!Christina's questions
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agk's diary 
21 June 2026
 --- 
written on GPD MicroPC
before bed
 --- 
1. Do I have a favourite book series?

   Children of Violence (the "Martha Quest" books)
   by Doris Lessing. It was the last great bildungs-
   roman.

2. What is an unnerving display of intelligence I've
   seen in another human?

   Evy and my cousin Sybil are both such sharp and
   unpretentious observers of people that they some-
   times describe someone in a single sentence so
   completely it takes my breath away.

3. Can charisma or charm be learned or cultivated?

   Yes. But not in isolation from regular involve-
   ment in social settings with other persons. Many
   a punk learned from starting a band, booking and
   playing shows, going on tour, hawking merch, and
   crashing with whoever will let them. Other places
   people may have grown some charisma and charm
   include prison, church, work, and college.

4. Is a person who tries to pay for a food takeaway
   order in cash, without giving their email address,
   asking for a print receipt an unreasonable
   archaism?

   No. It's normal for me. The right to offline life
   (including cash as universally accepted tender)
   and the right to be forgotten should be encoded
   into law as inalienable civil rights.

5. Do you know of anyone who is actively battling or
   resisting conditioning to despair, alienation,
   automatonism, unnecessary data capture, and
   problematic technology intermediation?

   Yep. Me. And it seems, lots of young people. And
   a US House candidate I helped get on the ballot
   in my state.

   Are they part of a plural, conscious, radical
   attention recapture and privacy protection
   movement?

   No. Not as organized as that. More of a zeitgeist.