Beware the Narrative

"Don't get sucked into the Narrative" is the tagline of Redshirts, John Scalzi's novel named for the Star Trek side characters, identifiable by shirt color and doomed to die for the sake of drama, sacrificed to the storyline.

As someone who grew up hearing the narrative about Israel as the heroic victim, and then, before the horrors we are now facing, talking to Palestinian friends exhausted from the pressure of living trapped as symbols for generations, this resonated strongly with me. 

Now, with the horrific daily killings, bombings and needless suffering being perpetrated by the Netanyahu government the need to center real humans is paramount.

Can we simply be human, first, before being part of any story?  Diverse, opinionated, sad, angry, joyful, hopeful, grieving humans who want to live, first and foremost, with dignity and safety.   Humans with fundamental rights to not be harmed for some story in someone's head. 

1 min read

stray bits...

Open to (or: sticky ends)

1 min read

agreements (and attention)

1 min read

Wanderings along the way...

starting some daily journal entries - these will mainly not show up on the front page, but still saved and findable.  I want to pin and record more things.  Today, Vancouver, taking the long way around to the AAAI conference...glad i did.

Seen and heard on the way
   a woman walking on the rocky shore, i said hello, lovely shells.  She answered yes, and every rock is a painting, art is everywhere.  well put.

a 'people's castle' but the stairway blocked, it seems a fight with city council brews

later, two Bald Eagles and a nest that a local said they come to every year.  last year at eth denver i saw one, flying low over the river there.  



Wandered and walked about 5 miles, took a seabus and a rented bike, then finally the venue.  The views from the Vancouver Convention Centre are breathtaking.  Don't know when i used that word before, but it fits here. The conference itself wasn't bad either...

installed neogpt between sessions, so i could feel legit, and worked on a little wrapper to have it represent a did.  quite simple and hacky but its for a short workshop so, about right.  a good

...
2 min read

A Logical Conclusion...

this piece makes me happy every time i reread it.  it was born out of frustration with fintech bros

A Darwinian Argument

“You must die.” The woman spoke dispassionately, her face blank.

The jowly man chained at the ankle squinted across the room at her. His glasses had broken in the struggle, so were there subtle clues to read he might have missed them anyway. His face betrayed a racing chain of emotions, flickering from fear to contempt to calculation. Which of his enemies sent her?

continued...

...
1 min read

floating snips

1 min read

A Language of Meaning and Action

2 min read

Untitled post

2 min read

Subscribe to Thought Overflow...

does this work? maybe.
jamie@example.com
Subscribe