Taylor Swift and Totalitarianism

The system is broken. The celebrity is brighter than the sun. Only she can decide when it is day. There’s Continue reading →

Barbie & Dragons: On the Subversion of Play

A child aimlessly moves their toy train in circles, oblivious to the realities of transportation. In play, the models move Continue reading →

Adorno on Pleasure, 2: Purpose and Play

In part 1, we saw Adorno reject the bourgeois disgust with sexuality and instinctual urges through his engagement with Freud Continue reading →

Adorno on Pleasure, 1: The Critique of Psychoanalysis

Theodor Adorno, the Arch-curmudgeon of the Frankfurt School of Critical theory, devotes a brief but substantial section of his Minima Continue reading →

What’s Wrong With Streaming? The Death of Music as Art

The music that we listen to is something that we rightfully see as very important to our sense of self, Continue reading →

The Third Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution of the 19th Century has undoubtedly been one of the most significant economic and cultural developments in human Continue reading →

Stiegler’s Memory, 2: The Industrialisation of Consciousness

Technical and Political Memory As I outlined in Stiegler’s Memory,1: The Problem With Husserl, Bernard Stiegler argues that Husserl’s traditional Continue reading →

What Would Life Look Like Without Advertising?

What would life look like without advertising? This is a question that seems almost unthinkable to us in a modern Continue reading →