[Main Blog Post] A Few Thoughts on Slack

[jprussell]

If you've ever bumped up against the Church of the Subgenius, then you know "slack." I give my own take on what it means to me in my latest post.

Comments

[k_a_nitz]

I really enjoyed your assessment of slack, and it made me reflect also that the multiple Jesuses may be a deep way of thinking about the Trinity ...

Re: "It is the willingness to cast aside very serious obligations because they do not actually serve what you want or need."
The idea that there are different forms of serious obligations - those you want/need and those you don't (which may be chosen for other reasons) - is key to obtaining slack. Perhaps Zvi's binding constraints of behaviour should really be unchosen binding constraints of behaviour.

[jprussell]

Hmmm, I hadn't considered the thought that Jesii could be an extension of the idea of the multiplicity of the single person of God, that's interesting. It also hints at something I wanted to talk about, but didn't feel I had enough to say yet: the link between slack and tamanaous.

As for "unchosen binding constraints," hmm, I'm not sure. A single mother who works two jobs to keep her kids fed might not feel she has totally "chosen" all of the binding constraints on her behavior, but I doubt she feels much slack. But maybe she could if she re-conceptualized? I'm not sure. One thing I'm running up against here is that I've read a lot of stuff lately, that I mostly agree with, that the idea that "all unchosen constraints should be removed" might be seen as one way to express the core drive behind the entire liberal current for the past ~300-400 years, and that taking that idea too far might be why we have a lot of the craziness we do in the world - the idea that we shouldn't even be constrained by little things like biology or physics, for example, and should push for a robo-utopia of infinite abundance throughout the stars.

Anyhow, where I currently stand, and might have said more clearly in the post, is that slack is a desirable spiritual/metaphysical quality, but it is not the only desirable spiritual/metaphysical quality, and very likely needs to be balanced against others.

[k_a_nitz]

Lots to think about there. And I just saw this in Charles Eisenstein’s latest which made me think about what the connection might be between slack and wuwei:
‘One of the things that's so non dual and paradoxical about Taoism is “wuwei,” which technically means unforced action for anyone who's listening to this. The whole idea of action, to me, is so hard to disambiguate from force. It feels I have to bring my will in order to do something.’

[(Anonymous)]

Eisenstein's new on on creating creating culture is a good one!

https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/on-creating-culture

I like what you both are seeing here too, about slack and tamanous. It takes time out of the schedule to go on a vision quest. A person looking for themselves needs some slack for reflection.

Justin Patrick Moore

[jprussell]

Thank you for the link, I don't follow Eisenstein, and so would have had to do some searching to find the appropriate piece!

[jprussell]

::smacks forehead:: That's what I meant to bring in and totally forgot - the Tao and wuwei! Zhuangzi is a total slacker.

That also suggests a (partial) way of reconciling the challenges in my previous comment: while slack may be the lack of constraint on what you want, one way to both get more slack and to be more likely to be getting it the "right" way, is to make sure that what you want is as in line with the Tao as possible.

Perhaps that is the greatest service of the Church of the Subgenius - their off-color emphasis on flaunting convention, gratifying bodily needs, and so forth (tactics which Zhuangzi also uses, btw), serve to point out that much of what we feel compelled by in life is artificial in some sense. Going with the flow of the Truth, on the other hand, is no constraint.

[k_a_nitz]

That last sentence makes me think of the injunction to become one with god for some reason

[jprussell]

Hmm, interesting. Certainly, in monotheistic faiths, "the Truth" or "the Way" would be synonymous with, or at least very, very close to synonymous with the one and only God. From a polytheistic standpoint, I wonder if different Gods represent different ways of being "in tune" with the Truth/Way/Tao/etc, and while seeking union would be one way to pursue that, other practices might get you there different ways.

[jprussell]

Hmm, so I finally had a chance to read the full Eisenstein pice, and it was quite interesting. Overall, I think he has a very important point, that "real" culture and ritual isn't consciously adopted/invented, it just feels like how things are. On the other hand, I think he might be giving short shrift to the process of internalizing a ritual, perhaps for rhetorical effect. For example, I say a short prayer whenever I put on my Thunor's Hammer necklace - these days, that just feels like part of the putting-on process, it's fairly "automatic." Somehow, though, blessing my food before I eat it, despite growing up with that habit, is less automatic, but when I do it, it feels pretty natural. Other prayers are less well-established, and have flashes of feeling true and authentic, and long stretches of feeling like going through the motions. So, I think that's a normal and natural part of an individual adopting ritual, and it wouldn't surprise me if something like that plays out at the large scale of groups of folks trying to work out "culture."

As for what this has to do with slack? Hmmm. Well, disciplined practice is one non-intuitive way to get to slack. When you become very good at something, and it becomes automatic, then all of a sudden you have more slack around doing it than when you had to concentrate as hard as you could to do it. So, departing wildly from what the Church of the Subgenius might say, if the rituals of the culture around you are accpeted and made a routine part of your life, maybe they save you the work of figuring a lot of stuff out for yourself, and thus can grant you slack.