But this blog’s not all climate change and the end of capitalism. It’s also here to record and communicate the, often fleeting, thoughts and internal experiences I have during the day, what would otherwise disappear without any kind of public realisation. Not any old thoughts and internal experiences; the sort which frame themselves in the form of something to be communicated, what might be the kernels of articles, say, that there’ll never be the time to write and polish.
On this theme, a word or two about a phrase I like to hold on to: creative surplus. What does it mean to me? Mainly this: creating something, however small, that one is not obliged to do, either within the confines of one’s job or in the service of domestic duties. Something that requires the effort to detach oneself from the path of least resistance, and in the personal motive power created by that effort acting entirely as oneself. It means doing something to realise one’s original capacities, before being steadily overtaken by the adult days of – job work / domestic work / and leisure.
So. This blog will not just publish occasional musings on politics, philosophy, economics, and environmentalism. It’ll also feature the odd tribute paid to examples I like of those who are adding their own creative surplus to the world, whether or not it’s for public display, whether or not it’s great art. The surplus is the thing.
But also, this blog, the act of writing it, all its posts are themselves done in this spirit. Most of my ideas for it occur in the margins of the working day; they help me retain an existence as something more than a man in a suit, working to the order of the crackpot realists running the show, investing everything in necessarily narrow priorities. Publishing a few of them at night helps even more.
We are all Wotan 