"...'peace' is an endless negotiation among free-acting agents whose wills cannot be engineered*"* p. 52

Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms, and it is only fitting that we should use this time to interrogate how we'd like to relate to society. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on how we've been conditioned to participate in society, and how it might look for us to step back and re-evaluate the systems we belong to. Read on for chapter summaries, reflections questions, and recaps on what readers shared during our March 5: Surviving Usefulness, The Case for Nothing meetings.

Summary

Chapter 2: The Impossibility of Retreat

In Chapter 2, O'Dell introduces different peoples' and movements' attempts to remove themselves from society.

Chapter 3: Anatomy of a Refusal

Questions

1. Why do you think Epicurus required his students to study friendship? How would you want to teach and/or learn about friendship?
2. What is the role of responsibility in Chapter 2?
3. One of the major themes in these chapters is how we acquiesce to existing social contracts instead of constantly renegotiating them. How has/is this pandemic showing us that custom is "not the horizon of possibility, but rather a tiny island in a sea of unexamined alternatives."? p. 67
4. O'Dell's acknowledges that "any expression of discontent...is already an attempt to seek out those who might harbor the same feelings." (p. 76) Is this book able to cultivate the solidarity her third space requires?
5. How might you use these chapters to teach someone how to do nothing?

Recap: March 5: Surviving Usefulness, The Case for Nothing

One of the beauties of this book club is that we hope that people will share their reflections with us through whatever medium they feel most comfortable. Participants may email links to their posts to [email protected] or use tag their posts using #dlinqbookclub #HtDN. Steven will summarize any material he receives and place it here.

Sailee's Book Club

After reading the introduction and the 1st chapter, Steven and I had a wonderful discussion on it on 5th March. We spoke about our backgrounds, childhoods and how technology eventually overtook it, slowly, steadily and strongly. We discussed how important it was for both of us to initially make our online presence felt be it on Facebook or Instagram or Myspace or even Orkut! However gradually the “need” to express ourselves via these applications faded and was replaced by nonchalant acceptance.

We also discussed how these applications, however intrusive they are, have now become a necessity because it is not just all about keeping in touch with your friends and family but has expanded much beyond that. They are important to ensure business continuity as well and are essential in helping us stay “in the game”.

In the book, Jenny O'Dell speaks about how the Morcom Ampitheatre of Roses in the 1970s was almost destroyed because unlike other industries the Rose Garden was not helping the city to grow financially. She explains that things like joy, happiness and the nature around us are things that you cannot identify, measure or exploit and hence nobody understands their value.

This led our conversation to talk about productivity and this constant need to remain productive or “useful” because otherwise we feel that we are not worthy or successful. We spoke about how the idea of productivity is constantly sold to us and makes us feel inadequate for example the myth of multi-tasking!