Quick Update
I'm working on putting all the parts of the "not a deer" episode together, it's taking a bit longer than normal as I left all the connective tissue out for the short versions, so I'm only adding it in now. Should have that done and published by Wednesday.
I really enjoyed doing the three parts of this one that went into a bit more detail on a specific topic (simulacrum, conquest of bread, poverty and musical chairs). I was thinking about doing some more "animated essay" type things on topics like:
The tragedy of the commons
Dialectics (materialism and historical)
Ned Ludd and AI
Shooting down a bunch of right wing arguments on things like taxes, property, freedom, human nature etc.
Libertarian Basketball
The Munchausen Trillema
Derek Parfit on Identity
John Rawls is a socialist
More stuff like the conquest of bread video where I give a brief incomplete overview of a book
These wouldn't replace the cryptid series, and I'd shoot for tonally similar with some silliness and fantasy elements. Would you like to see this kind of thing, and what kind of topics would you most enjoy? (I'll consider any suggestion but political philosophy and arguments about policy are where I'm most comfortable).
Comments (17)
I think you miss the basics in your discussion of self-ownership. Ownership (the flip side of property) is a bundle or rights that are enforced, usually by government. While we may WANT full self-ownership, he have to settle for the smaller bundle of rights provided by society. People like to talk about "spheres of rights", but in actuality or right more resemble ragged hunks of Swiss cheese carved through with practical exceptions. Your self-ownership is limited by all the rights of others, which is why you cannot use your fist to punch my nose. Every nation has police powers, which limit your self-ownership because they can determine what happens to your body/self. Children and the incapacitated plainly have limited self-ownership, which is why they have guardians. While we do have legal control of our bodies for many purposes for significant parts of our lives, it is not the libertarian idea of self-ownership. And for lots of good reasons. But the most obvious two are that (1) we are not competent for parts of our lives and (2) full liberal ownership of bodies means that they are alienable: ie. you can be sold into slavery or for parts. Moral rights of self-ownership are merely claims: the real world doesn't honor them as the history of slavery shows. Supposed self-ownership may be lost through trickery, theft, sale, forced sale, sale during exigency, exchange, merger of assetts (marriage), gift, assignment of power of attorney, legal judgement, etc. The concept of self-ownership fails with slavery. Slavery (a common real-world practice) is obviously a contradiction to self-ownership. But self-ownership implies that you CAN sell yourself into slavery because you own yourself. You can try to salvage the idea by saying that self-ownership is irrevocable, but the real world contradicts that. You can try to salvage the idea by saying that you can still control your own body and thoughts, but that undermines the whole liberty idea of self-ownership: you are saying slaves still own themselves in some way and so are free. The illusion of self-ownership is an elaborate construction of the state.
I'm not sure I really disagree with much of what you said, even if I haven't gone into that much detail on it in a video. The thing is when I talk about self-ownership I'm normally making an argument along the lines of "even if we all agree about self-ownership we can disagree about how that translates into ownership of things that aren't the self and that is the site of most political disagreement". Even though self ownership is a complicated fiction, it appeals to a lot of people, and the right use that intuitive appeal to push their policies, I'm just going "whoah whoah, that doesn't follow".
I'm so impressed with your Dialectics post. Is there no option for one time only Patreon payments? Must everything be compounded, endlessly repetitive subscriptions? It seems the only way any commerce is conducted, nothing is one-off it's always Till Forbid, a lifetime contract regardless of checking account overdrafts and penalty fees. Plus I couldn't see how to view other of the forest jar posts. Just kept steering me to minimum monthly fee subscriptions. Bummer.
All of the above. I just enjoy what you do !
How's about another addition to the compilation? Wasting Disease is a very philosophical idea when you think about it. It's caused from Prions. They don't have reproductive RNA or DNA, they aren't Fungi, Bacteria or Viruses. They are misfolded proteins, capable of "infecting" other proteins. They aren't alive, but reproduce. They're a self-propagating design flaw. It took a long time to convince the scientific community of their reality. It's a fascinating philosophical argument and idea about consciousness, "life", how chaos can break down lawful structures.
I really like to how you frame your videos( especially Godzilla). I really appreciated the topic of grief. If I have any requests it would be about safetey and risks
I support everything you do, but would love to see (1) the tragedy of the commons and (2) Dialectics
Finally have my finance stable enough to donate. really love your work!
Have you considered doing a picture book compilation of your Forest Jar Episodes and Shorts? I would buy that for sure!
I kinda have faith that no matter what you do it’ll be awesome. :-)
Unhelpfully I would mirror the 'all of those sound amazing' comments although I'd also agree that the Munchausen Trilemma pips it for me. Fantastic name for a band too. Keep going, there's so much love for everything you do.
"Libertarian Basketball" gets my vote 😄
Ooh, those sound fascinating. Especially the Munchausen Trilemma 😁
Beautiful work🙏🏾😎😼💚
Heck yes! Every topic you named gets either a "yeah, that'd be great!" or "what's that, I want to learn!" from me.
All sounds great to me 🙏
That sounds really good, I feel like people would like them. I definitely would. And personally, I’d be very interested in shooting down right wing arguments, even if just because that could come in handy in my personal life.