Nina Power

[Talk kindly clipped by @cold_damp_free on X]

I was invited to speak on a panel entitled “Tech and Human Relationships”. My talk was a bit chaotic but well-received. I tried to suggest that horror, tragedy and romanticism, and a pagan break with the virtual, may need to be the initial stages of a passage towards the outside (the world, reality, other people, love). In this sense, many people today are not even pagan, and in this sense, humanity may need to recapitulate earlier phases in its history. The importance of work in the creation of meaning and purpose was also stressed, with reference to John Zerzan’s account of the Luddites. I have more to say about all of these questions, and hope to write more about the romantic turn in the near future.