well, i’m back at the mill, doing my best to do some amateur ethnography on the neocolonial, neoliberal sociocultural project we’re calling “ai” from the perspective of an opt-outer watching the juggernaut role by.

front porch republic was kind enough to get this brash take out into the world. more contentious than my usual writing (i think), but once the connection arose in the mind, i couldn’t resist. the opening paragraph:

“On a recent Saturday morning, between tending a feverish eight-year-old, unclogging a bathroom sink, and catching up on end-of-term grading, I was soaking in a hot bath trying to soothe a pulled back muscle earned from avoiding a faceplant on the December Milwaukee ice. My companion? Walter Benjamin’s On Hashish. My epiphany? The “very ai” crowd is a lot like that special modern philosophico-spiritual scene of psychoactive-drug devotees, both in their fervor and in their sliding outside the bounds of experience accessible to those lacking initiation into the same mind-bending phenomenon.”

Read on if you’re in the mood for some counter-cultural critical melange!