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The manufacturers of our AI-powered devices spend a lot of time removing friction, making almost everything pointless. They demand less and less of us because they do more and more, whether we want to or not. One click instead of two. They do the effortless to say things, to buy things, even to undo things. We don’t have to think twice. Or think at all.
But rubbing is a good thing – and not just because it can slow down your ability to send that text that you wish you hadn’t done later, or make it harder to type your ass. We need friction to get through the room.
Also, deleting rarely deletes things completely (your old texts are included). The refusal leaves traces. In college I received a protocol (real thing then) with ink A in physics, crossed out, written in B – the ghost of A is still clear. I had recently declined several invitations from my adult professor to meet after an hour for a drink. Sexual harassment didn’t even have a name then. But the experience canceled my interest in physics for many years.
As we all know, defeated enemies often return, sometimes in different forms. Sometimes they come back to bite you. Our microbial eradication campaign has been so successful that it has helped produce stronger breeds of drug-resistant bacteria.
So what is the alternative? Bad, dangerous and stupid things abound. If we do not cancel them, then what?
In some obvious cases, adding can eliminate the need for subtraction – although it is probably slower, more difficult, more expensive. For example, I read that analog clocks are exported from school classrooms. Why? The decision to cancel the clocks was made because students no longer know how to use them to determine the time. Given that clocks are analogous to the rotation of the Earth, this is a greater loss than it may seem. Why not just teach kids to read the hands of the clock?
Most cancellations are far less trivial, of course, but options usually exist – even if they require time and resources (and thought). We can repair, readjust, revise, remake, limit, redirect, reconfigure, restructure, rework, reconfigure, reduce, review, redirect, retool, restart, rethink, reform, and so on. The reform of our legal system is something that law professor Jody Armor has studied and lived all his life and rethinks in his new book, N * gga theory: race, language, unequal justice and law. A truly progressive legal system, Armor argues, values recovery, rehabilitation, and redemption instead of retribution, revenge, and revenge.
Science could not progress if it abolished the old ways of understanding in favor of the new ones. Very rarely do scientists completely abandon even wrong and rejected ideas. Rather, the building blocks remain, but acquire new meaning and context with the discovery of new knowledge, more complete theories, clearer explanations. Science is essentially additive.
Personally, it’s strange to me that most people seem to look at aging mostly as a repeal. It is true that aging removes the mobility of our limbs, shaving the range and sharpness of our senses, breaks ties, shrinks growth, pulls memory. For me, however, what is won is easily equal to what is lost. Of course, I prefer to cope without the aches and pains, but they force me to judge my path around obstacles – which is a fun challenge (sometimes). If my joints are less flexible, my perspective is greater. I remember less, but I know more. I have lower energy, but more interests. I laugh more. Sometimes this is the only thing you can do. There is nothing wrong with this.
The biggest thing we’ve lost in canceling culture is the conversation itself. We are afraid that we will say something wrong. We are afraid that we will be canceled. Sometimes we don’t even bother to cancel just the “ghost” – the passive-aggressive version.
Needless to say, the ghost of being ghostly, annulled haunted me the whole time I was writing this piece. But since I’m closer to the expiration date than most, it won’t matter much. Nature will cancel me out permanently, soon.
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