Thinking about changing the world

Let's think difference.
Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: patreon.com/user?u=3517018
Or send me a one-off tip of any amount and help me make more videos:
www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
Buy on Amazon through this link to support the channel:
amzn.to/2ykJe6L
Follow me on:
Facebook: thethenandnow
Instagram: / thethenandnow
Twitter: / lewlewwaller
Subscribe to the podcast:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...
open.spotify.com/show/1Khac2i...
Sources
Joe Moran, First You Write a Sentence
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir
Audre Lorde, The Masters Tools
Todd May, Giles Deleuze
slate.com/human-interest/2016...

[@ThenNow]

Thanks for watching everyone! Help me out by supporting me on Patreon for scripts, discord, & name in credits, etc: www.patreon.com/thenandnow Get updates from me on Twitter: twitter.com/lewlewwaller

[@choosecarefully408]

I think that the only thing I can add _here_ is that people would never back down from stopping GMOs let's say out of fatigue or loyalty to Monsanto. It's only once 'Government' even only verbally defends the rights _of_ Monsanto that people back down. You can rally your nation's folk against the people of *other* nations quite easily. Changing what people subconsciously perceive as "Their Own Group" is an entirely different matter. Are people in Britain willing to admit they made a mistake not stopping the Americans from torturing people at Guantanamo Bay? Then they'll also admit their own involvement in that war was a bad thing? No. Not while a single one of "Their Soldiers" who fought because we didn't have that perspective earlier is still alive. Change on the societal level requires a personal maturity that culturally, the West has turned away from recently. I don't think that they'll get it back any time soon.

[@ownedinc4274]

The five "verbs" are not verbs.

[@nopasaran191]

This channel is violently, offensively good. The videos are extremely well researched and well produced. Keep it up

[@Mike_Sunshine]

I love that description 🤙

[@yungtgofpwclicc1158]

I'd say it's the actually THE BEST channel on youtube. Given the topics that he discusses in the Kant and Spinoza videos.. and I think theirs one more..

[@nopasaran191]

And Bes. D Marx is another amazing, slept on new channel that’s gonna blow up

[@wm9904]

💯💯

[@vauchomarx6733]

My first association that came to mind while watching this video was the Spanish differentiation between "being" as something temporary ("estar"), and essential being ("ser"). If we want to change the world, maybe we have to think more in terms of the former.

[@yeasr7781]

I'll listen to this every time I want to write poetry

[@johnhogendoorn3786]

Simply genius. Such a joy to tune in, align, flow, be. Thank you 🙏

[@porfavoralguemmemata8624]

Omg one banger after another! Jesus, ehat superb editing, screen writing, and aesthetic. Holly molly. Got a lot of goosebumps while watching this. I generally don't comment videos, but Jesus... What good art we have here.

[@jonasnilsson8533]

Fantastic! A truly amazing train of though, sound and visuals. Feels highly important somehow. Thanks for making this and all your other content. If I will be a patreon to something one day it will be for your content. All the best.

[@baidawibai]

In this sense I find myself thinking that some of the best sentences I've ever heard came from rappers. From the opening line of The Message "broken glass everywhere" to Black Thought of The Roots' "still they working all they life, they pushing for the light, giving everything they got to stitch dem swooshes on ya Nikes". One of the main reasons why I love hip-hop is because it emerges from abstraction AND the concrete.

[@sempressfi]

Great observation. Killer Mike always delivers in that way and rap that addresses sociopolitical or just "political" things in general is on another level.

[@Intuitioncalling]

This is my 3rd video on this channel and I'm planning to binge on all of the or most of the videos tonight. But what's bugging me is such a low count of subscribers. This is Gold.

[@mstran1897]

Beautiful!

[@katakana1]

4:32 When you need to reach a word count on an essay

[@domdominique2603]

Ngl I got very excited seeing your typewriter, that literal notebook, and pens. Thank you! This is an awesome video. Made my day :) Also glad to see the Join button here. Clicked. Some months ago I made a comment about making it possible to contribute here in fewer clicks. Glad to see that, too. 👍

[@susanwilliams4953]

I am in astonishment & wonder with your channel. I watch on repeat on purpose!

[@christopherbettridge5983]

"Joy is hope when it leaps and sprints amongst us."

[@enzoamaral7721]

Magnificient. The ending was sublime, thank you and congrats for the great video!

[@zombiehampster1397]

I just want to say how much I love your channel. I just stumbled across it recently and I really love the approach/presentation as well as the depth of content, yet still very accessible.

[@amulyamishra5745]

Watching this gives me some hope of having a nascent philosopher inside me. I already think like this!

[@CiroqLee]

Just found your channel. It took just one video and I’ve been binging ever since. Truly amazing content. What you are making is art. Go beyond, brother

[@Jack-lw5kh]

A wonderfully executed and formulated essay on life, reflection, action, inaction, identity and energy. So glad to have discovered this channel recently, I can only hope I might use some of the wisdom of this video to foster my own creative direction and motivation.

[@ritagreenwood9397]

I am learning so much from this channel, I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you! 🙏

[@LighthoofDryden]

The sounds you chose are as well-articulated as the thoughts. This has given me a lot to chew on, as you always do. Thank you.

[@RichardMcCrory_Neph]

I immediately though about Candide seeing the thumbnail in my feed. We can, at best, cultivate our own garden, and our humble single thoughts

[@gregferguson1386]

Wow. Brilliant. The words, imagery, music, pace, tone--all beautiful. A work of art. Thank you.

[@susanwilliams4953]

Beautifully said 🌺..

[@Phlabberghost]

On the butler quote: everything until “brought” is a single noun phrase. After brought, you have the predicate, until the appositional phrase begun by “marked.” So “some large conceptually considered situation” brought and marked “two large conceptually considered situations, different from the first and each other.” “Possibility” isn’t a verb. I don’t say that as a corrective, I say it as a note that you’re correct to note that Butlers verbs vanish, but that they vanish so much that you missed them. She is talking about something that “brought” and “marked.” Your point still stands bro. Sorry for the pedantry.

[@booksandocha]

Great essay, beautifully delivered and very enjoyable to follow.

[@lowkoalatee4033]

More of this please just such a unique style with that voice and the atmosphere it’s nice

[@SteveJones379]

The poetry of this piece moves me. Thank you!!!

[@penelopehill9710]

Rare to find a Writer's Writer! And rather than my reading what a Writer's Writer has written . . . here the Writer is present to me! Nice!

[@slaterrox23]

~ For the algorithm ~ But seriously, amazing video. You always make me think, and I'm very grateful for that.

[@moistbox]

Kinda blown away by this one. One of my favourites from you, for sure, and that is saying a lot.

[@NoahMullins]

Thank you so so much for this video. I'm going to have to rewatch it a bunch of times to take it all in because it's given me A LOT to think about.

[@jadegrace1312]

Another thought: I think it adds greatly to your point to consider why people care about Judith Butler's writing being obtuse and hard to parse for laypeople. We don't expect mathematicians or physicists to explain their complex theorems in easy to understand languages. This would be simply impossible to do with any specificity. I think it reflects the fact that we view speech and language as more personal and intimate than the mathematical symbols used to express mathematical ideas. By further obscuring ideas behind symbols for symbols for speech, rather than symbols for speech, we have an understanding that the knowledge being portrayed is more specialized, more obtuse. We don't want to know or need to know. But when the ideas are expressed through language, we feel that we ought to be able to understand, no matter how "high level" the ideas.

[@E11imist]

Sick thumbnail man. I'm a long time sub since uni when I first watched your video on Derrida. You do great work and I appreciate you being part of what I consider the very small minority of YT that succeeds at being educational, creative, relevant and often profound. Your videos have helped expand my thinking and knowledge, especially about philosophy.

[@TheSchleimBonze]

beautifully put, thank you for these words, i do feel-glide what they express, they are healing. Wirte on friend, stretch yourself, so the sunwill of the spring warms a tickle ;)

[@5ivearrows]

This is a truly wonderful video. Thank you.

[@zlag__]

beautiful man. philosophy is lived not taught. live the moments, moment by moment then you will be the movement

[@aenghelmarie9732]

This video made me reflect. Very impactful. Amazing Production.

[@davidhassall8000]

That was lovely, thanks.

[@soulmechanics7946]

I can see where you altered sentences, refining and sharpening the edge of your depiction. Very well played. Also, Butler's exemplary sentence is just gorgeous.. a spectacle-level show of rhetorical prowess. They knew she deserved an award, they just didn't know why, and it is understandable. They would have been dazzled by the semantic flash-grenade it becomes upon inspection.

[@Noms_Chompsky]

Warm shower on a chilly morning my dude, great viddie!

[@amberwebber6060]

Thank you. 🖤

[@ehfik]

ah, excellent. keep returning to this topic again and again. thank you for all your work! and THANK YOU for being different and keeping it fan-funded - honestly cant watch another nord vpn, brilliant etc. ad...

[@UncleKeith567]

Wow! 'Thinking about changing the world' a tone poem by Then & Now. Beautiful.

[@l4l755]

Thank you! I am frequently frustrated with the slow rate of policies and structural solutions to combat climate change and ecological destruction: Life is in the verbs, and we all can do something. Thanks for an informative, and at the same time poetic, video. Keep the verbs flowing in your life ;)

[@BBQJOE22]

what youtube channel have I stumbled upon, this is brilliant!

[@ozlemdenli7763]

just wonderful

[@obie2013]

every video you make is a masterpiece

[@TheCg1999]

This is beautiful.

[@metamorphosis_77]

Magical and poetic.

[@Northwest360]

Incredible channel! I’d love to hear your thoughts on work, anti work etc, and what you think the future of work looks like. I’m sure you’re a David Graeber fan 😃

[@veredit]

Really love your channel, but this is the first I truly felt that I have to say it. Saved it to favourites.

[@inthemomenttomoment]

The sentence 👀 is: "Change your self before you change the World 🌎. Live Life Now 🎯 The Future is Living Now!🤺

[@ramblinactivist]

Excellent words (as usual), some good editing choices, but the rhythms of he music really syncopated will with the ideas on this one :-)

[@J5L5M6]

Beautifully delivered. The style of content that lured me in from the start. Thank you. -Profit Overlord

[@Ivarius321]

I only watched the first few minutes, but I just wanted to let you know, just like there are people who do not or even cannot think in images, there also also people who barely or don't use auditory thoughts. For these people, thoughts don't start as a sentence. They are able to comtemplate ideas without actual sentences forming in their mind. For these people, the start of a thought feels more like a spark rather than a formation of a sentence.

[@jimranallo686]

Brilliant!

[@zuhar2526]

Reminded me of "school of life" mission. The creator of it has faced criticism for deluding great philophers to a simple guidelines for everyday life. But as they stated that the believe in "democratising the intellectuals"

[@zarkc4]

Yo, great vid, yet the music is sometimes a little too loud compared to your voice! Thank you for your work!

[@wm9904]

Good shit 💯💯💯💯💯

[@HaxorSerialKiller]

great!

[@polybius3609]

I always leave these videos more contented than I was before I saw them 🥲with a newer sense of purpose

[@edwardsalim3111]

Excuse me, what classical does this video use? It is very entrancing😌. Thank you!

[@IndustrialBonecraft]

I see your dense and wordy Judith Butler quote and raise you Nick Land. And then someone will see my Nick Land and raise me Reza Negarestani.

[@readman53]

Would you revisit the words you identified as verbs and explain their "verb-ness" in the quotation from Butler. Thanks!

[@RedsKinDK23]

This is poetic.

[@dougcane4059]

The piano background music is too loud .... annoying and hard to understand ...

[@stevanivanovski3660]

I loved this video! The music can be too loud and distracting somtimes, but great anyway! Thanks :)

[@katakana1]

11:09 Spanish has "estar" which is just for temporary states. He could use that as a replacement. Oh and I guess that means he's a Taoist too

[@winnluke1976]

They’re not verbs that you circled! 😅Thanks for the video though, the quality has improved a lot recently. I’m always keen to watch them.

[@Zodicus]

It is a travesty that I have only found your channel today. The only thing I have to say is: thank you.

[@michaelkeefer1471]

The problem is, while listening, I want to sit down and take notes. I am at work though. I do however imagine I'm becoming a better person, somehow, by listening.

[@lizzie7138]

Anytime a point about accepting “difference” is made suddenly black people appear. We are more than a difference. We are not a tool for analysis but humans in their own right with stories that centre us. Tribalism is deeply embedded in us and very potent. Imagine if we lived in a world where being human is the ONLY thing that mattered to us. But would we be here if we were not tribalist? When do we stop and move past the caveman mentality? So many questions. I love your work btw and deeply enjoy your videos. So don’t take this personally lol

[@randstrickfaden4148]

Fabulous channel and videos. Concerning this one, what is ironic to me, is that the critiques of the abstract “pinned down” this is what be notions and perspectives are themselves only abstract ideas. Therefore they are susceptible to their own criticism and thus dissolution. All of these are Poststructural/Postmodern conceptions. I think one can argue factually that they’ve missed the mark of such intellectual undertakings to begin with. This is due to failing to notice something more significant than what the previous philosophies and the like that sought to set in stone or moor, as used in the video, what is, what be, etc. And that is, why they WANT for such a thing. Through all the past eras clear back to our species existing in the hunter/gatherer state, from the primitive spiritual explanations to the more developed pagan and religious, to the renaissance and romantic, to the enlightenment and modern, humans have felt the need to ground themselves, individually and collectively with such overarching perspectives and beliefs regarding truth on such a grandiose scale that they can’t know things as so on smaller more intimate scales. Yet, we still desperately require something to fill that void of what we can question but not rightfully answer. Wrong or right plays little importance to our subconscious regarding this, as it is rather for the sense of security, structure, and as much mainstay of an order as possible. The human psyche, for most anyway, require this in order for those verbs to become manifest, for people to act, “strike that match,” and so on. Aside from the innate curiosity to become familiar with one’s environment prompting action, to explore, even seek adventure beyond that out of the same type of motivation, most require such structural framework in order to act, including create. Of course there are the exceptions, the curious for curious sake with a stronger drive to explore deeper and further, such as those inventors, scientists, explorers, artists, wizards, and alchemists. And these so often seem to be the freer spirits, misfits, eccentrics, iconoclasts, and social critics. But throughout and according to history, these sorts have always been a minority exception, so to imagine all could be this sort to form mass society is just as delusional as any past set in stone type of belief peoples minds have been moored to. Only difference is those past ones could provide the structure needed for human coherence and achievement to occur, be it good or bad achievement, however you decide that, where the poststructural one won’t because it fails to take notice of why these overarching beliefs are desired.

[@kristis3410]

I love Then & Now, have watched many videos. Was surprised to see "shift," "possibility" and "rearticulation" described as verbs. Of course, "shift" can be a verb, but it wasn't in this context. Nitpicky, eh? I'm afraid I don't really see how this illuminates the idea of changing the world, except perhaps in a tangential fashion. Certainly language plays a big role in the way the world changes, but the links between certain types of language and the effects they have on change don't seem to be well-articulated. There are other Then & Now videos that I find more intriguing and insightful...but that's just me!

[@mainstreet3023]

I was sentenced to a Julian Assange. It’s rich to be rich. Little boy, I found a foundling. My mother won’t have a womb. I am mother.

[@myselfapretend]

You should, if you haven't already, check out David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal. Though you sound like your taking a cue from Merleau Ponty anyway.

[@chr13]

4:13 Is it okay to neglect the tar though?

[@addammadd]

5:56 is possibility a verb in this vernacular or was this an error?

[@61757]

Where do you find archival footage?

[@danacoleman4007]

In the archives

[@chawaphiri1196]

Your Spotify link isn't working

[@penelopegreene]

I want to create a world where rain never falls on streets in black and white neo-noir settings again! WHAO--WAIT 🤔

[@GopalKumar-369]

5:40

[@masoud_a_m]

You've been getting better and better in presentation, but the quality of content unfortunately seems to go the other way. I absolutely loved your older videos, as were short and to the point, rather than poetic, ambiguous, general, and personal. But that's just my preference, considering how I think we can change the world.

[@tpe6444]

What is a verb to you? I ask not to correct. In your Butler quote, I would consider all of your "verbs" to be nouns in the context of that sentence (including "thinking" as a gerund), and in your Dickens' quote, all your verbs to be adjectives. I suspect you're using a different definition of verb than the one I learned.

[@LucBoeren]

Pretty

[@61757]

Typewriter?

[@iloveowls8748]

Is it possible to read your scripts somewhere? :)

[@TheJayman213]

typo in the description: *Giles* Deleuze missing an L

[@androgyme]

How am I supposed to write a true sentence when truth is merely the illusion of certainty?

[@porfavoralguemmemata8624]

Truth needs to be felt, not thought.

[@jazzblue7497]

I just wanted to add that making a sentence is not a trait only humans possess. Sure, we are the only literary species we know of, but animals use complex language themselves. Look at chimpanzees or certain birds for example.

[@blueoak116]

Well done, as usual. All a little too obvious though. But still inspiring.

[@darylsprake8617]

All thoughts ultimately are put there from the outside.they are not indigenous

[@bxbank]

Nothing will empower the world until we move to using a neutral currency. Sent you a tweet. reply back if you are interested. Already, object thinking. Humanity thinks in object when it is disempowered. Listen to your language: polarising. Then again, everyone doers that.

[@kennybrhouston]

one suggestion. The background track is too loud. Need to drop the volume. it's offputting

[@SD-hr4tr]

1.5K likes,

[@scofah]

Hi please consider using less background music. Background music in KZbin essays is difficult to listen to, especially for people on the spectrum, people who are hard of hearing, people who speak English as a second language, and others. A tiny bit of music goes a really long way. Thanks for considering.

[@LogicGated]

This is the anti doomer content that I need

[@drivelikej9962]

I often find myself at odds with your political ideas, T&N, but your commitment to maintaining the connection between 'theory' and life is forever to your credit.

[@Ba-pb8ul]

Thoughts are not that important. A sentence is neither basic or foundational (Derrida101). Thoughts come from the gut; they also come from the material substrate of the life around us, call it ideology or lifeworld. What matters as Novalis, and German romanticism tells us more generally is the interrogation of things, through questions and contradictions. By addressing why Titian uses a particular blue in his painting one is forced to reach an understanding which, in turn, addresses and changes the infinite regress of signification in other things. As I noted elsewhere, what matters is to indice moments of contradiction, to brush back history like the hairs of a dog so they stand on end. It's not then that you start with an idea - rather you challenge accepted wisdom. The vague notion of "every day life" untethered from theory, for example. This way you have of not nailing down what you're seeking to say, Lewis, is increasingly performative: you have some sense of accepted normativity that is oddly reactionary; you harbour desires for a post-theoretical world embedded in the experiential like Schiller overlooking his domain. One of your less good essays, imo. Understand your position and state it

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

I like the essay, but this was interesting too

[@fracktar]

Turn the piano down