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Email me: rthlesq (at) gmail (dot) com.
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(pinned post) Welcome to the occasional blog of Robert Thomas Hayes Link.
Because?
Sat Apr 11 10:40:20 PM UTC 2026
reaching for relevance grasping old tools, or toys weighing the talking to no one called blogging against the talking to no one called social-media
Sun Mar 29 09:50:15 PM UTC 2026
i contain multitudes and am arranging a few evictions and house arrests
Sat Mar 28 12:53:36 PM UTC 2026
A friend tells me I am not done, and that some of the things I say to her she is not hearing elsewhere and I should write them down because I have articulated them well. I will try. Another acquaintance, in a marketing email, presages some writing under consideration and spurs me to action. I will try. But today it will be a small offering.
What good comes from an event such as today's "No Kings" rally?
The current rise of authoritarianism in no small part owes its success to apathy, alienation, and disaffection of those who would oppose it. To the extent people of good will and liberal values, progressive values, positive and inclusive values are sidelined by despair and hopelessness, to the extent our political will is sapped and stunted, to the extent the forces of fascism exploit that despair, any act of encouragement and hope is helpful.
How much more helpful, then, millions rising in the streets to share not only our outrage but our hope, our joy at not being alone?
Concerns about such demonstrations being purely performative, or dissipatingly cathartic are well placed, but miss a central point: We exercise our humanity by such efforts, not only hastening the day when we muster political clout thereby, but in the immediate moment deepening the values which make resistance and persistence worthwhile.
Fri Mar 27 04:18:10 AM UTC 2026
if i say nothing i say nothing disagreeable if i agree i am agreeable and if all i do is say nothing or agree what becomes of me? what do i become? a full cup, under a strong tap all the old pushed out before long
Fri Nov 15 02:38:18 AM UTC 2024
Having a little trouble enabling shared clipboards in virtualbox.
167 of 292
Discussion of 1,000 children seen for tonsil complaints. "No matter how many times a child had been cleared before, each new examination carried with it a 50-50 chance that he or 2 would be declared in need of a tonsillectomy."
166 of 292:
By detaching us from our environment and educating us into subservience and a sense of inadequacy, school undermines our natural defenses against addiction.
This fits with my observations that what college is really good for is teaching obedience. I do not recall reading this far into the book, but I keep running into bits like this which fit some long held prejudices.
What still remains is for future changes in education to reflect this growing awareness that institutionalized unreality is harmful to us all.
A dear friend reminded me this morning of David Foster Wallace's commencement speech, "This is Water." The similarity of themes seems striking, all the more so because she mentioned it in context of my describing some of the thoughts inspired by my reading of Love and Addiction.
Fri Oct 11 08:38:24 PM UTC 2024
First, there's a problem with the time stamp on the local machine. I'll work that out later, but it's claiming UTC while showing Los Angeles time.
Second, a snip from "Love and Addiction" by Peele and Brodsky:
A study by Mark Lepper and his colleagues shows that if small children pursue some activity originally out of natural inclination and are then instructed and rewarded by a teacher to perform the same activity, they will stop performing when the teacher, and the external structure and approval he provides, are removed. Is it surprising, then, that when a student emerges from beneath the sanctions of school, he typically shows no desire to pursue the subjects he was taught in that context?
This makes me think of jokes about sex-work, what once was done for fun then done for money becomes, well, work.
But I suspect there's something deeper here, and I expect it will be connected in the next few pages with how people fall out of love.
I find my current modes of expression and interaction fail me one way or another. Yet I benefit from the tool of writing as a means of better articulating and organizing my thoughts. So, a new blog.
Not much to say just now, however, tonight's posting time got tied up in setting up the site, such as it is. More soon.
Email me: rthlesq (at) gmail (dot) com.
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