Week thirty-six

“a selection of my links, once per week, every week”

1. This week, I really liked the article “Kate Manne on the Costs of Male Entitlement”. Kate Manne is a philosopher. She distinguishes sexism and misogyny and defines the former as the ideology, the latter the enforcement of that ideology.

This distinction is interesting as she argues that one can exist without the other. I.e. a person can not hold sexist views but participate in a misogynist structure. And vice-versa.

2. This weekend we had a few friends over for brunch. Not close friends. Sufficiently “not close” that we invited several so that we wouldn’t run out of conversation. Those are friends we don’t agree with on political issues, on material issues, on values.

Somehow we managed to build somewhat of a conversational bridge (TED talk), and I was surprised. It was a lovely moment. No echo chamber of ideas. Seb and I had material for discussion and debate for days afterwards.

I’m glad I hang on to those relationships, those you catch yourself asking, why bother? It often feels like work and even this time we didn’t leave happily agreeing on everything. But it makes me grow.

3. One of my best friends is dealing with a newborn right now (sending all my love). I sent her this Oprah video on how to decipher baby cries. Not sure if it works but it’s so fun. Good luck N, it does get better <3

Week thirty-four

  1. An article that generated a lot of discussions with my friends last week is this one: the birth of the new american aristocracy. We asked ourselves, do we belong to this group, economically, culturally, philosophically (believing in meritocracy for example)? Does it apply in Switzerland? If yes will it express itself the same way, or are there systems (free education, spatial mixity, direct democracy…) in place to limit the crystallization of the gaps?
  2. This coincides with my endeavor to learn the Fundamentals of Sociology. This Coursera class gives an overview from Adam Smith to Norbert Elias, covering Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Weber and others. The lecturer is amazing. Join me if interested (I’m at Week 5, on Marx).
  3. Zalan asked what fun thing we’re doing in our garden. I have to say trying out the ancient Three Sisters technique from the Mayas.
How to Plant the Three Sisters (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Result: the green beans are amazing and producing tons.

But for next year, we need to see how to get the timing right: the beans outgrew the corn so much that it bent the whole structure. Also we’ve had issues of corn cross-pollination. Look at all those empty seeds! So we’ll try higher density next year.