So that’s what I just wanted to say today, it’s just ‘stay curious, look after your mental health and if you do find you’ve hit an avenue where you don’t think you’re being validated or the person you’re talking to isn’t connecting with you, then it’s okay to end that and start looking for something different.
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When asked about the logic of ImageAI, its developers and evangelists will not only give contradictory answers, they will tell you only what you want to hear. If you are a director in a creative business, they will mention the huge potential for cutting expenses, speeding up production times and reducing team size. If you are an artist, they will tell you about the opportunity to stay afloat in the industry by learning the invaluable skill of AI prompting. If you are the social activist type, they will exalt ImageAI’s potential for making art more inclusive and accessible, both by lowering production fees and by eliminating the glass ceiling of elitist skilled artists. If you are the right-wing bodybuilding type, they will exalt ImageAI’s beauty and visual excellence as opposed to the sickening flat style and abstract art made by contemporary artists.
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‘Technology does not exist autonomous of political and social norms and beliefs; its development is shaped by such norms. Liberalism introduces a set of norms that lead us, ironically, to the belief that technology develops independent of any norms and intentions, but rather shapes our norms, our polity, and even humanity, and inevitably escapes our control. In our remaking of the world – through obvious technologies like the internet – we embrace and deploy technologies that make us how we imagine ourselves being. And in a profound irony, it is precisely in this quest to attain ever-more-perfect individual liberty and autonomy that we increasingly suspect that we might fundamentally lack choice about adoption of those technologies’
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If we attempt to define art in the broadest sense possible, even though we may have disagreements, one thing will become immediately apparent – the artists are attempting to have a values-based conversation, whereas the tech developers are attempting the complete opposite. Artists like Zapata talk about humanism, mastery of skills, inspiration, imagination, enjoying the fruits of one’s labour, whereas teckies talk about automation as the only thing of real value.
In the following lines I will attempt to offer a classical definition of art, one with which all past generations of artists would have agreed wholeheartedly:
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The existential threat posed by AIs to digital artists is just a new iteration of an old phenomenon – that of mechanical automation, which should be distinguished from technology writ large. And although very few contemporary artists would dare to criticise automation as a dangerous phenomenon, George Orwell did it almost a century ago.
The following paragraphs are from chapter 12 of Orwell’s book, ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’. Very little commentary is needed and yes, quoting Orwell feels like a tired cliché. His prescience, however, never ceases to amaze us
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Finally, being ‘on the right side of history’ does not fix the problem of the so called ur-fascism lurking in the dark; progressives, liberals and socialists of all stripes are guilty of the same instrumentalisation of moral intuitions (purity excluded, admittedly) for the ultimate goal of self-deification. The film thus ends on a disappointing note, one too familiar for our contemporary culture – that of endless denounciation and cynicism; the messed up Lockhart fails to find a cure for his ailments, but simply by escaping the predatory Uber-Swiss blond beasts he somehow is ‘liberated’ of somthing bad, and it is implied that in the end he gets Hannah for himself; both having gotten rid of their tyrannical Patriarchs (Hannah by direct murder, like a good third waver), both free to roam the earth, follow their appetites and maybe become involved romantically, or simply fucking off to wherever their emotivist adventure will lead them next.
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ST is one of the wisest people in the Reactosphere. His channel is hugely underrated and every video stretches your mental abilities to their absolute limit. ST recently declared that he no longer considers himself part of the DR, and after watching his latest video (Map of Heaven), I think I understand why.
I too am disappointed with the online dissident right. Still, the following thoughts are an attempt to capture the essence of what it means to be reactionary and why I still think that progressive theology is a trojan horse that has to be resisted at all cost.
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If you’ve been swimming in reactionary waters for long enough, Esolen’s thoughts on modernity and progressivism have probably mirrored your own. But the point of this article is to ask the opposite question – what do you do when you have risen from the slumber of modernity?
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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The Distributist is among my favourite content creators of the dissident right, bringing an earnest, mature perspective into a medium that always gravitates towards frivolity and shallowness. Still, despite his overwhelmingly positive influence in our communities, I cannot ignore the problems he fails to diagnose in modernity.
The core of my critique will focus on his thoughts on what right-wing contemporary art could look like, specifically focusing on his latest substack essay, ‘The (He)art Reset’.
