Sam Porter

Word spell check wants to replace "Deleuzian" with "Delusional"

The words of Dieter Uchtdorf precisely articulate the depraved rationale of the faithful Latter-Day Saint: «Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.» Within such a paradigm there can be no room for questions or dissent, only acquiescence to the institutional politick.

Furthermore, this cult universality engenders a sense of profound defensiveness in the individual where any critique of the whole is perceived as an attack on the individual. Scepticism from the Other becomes a test of faith which again strengthens belief in the institution.

The dissonance created in the mind and identity of the Latter-Day Saint serves to recursively entrench and re-entrench the disconnected and often completely contradictory teachings of the Church. Lacking any identity beyond Church membership, they lack the will to generate meaningful scepticism.

This affiliation is not a neutral status; it carries with it a set of values that inform a social aesthetic. In a way, it sets up a panoptic system of self-policing and expression wherein the primary aim is to signal doctrinal adherence to other members. Shame is the jury and guilt the jailor.

The result is an epistemic and ethical crisis— a member of the Church can never know how they ought to act with any real certainty. They become incapable of developing stable identity beyond the superficiality of institutional affiliation.

The Church's own history within the socio-political sphere force the faithful to rationalise paradoxically opposed positions as both being the desire of the Supreme. As such, members are at the mercy of the whims of the current Church leadership— effectively a soup du jour approach to politics.

The doctrine of personal revelation begrudges the Mormon subject into a paradigm of cognitive dissonance; an omnipotent and omniscient God who deigns to speak to each individual will invariably contradict Himself. This is a clear blasphemy suggesting His commandments are a hierarchical Gordian knot.

absolutely!

I am toying with writing a reflection on my experiences with religion and identity in leaving the mormon church. If anyone know any good academic or literary resources tackling guilt, shame, religious trauma, and/or deprogramming and recovery, I am actively looking for some reading recommendations!

This era is strange because it is both socially/culturally regressive, yet technologically accelerationist.

Backward + forward at the same time. With human erasure being the goal.

I think those interested in cultural preservation, archival work— resisting erasure will be *especially* important.

I love to start in the middle of a social or combat encounter that gives the PCs a reason to cooperate and engage with the world right from the get go. My personal favourite was a noble/high society ball that the party had infiltrated with individual objectives based on discussions in session 0.

«Lack of binding connection to the Other is the transcendental condition for crises of gratification and debt… capitalism only works with debt and default. It offers no possibility of atonement…» (p. 10)

Nuance, the bane of short-form text-based social media platforms (:

Nonetheless, suffering ought to be mitigated wherever possible (I do not want to be misconstrued as some accelerationist or masochist). I only wish to impart some hope in the face of disaster; the threat of death can give new zeal and purpose to life.

It is crucial to remember that moments of despair are inevitable in struggle. When we despair, we grieve the world as it is, but we need not wallow in fear of what it might become. To do so is to abandon the revolutionary project. Thus, in suffering we reify absolute Spirit.

This seems to be the trend rn, and who am I to buck convention? Things I will probably skeet about (in no particular order):

- philosophy (continental)
- TTRPGs (primarily D&D 5e)
- poetry
- communism
- pokemon
- lgbtqia+ rights
- abolition & liberation
- board games
- climate
- books

#promosky

Currently planning my next Planescape 5e session- any suggestions on making undead encounters more interesting at low levels? My PCs will be visiting the Mortuary in Sigil.

#D&D #TTRPG #GameMaster

«Auto-exploitation proves much more efficient than allo-exploitation because it is accompanied by a feeling of liberty. This makes possible exploitation without domination.» (p. 9)

I have never come across such a succinct and complete verbalisation of the panopticon of modernity — perfectly said.

Regarding chapter one «Melancholia», my thoughts are these: (1) Han echoes many of my own fears about the radical lack of love or «eros» in the modern achievement society, and (2) the dialectic of apocalyptic fatality and salvation in Otherness is a perspective I am still coming to terms with.

«the atopia of the Other turns out to be the utopia of eros.» (p. 4)

Indeed, it is a recognition of the distinct negativity of the Other (and perhaps not merely in difference) that the revolutionary power of love can be made manifest.

«Depression represents the impossibility of love. Alternatively, it is the impossibility of love that has led to depression.» (p. 3)

I think that here Han is lighting on a common subject recognised by others like Weil and Deleuze: there is a need for genuine relations that has been obliterated.

Currently reading: The Agony of Eros by Byung-Chul Han

Notes to follow

#booksky #philsky

In a world where there is so much harm produced and reproduced by institutions and systems, I believe there exists an ethical requirement to engage in revolutionary practices to cultivate attention, community, and love.

Guilt is an inexorable aspect of indoctrination. In order to truly give oneself to a cause, there must be a sense in which the cause inspires guilt at the very thought of its removal. It ingrains itself within the psyche and whispers that there is something wrong if it is ignored or cast aside.

«It is a recognition that the sufferer exists…The soul empties itself of all its own contents in order to receive into itself the being it is looking at, just as he is, in all his truth. Only he who is capable of attention can do this.»

— Simone Weil

This is the crux of what I seek to study: love as a set of practices directed toward the One and the Other to more richly develop a purpose of Being. As I continue to study and write on this subject, I will share many of my thoughts here for my own reference. Please engage with them critically.

In such a time when the digital ecosystem of simulatory spectacle has perverted the connexion of one to another, the art of careful attention to the Other— such that it can be understood in its context and free of externality— is a necessity. The cultivation of this art is what we might call love.

obligatory hello world post

I am here. free palestine. queer rights. think critically. roll initiative. all that jazz.