of Zizek's sublime ideology. I like to eloquently describe it as ideology breaking into my apartment and taking a shit on my carpet. So I could no longer ignore it, it smells and I'm wondering why the hell is something walking around shitting on peoples' carpets.
I was utterly horrified. I thought Marxism was over, and 100 million casualties was enough of a sample size for the learned to conclude it's time to give that up. But no, apparently Marxism-Leninism was just re-branded as "equity" and the college kids found it cool again, I guess like how many of them find Che cool.
I dusted off my telescope. I'd already consumed plenty of guidebooks to the stars through voracious reading of academic texts on history, economics, philosophy as a teenager before I decided the real world was more fun in college. I caught up, largely thanks to you wonderful substack writers. I voraciously read for the next couple of years trying to figure out WTF is going on. And that was actually useful. I learned that the growth of Stalinism within the AI research world and academia at large is part of grander systemic dynamics of dysfunction in these institutions. Moreover I found that these dynamics were epiphenomena of a broader civilizational decline and collapse.
That's pretty useful information to know! Just practically speaking, as far as one's investments and career decisions. Being aware that the world is ending is pretty important!
But as Alan Watts says about psychedelics "once you open the doors of perception, don't just stand in the doorway playing with the door, walk through and move on"
Being a "precariat", a downwardly mobile elite, actually lets me off the hook. Meaning, I won't be an influential intellectual, so I won't have any influence on these telescope dynamics. So I can eschew civic responsibility, live carefree and childfree, and ignore any "maturity" hoopla of "living for something beyond yourself", it's all going to shit, and it's not my problem.
And so letting go of any need to "be on top of current events" and consuming telescope contents is thoroughly justified and is for me (and should be for any other precariat) a relief! So I'll go back to my microscope. Composing music about civilization's fall is more fun than writing essays about it anyway.
Generally good advice, but... being telescopic about COVID and the mRNA vaccines certainly helped me at the microscopic level too. Going with the telescope metaphor, maybe the best negotiation is to keep a "parallax" view, and remember that what's closer in your view could actually hit you, but maybe, put what it's doing in the distant context? I dunno.
wonderful article, great clear thinking. very applicable stuff for conversations with people