What is an intervention?

See below for my introduction to a new project from Tom Pepper and myself, a blog we are calling “Interventions.”

I hope this project appeals to those who want to try to think in new ways about important social questions—questions that we seem perpetually unable to answer in the ways we tend to pose them.

Tom’s intervention on the question of “Why We Teach Literature,” published on the blog today, makes an excellent, thought-provoking read to kick off this project.

I hope you’ll read, discuss, and consider contributing your own interventions!

Interventions

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About this project

This project was conceived as a rough sketch of what, it is hoped, might some day take shape as a new social practice. Taking off from the notion of a “new practice of philosophy” elaborated by the French philosopher Louis Althusser, this experiment aims to breathe new life into the technique of the “philosophical intervention,” by broadening its scope of application beyond the realm of philosophy proper.

To that end, each article published on this blog takes the form of a short and accessible “intervention” into a moment of public discourse. An intervention may be written, for example, as a direct response to a specific newspaper or magazine article, or it may address more broadly some ongoing debate around current events—a political controversy, a scientific finding, a global event, or a piece of popular culture that provokes public discussion.

The technique of the philosophical intervention

It might…

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Book Review: “Indispensable Goods” by Tom Pepper

I’m publishing here my review of Tom Pepper’s (aka The Faithful Buddhist) new book, Indispensable Goods: Thoughts on Ideology, Agency, the Meaning of Life, and Other Somewhat Important Things. The book is available on Amazon. It has been some time since I’ve published anything on this blog. The reason for this has been, chiefly, that …

Reality As It Is

It's been nearly a year since I published my first piece on the Speculative Non-Buddhism blog. In criticizing the intellectual poverty of Western Buddhism, it is important to remain vigilant of our own ideological blind spots, and so I thought it would be interesting to return to my earlier critiques, to see how my own …

Trash Community #4

I. On Suffering I’ve spent some weeks writing and re-writing what I intended as a kind of declaration for my vision of the Trash Community project. I’ve written a lot, most of which I’ve thrown in the figurative bin. What has been difficult about writing this kind of thing is that we are stuck here …

New Blog: Revolutionary Pathology

As both a student of psychology and a psychiatrically diagnosed madman, much of my interest in Western Buddhism has been a result of my involvement with the fields of clinical psychology and psychiatry. I have, in particular, been interested in how Western Buddhism has aided in reproducing many of the errors and delusions present within …

Reflections on the First Buddhist-Marxist Retreat

As we explored the historic Hopewell Furnace at the public park where we had our first Buddhist-Marxist “retreat,” I was struck by the way in which the site—and the brochures and plaques upon which were printed particularly glamorous historical narratives about the development of Colonial industrialization—elicited a certain kind of Romantic capture with the self-congratulatory …

Tripping On Ideology (Part 1)

PDF version of this essay available here.Download Preface Much has been said concerning the introduction of mindfulness ideology into the psychological and cognitive ‘sciences.’ I have not, however, seen much criticism of the recent resurgence of interest in psychedelic substances (such as LSD, psilocybin, and to some extent MDMA) within psychiatry. It seems to me …

Trash Community #3

Non-Buddhism

Greetings, fellow trash theorists:

Please join us on Sunday, August 18th, 1:00-3:00pm, for the third Trash Community gathering.

This meeting will be facilitated by Shaun Bartone of Engaged Dharma. We will be discussing Shaun’s two-part essay “Ditching the Raft.” (Part 1, Part 2)

We will now be using the Zoom platform for meetings. This allows for an unlimited number of participants, so we encourage anyone with even the slightest bit of interest to join! The meeting will be accessible through the following link, which should be available on all computer operating systems, as well as iOS and Android: https://psu.zoom.us/j/880643702

Alternatively, you may dial in by phone using the following number: +1 646 876 9923

When prompted, enter the meeting ID 880 643 702. International callers may find an appropriate dial-in number by following this link and using the number corresponding to their location: https://zoom.us/u/aZ6NNXknd

It’s…

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Reclaiming Banality

Never did history pursue people to the extent it has since people have entrenched themselves against it and attempted to take part in events as spectators of images.Henri Lefebvre, Foundations for a Sociology of the Everyday Western Buddhism is obsessed with the everyday: the exquisite taste of a cup of tea; the infinite beauty of …

A Desperate Call to Immanence

I wrote the following piece as reflections on the two Trash Community meetings we've had so far. As I say here, I have found these conversations extremely useful, while at the same time they have raised certain questions which I believe should be made explicit. For example, what are the intentions which motivate our participation …