[HN Gopher] Walkers in the City-and Everywhere
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Walkers in the City-and Everywhere
Author : Thevet
Score : 25 points
Date : 2023-10-06 19:14 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (daily.jstor.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (daily.jstor.org)
| Ritecrax wrote:
| I live in a major city where I can walk or take public
| transportation anywhere I need to go.
|
| 90% of the people I share this city with are capable of doing the
| same thing, and it would be transformed in the process from an
| incomprehensible hellscape of noise and concrete into something
| reflecting any kind of human agency.
|
| That this doesn't happen is not even because people are weak,
| stupid, selfish, feckless, and lazy, but because they are
| expected and incentivized to act that way. The article is a
| reminder that we don't need to.
| beebeepka wrote:
| Oh, I see. The vast majority is only acting like this because
| they are expected to do so.
|
| But here's the thing: you and I are also expected to be like
| that, yet I don't even have a license.
|
| Inconsiderate assholes act like they do because they are not
| being punished. It is as simple as that. Kind of the opposite
| of your incentive narrative.
| arbitrarian wrote:
| Spoiler alert: turns out this is not Walking Dead Fanfic.
| croisillon wrote:
| previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37788875 (45
| comments)
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| >Imagine going for a stroll, unencumbered by a phone, preoccupied
| by the glories of the world around you:
|
| >we have the opportunity to imagine new versions of the public
| sphere,
|
| >psychogeography has become a ripe tool for analyzing
| environments, both real and imagined
|
| >imagining post-Katrina New Orleans
|
| >This malleability of psychogeography, from the literal concrete
| to the stretches of the virtual imagination
|
| >it's hard to imagine the impetus it would take for the
| observations made on a psychogeographical journey to have a
| tangible impact
|
| >How can living communities be completely reimagined
|
| >The imaginative potential of psychogeography can play an
| important role
|
| I guess I lack the proper _imagination_ to fully understand what
| this is about. I went through the article twice; I 've also gone
| on thousands of walks all around my heterogeneous neighborhood,
| never looking at a smartphone screen (although I do listen to my
| favorite music).
|
| What can or should I do with the information/opinions in this
| article?
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| > two Europe-based organizations that drew on anarchist and
| Marxist writings
|
| This article is basically "capitalism bad"
| metabagel wrote:
| That can't possibly be your takeaway.
| Lord-Jobo wrote:
| I genuinely think there's a super-majority of people who
| believe Marxism and Anarchism are nothing more than
| counter-capitalism, and that being Marxist or Anarchist
| means its your entire personality. That is is the only
| thing you would ever think about or that it influences
| every action you take. of course nobody thinks that way
| about capitalism.
|
| Ignorance is pervasive when it comes to political
| philosophy or writing, because capitalism has had such an
| incredibly long run as the 'default' in the first world,
| for 60+ years.
|
| Just how someone in a community of 99% the same race will
| view ANY other race as 'other' and with a hysterical level
| of ignorance, someone in a society that is 99% capitalist
| will view ANY other philosophy/system as 'other' and with a
| hysterical level of ignorance.
| jamiek88 wrote:
| Thought and conversation ending quips like this basically
| ruin HN.
| FooBarBizBazz wrote:
| There's a trend in academic writing, particularly in the
| humanities, where the author is clearly putting all of their
| effort into positioning themselves in a "field", relative to
| other "fields". I get a few paragraphs into these articles and
| then realize, "ah. This wasn't written for me, the reader. This
| was written by the author for the author." I've made the
| mistake of buying some books like this, from academic presses,
| and have been bored and disappointed.
|
| I think I know what this particular essay is written in
| response to. A while back, I recall a few essays about the
| figure of the _flaneur_. They were written to problematize this
| activity, to emphasize the _privilege_ of the flaneur, who
| expects to be able to go anywhere in the city without fear of
| harassment either by so-called "criminals" (whose
| expropriation of the flaneur's wealth may actually be just), or
| by the police who terrorize the marginalized communities on
| which the flaneur sets his _gaze_ (and it _is_ always a he --
| _spit_ ).
|
| (Obviously I am parodying these essays just a little in my last
| paragraph, but not very much.)
|
| So _this_ essay, by contrast, is seeking to _rehabilitate_ the
| figure of the flaneur. Basically, because the author is trying
| to carve out a niche for themselves in academia, and in this
| niche they want to be able to identify with the flaneur without
| the moral opprobrium that 's used within academia to take out
| competitors.
|
| To say it again, they're just scared, looking for a niche, and
| engaging in some mimicry of the behavior they see around them.
| So I sympathize a little.
|
| It's kind of a dumb game with small prizes, but if you've lived
| in academia all your life and that's all you know, then that's
| what you're going to do, just as surely as, if you've never
| known anything but a holler in West Virginia, you look for a
| job in the coal mine.
| wussboy wrote:
| Having headphones in cuts you off from a wealth of experience
| around you, and having your phone on you connects you to the
| internet in a thousand different ways that cuts you off from
| where you are physically.
|
| As a dog-owner who has walked at least 30 minutes a day down
| the same paths for 10+ years and who just recently started
| taking my headphones out and leaving my phone at home, I am
| continually amazed at what I was missing.
|
| Bird song. A neighbor in their yard who I wouldn't normally
| wave to because I didn't notice. Sound from a window.
|
| Leave your phone behind. You'll be more bored sometimes but
| that's good. It will force you out of your own mind.
| [deleted]
| metabagel wrote:
| To me, the article is about the walking environment as art.
| 'How does it make you feel?'
|
| It's promoting groups and activities which spark greater
| awareness of your surroundings while walking. And also, I
| think, to have a sense of ownership of the environs where you
| live.
|
| I think the purpose of the article is to spark your imagination
| and make you think.
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