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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 13h

…The machine appeared
In the distance, singing to itself
Of money. Its song was the web
They were caught in, men and women
Together. The villages were as flies
To be sucked empty.
God secreted
A tear. Enough, enough,
He commanded, but the machine
Looked at him and went on singing.
‘Other,’ RS Thomas

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18h

"Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity." ~ Jacques Ellul

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 1d

“Meanwhile, out in what is fondly called ‘the real world’ by people who often don't know very much about reality, you are living in a metastasizing machine which is closing in around you, polluting your skies...woods and your past and your imagination…” Paul Kingsnorth, Against The Machine, p. xiv

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 1d

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung... If you want to make sure of keeping it intact...lock it up safe... But in that casket..it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable." ~ CS Lewis

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 2d

"The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency - the belief that the here and now is all there is." ~ Allan Bloom

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 6d

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one." ~ Neil Postman

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 7d

"Today everything has become 'means.' There is no longer an 'end'; we do not know whither we are going. We have forgotten our collective ends, and we possess great means: we set huge machines in motion in order to arrive nowhere." ~ Jacques Ellul

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 8d

"Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." ~ CS Lewis

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 9d

"Openness used to be the virtue that permitted us to seek the good by using reason. It now means accepting everything and denying reason's power." ~ Allan Bloom

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 13d

"In Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think." ~ Neil Postman

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 14d

"Propaganda ceases where simple dialogue begins. In dialogue, there is an exchange of
viewpoints, and the possibility of change for both parties. Propaganda, on the other hand, is monologue, aiming to dominate and manipulate." ~ Jacques Ellul

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 15d

"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." ~ CS Lewis

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 16d

"What poor substitutes for real diversity are the wild rainbows of dyed hair and other external differences that tell the observer nothing about what is inside." ~ Allan Bloom

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

I dive deep in this week’s video. Watch here 👉 youtu.be/Z75Yg_CnX-A

Is "Agency" A Human Value? | Attention Crisis #6

YouTube video by Gadfly Academy / You Are Not A Machine

youtu.be

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

So—is agency a great human value, or simply a dangerous temptation?

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

Agency can strengthen community if used responsibly. But it can also fracture it...

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

Agency doesn’t guarantee moral action—but without it, moral action is impossible.

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

Across history, cultures didn’t always prioritize agency. The greater good once mattered more than the individual good...

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

✅ Agency promotes flourishing—without it, we’re disenfrancised...
❌ But bad decisions can lead to poor use of agency...and can disconnect us from our community

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

I tested “agency” against the 8 question framework we created, which reveals whether something is truly a human value.

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

We usually celebrate agency as freedom. But sometimes, our choices hurt us—and others.

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 18d

Is agency—the power to shape your life—always good? 🧵

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 20d

Is "Agency" a human value? When is agency a bad thing? youtu.be/Z75Yg_CnX-A

Is "Agency" A Human Value? | Attention Crisis #6

YouTube video by Gadfly Academy / You Are Not A Machine

youtu.be

Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 20d

Is "Agency" a human value? When is agency a bad thing? (Link in first comment!)

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Gadfly Academy | Herman Middleton @gadflyacademy.bsky.social · 20d

"Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information, Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism." ~ Neil Postman