of course, that there **is a curve means we need to consider our actions – no matter how swell we perceive them – and how they function so as to drive and generate the very process of incoporation and containment that they ideally seek -at the outset – to escape. no guarantees, right?

it’s a difficult thing, this kind of feedback, and we could paralyze ourselves to the point of not acting at all. that’s not to be gloomy but is rather a matter of taking some stock of the varying forces in operation across the domains and fields that we traverse and travel. sometimes, opposition – rather than ubiquitous and sufficient “resistance” – is appropriate and necessary. merely proceeding as a consequence is not an attractive strategy.

“we can’t mistake ethics for politics within the state or as a manifestation of the state. It’s like mistaking aesthetics for politics.”

thanks neil, aside from being powerful prose, this way of putting this totally worked for me. politics is the work of making a working state, and we can’t let it slide whether we’re distracted by art or theory.

“I have some faith in the prospects for (open source) practitioners, ostensible civilians, becoming repeatedly able to stay creatively and inventively ahead of the colonizing curve.”

i just like that you said this. it’s nice.