“The Case for Nothing”

Good morning, friends.  The title of this post is taken from Jenny Odell’s recent book, How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.

While the author accepts that it is neither possible nor desirable to drop out and disclaim our engagement in a deeply hurting world, she asks us to consider the damage being done by the ubiquitous, low-quality chatter that fills our minds and distorts not only our thinking, but our very being.

I offer a quote from the book taken from Gilles Deleuze in a journal titled, “Negotiations.”

“We’re riddled with pointless talk, insane quantities of words and images.  Stupidity’s never blind or mute.  So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but in providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say.  Repressive forces don’t stop people expressing themselves but rather force them to express themselves; what a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, and even rarer, thing that might be worth saying.”

This was written in 1985.  Things have not gone in the direction the author cautioned us towards.  Can we begin to make a start now?

Namaste.