Deceits of desire: On status games, flattery, war, and art - Coming up on Interintellect

Anna Gát recommends

My dear friends,

The archeologist Monica L. Smith has a theory about cities: She says cities grew out of ancient festival venues where we used to come together for yearly gatherings from nearby settlements. At these seasonal fiestas we’d mingle, showcase the ideas and inventions we’d come up with since last year, encounter new languages, try exotic foods, and fall in love. Dr. Smith says we found these gatherings so enjoyable that eventually we never left. Because why have intellectual and creative fun for only a few days per year? First we just installed a few specialists to hang around the sacred sites all year, then more people moved there to serve these shamans and priests, and the next thing we knew, we had… cities! Quite literally: infinite fun.

This is how Interintellect came to exist too. At first we gathered every once in a while, otherwise being busy making other things. Then the day came when the possibility of an ongoing festival of culture became a reality. A virtual city of minds! Great conversation, great art, and great friendship (no shouting, no toxicity — just a love for timeless learning and inquiring together) that’s happening every day, in multiple time zones. Welcome to life in Interintellect!

Just listed for you:

🏛️ Humanities Status Games: Philosopher Dan Williams vs. Critical Theory

🗣️ Retiring Dale Carnegie, with Kim Scott: A Better Language for American Collaboration

🎭 A Streetcar Named Desire - Online Play Reading (members only)

🏙️ Jane Jacobs reading group: The Death and Life of Great American Cities

🏡 Beyond the Nuclear Family: Rebuilding Extended Family and Other Communal Cultures in Contemporary Western Society

Other recommendations:

• The Art of War: San Francisco in-person with Interintellect and Arena Magazine to investigate the new technology and aesthetics of warfare

• Gender, Politics, and the New Right - With Mana Afsari

• Online play-reading of A Streetcar Named Desire (If you want to read a role, there is a form to fill out which you’ll find in the event description)

• Prisoners of Geography At Ten: A Conversation with Tim Marshall

• Can Men and Women Ever Be Friends? Washington DC in-person

• Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading - With Nadia Asparouhova

• Left to Our Own Devices: The Future of Political Journalism with Conor Friedersdorf (The Atlantic)

• What does the body know? - With Peyton Harvey

• Democracy and Morality: Tocqueville Reading Group with Anna Gát

• Terraforming Earth and Beyond - With Casey Handmer

• Einstein's Spiritual Journey. MOVED ONLINE - With Dr Kieran Fox and Brian Gallagher

• Is Richard Nixon Back? Contested Memories as Political Weapons - With Julia Sonnevend and Michael Koncewicz

• Money Lies and God. A discussion with author Katherine Stewart

• How to Be a Grown Up: A Conversation with Raffi Grinberg

• An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion - With Professor Charles Taliaferro

• Techno-Capital and the End of History - With Samuel Hammond

• Religion and Community in the Age of AI - With Miriam Gerber Lu and Shahid Nowshad

To see more of our events, head 👉🏻 here.

I look forward to seeing you at our events soon!

Want to attend for free? We have a 20% membership discount now that you can unlock: “MayDay” coupon code

Love x

Anna