Detox | An Anxious Daffodil

WHAT'S UP?

Heat and Corona in Ramadan, that’s what's up. Also, it’s mid-May, remember?

This isn’t all that’s up, but it’s a good summary of what I have to say this week. I am The Anxious Daffodil*, and I’ll be presenting this week’s Detox.

Let’s start with a prophecy; soon our planet will be ruled by communism, after the end of the virus’s reign. This is what communist philosopher Slavoj Žižek believes, at least. In his latest book, Pandemic! (2020), he anticipates that “measures that appear to most of us today as ‘communist’ will have to be considered on a global level — coordination of production and distribution will have to take place outside the coordinates of the market.” The transformation will be spearheaded by none other than conservative politicians like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, he says.

Will Žižek’s prophecy be fulfilled? Only time will tell. It’s hard to imagine the future when we live day by day through a present where we need to be “open to all possibilities,” like Belgian thinker Raoul Vaneigem says. Do I really have to try and envision the future right now? And just how seriously are we supposed to take philosophers’ predictions? Remember what Salah Jaheen said: “Leave the philosopher to his thoughts/ don’t worship nor crucify him/ Don’t you know, people, that philosophers say one thing/ only to later deny it?”  

I have to write. Nothing is stopping me. Instead of listening to my usual music, I’ll turn on the radio. The white noise keeps me company but doesn’t distract me. I continue what I’m doing, on auto-pilot. The radio encourages me to get lost in my thoughts. Several ideas strike me, a few works I could recommend … but no, they don’t work.

Instead of working, my mind is preoccupied with flies. Why on earth do they exist? Well, there is the transfer of pollen. Long ago they also used to utilize flies to cure gangrene, but that stopped after Penicillin was developed. I read somewhere that flies’ larvae are used to treat wounds. This is all great — but that damn fly buzzing over my head that won’t leave me alone. What the fuck is it good for? I spend my days on the couch, thinking against the noise of the radio, watching films and series about human consciousness and the games it plays, which makes me even more anxious. I am restless, irritated — as Egyptians say, “fighting off imaginary flies on my face.”

Then it came to my attention that flies have incredible perseverance. Humans get bored, but they never do. You wave one away and it disappears for a while, but it always comes back. There is a bit of wonder in that tiny creature. 

I muse my way through the week, and now Friday has come. It’s time to publish; there’s no way around it anymore. 

Alright then, here we go. 

READ

Ramadan kills the mornings, the curfew kills the nights. As I lie in bed I hear voices, I think they are real but I don’t know where they’re coming from. They sound like a muffled conversation from an old Arabic soap opera, as though someone is watching TV in the next room. But the house is dark and empty. I give up on sleep, and I decide to read. 

-I revisit Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I flip through the pages to my favorite passage: 

“History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of ‘history,’ it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

There was madness in any direction, at any hour... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning… And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave…”

You can also read Hunter S. Thompson's Art of Journalism interview with The Paris Review here. 

-Meanwhile, Guardian editor Yohann Koshy reviews Žižek’s Pandemic!, detailing where the philosopher’s analysis promises potential, and how it eventually falters:

“Žižek has spent his career writing in anticipation of a world-historic moment like the coronavirus pandemic, a truly totalizing event that would allow the Hegelian philosopher to deploy his skills on the frontline. But this first attempt from our philosophical key-worker is forgettable. It’s frustrating because there are moments when his analysis would be clearly useful, as when he asks: “Where does data end and ideology begin?” It’s a vital question as we spend our days glued to fatality graphs, but he doesn’t answer it.”

-And, because it’s difficult to read all these reflections on communism without thinking of where it all began, we re-share last week’s interview with leading Karl Marx scholar David Harvey, where he discusses the renewed significance of the German thinker’s work today, as well as Harvey’s lectures on the first two volumes of Das Kapital. For Arabic readers, you can also check out Wessam Saada’s account on re-reading Marx’s magnum opus during the pandemic.

WATCH

Life does not give us much choice but streaming platforms do. Too many choices — more anxiety. Today I try to help you bypass the process of decision-making regarding what to watch, and I recommend three different works: A film, a series, and an animated show. 

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics

Psychedelic drugs are the subject of this new documentary, produced by and streaming on Netflix. Far from a cautionary tale, the film showcases the experiences of a diverse host of famous figures — from musicians and artists to writers and stand up comedians -- with psychedelics, attempting to recreate the hallucinatory “trips” each of them found themselves on, including, of course, the “bad trips.” It explores what happens inside the brain when it’s under the influence, blending scientific findings with quirky visuals.  

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How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) 

In this series, which is inspired by a true story that took place in Leipzig five years ago, two German teenagers set up the largest online drug trafficking website in Europe. The first season starts with the narrator creating the platform to get his girlfriend back, but its sudden success ends up consuming his whole life. The season’s six episodes offer considerable doses of thrill and humor, making for a light and engaging viewing experience. 

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The Midnight Gospel 

A unique and striking visual experience. We follow Clancy, a telecaster, as he roams different worlds looking for stories to air on his own private channel at midnight. He chats with various guests — who almost always appear anonymously — across multiple galaxies using a universe simulator. Their conversations span a host of existential ideas, from the meaning of life to the different manifestations of anxiety — a fun and intelligent watch. 

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LISTEN

In my experience, the constant stream of radio noise has been inspiring, especially on lazy afternoons where it’s difficult to get things done. This is why I’d like to recommend some online radio stations this week: 

-Ma3azef has recently launched its very own radio station, and you can listen to it here. 

-There are two stations from Beirut that have been offering diverse content to keep listeners company during isolation: Radio Quartiere and Radio Karantina. 

-Finally, from Berlin, make sure you check out Hammam Radio. 

SALAM

Someone told me flying a kite might ease my anxiety. “It creates an illusion of freedom,” they said. Well, why not? 

The steps are easy, in theory:

1- Listen to this song from long, long ago — it might help set the mood.

2- Watch this video. 

3- Please don’t try doing it on your building’s rooftop, because that’s dangerous.

4- Don’t give up. No one gets it on the first trial.

And that’s it for this week, my fellow anxious beings. Stay home and stay tuned. 

This was The Anxious Daffodil — over and out.

*Pseudonym