[You're completely right about the common ground between Brexit and Trump. The morning after the US election we talked about this in my class: there are some really striking discursive lines running from the 2008 financial crisis through the Occupy movement and to the right-wing populism of 2016. And you can find that common ground in the sentimental rallying cries of "Make America great again" and "Take back control," both of which hearken nostalgically to some mythical, mystical time when both capitalism and the political establishment which is now its prop were unified, reliable, whole. Actually, all this is (in a way) related to what I mean by the cultural politics of crowdfunding--I'm interested in the transformations in neoliberal subjectivity that allow global capital to extend and reproduce itself by colonizing even the terrain of its own crisis, its own ruptures. Crowdfunding is a recent innovation that allows people to try and solve lived problems of scarcity on a deeply individual level (while at the same time creating a new market for the apps that facilitate them doing so). That's a political, as well as economic and cultural, innovation. LOL aren't you glad you asked. /tl;dr jargon]
Aurus couldn't help it: he laughed. Only for a moment and he caught himself right after, but regardless.
"I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be flippant. It always strikes me as rather funny when humans use the word hive mind to describe the Dream and our connection to it. You're not the first to do so believe me. It's really not like that, you must understand.
"The Dream does not in any way control us. Even the shared cultural beliefs that we learn of through it must be studied after awakening, and each sylvari comes to understand them differently. Some have even rejected them. It shows us each different things, as different as the things humans dream of, as well as giving us common ground.
"Your satellites send pictures and stories all over your world, from what Charles has told me. And yet you find no threat in the idea that someone in another land might know the same story as you, do you?"
Despite all of what he was saying, Aurus was not intending to dismiss Hank's concerns out of hand though. There were things that the man was raising that he truly hadn't considered and that even now seemed quite extreme possibilities.
"I find it hard to imagine how my waking wouldn't break the connection. Just as I find it hard to imagine Charles losing himself to it. But perhaps there's something you know about his powers that I do not. I would merely say that thus far he's done perfectly well meeting the dragon Glint and visiting her lair. If anything he was more...reserved, more restrained, than I felt he needed to be."
He considered this for a moment, then sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I do not like asking you about this, I'll admit. It feels... It feels as though I don't trust him, and I do. I'm a fairly good judge of character, and I trust him."
no subject
Actually, all this is (in a way) related to what I mean by the cultural politics of crowdfunding--I'm interested in the transformations in neoliberal subjectivity that allow global capital to extend and reproduce itself by colonizing even the terrain of its own crisis, its own ruptures. Crowdfunding is a recent innovation that allows people to try and solve lived problems of scarcity on a deeply individual level (while at the same time creating a new market for the apps that facilitate them doing so). That's a political, as well as economic and cultural, innovation. LOL aren't you glad you asked. /tl;dr jargon]
Aurus couldn't help it: he laughed. Only for a moment and he caught himself right after, but regardless.
"I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be flippant. It always strikes me as rather funny when humans use the word hive mind to describe the Dream and our connection to it. You're not the first to do so believe me. It's really not like that, you must understand.
"The Dream does not in any way control us. Even the shared cultural beliefs that we learn of through it must be studied after awakening, and each sylvari comes to understand them differently. Some have even rejected them. It shows us each different things, as different as the things humans dream of, as well as giving us common ground.
"Your satellites send pictures and stories all over your world, from what Charles has told me. And yet you find no threat in the idea that someone in another land might know the same story as you, do you?"
Despite all of what he was saying, Aurus was not intending to dismiss Hank's concerns out of hand though. There were things that the man was raising that he truly hadn't considered and that even now seemed quite extreme possibilities.
"I find it hard to imagine how my waking wouldn't break the connection. Just as I find it hard to imagine Charles losing himself to it. But perhaps there's something you know about his powers that I do not. I would merely say that thus far he's done perfectly well meeting the dragon Glint and visiting her lair. If anything he was more...reserved, more restrained, than I felt he needed to be."
He considered this for a moment, then sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I do not like asking you about this, I'll admit. It feels... It feels as though I don't trust him, and I do. I'm a fairly good judge of character, and I trust him."