# Illich Reading Club A weekly discussion group! Please comment and write down any thoughts throughout the week! ## Schedule - [x] **1st week reading, 5/12**: [Silence is A Commons](https://www.henryzoo.com/illich/silent-commons?h=1) - I figured we could start with this essay given how [Kernel Block 6](https://kernel.community/en/) has inspiration from this essay! > Ultimately, we decided on an 'empty' KB6 as a container for reflection and silence. We think this is an important pattern for web3 communities and for us in general as we reflect on all the beautiful moments of the first five blocks. > “Silence, according to western and eastern tradition alike, is necessary for the emergence of persons. It is taken from us by machines that ape people." - Illich - [x] **2nd week reading, 5/19**: [To Hell With Good Intentions](https://www.henryzoo.com/illich/hell?h=1) - an early (note that it was given in 1968), procative speech to a group of missionaries to Mexico. > Come to look, come to climb our mountains, to enjoy our flowers. Come to study. But do not come to help. - Illich - [x] **3rd week reading, 5/26**: [The Powerless Church](https://www.henryzoo.com/powerless-church) You may need some context if you aren't familiar with the Western church, but this essay speaks to his view for the future role of the Church, as against any institution that has followed in its footsteps, seeking after power. > It is my thesis that only the church can "reveal" to us the full meaning of development. To live up to this task the church must recognize that she is growing powerless to orient or produce development. > I want to celebrate my faith for no purpose at all. - [ ] **4th week reading, 6/2**: [The Seamy Side of Charity](https://www.henryzoo.com/illich/charity) I had to look up "seamy". In the phrase "the seamy side of life" it means "the roughest, most unpleasant side or aspect of human life". So basically the dark side. Illich seems to go off on similar themes to "To Hell..", except this time the address is to church people vs college students. > Instead of believing in the Church, we frantically attempt to construct it according to our own cloudy cultural image. We want to build community, relying on techniques, and are blind to the latent desire for unity that is striving to express itself among men. In fear, we plan our Church with statistics, rather than trustingly search for the living Church which is right among us. ### Future reading ideas.. - [Computer Literacy and the Cybernetic Dream](https://www.henryzoo.com/illich/cybernetic-dream?h=1) (2k words, 10m) In 1987. On the effect of computers on the human condition, our relationships to one another. > I hope that Susan is a friend who is seeking Frank’s face. Perhaps Susan sees her vocation in seeking Frank’s face. - [Dwelling](https://www.henryzoo.com/illich/dwelling?h=1) - [Lima Discourse (Education as Idol)](https://www.henryzoo.com/illich/lima-discourse?h=1) Illich is most famous for his book, "Deschooling Society". Since that's a bit long, we'll be reading a speech he gave on education the same year the book was published (if there's more interest in this particular subject, we can try reading from a few choice chapters, like Learning Webs). This talk was given to Churches, so the audience is religious, so the theme of education being an idol is relevant here. The point is we are all collectively worshiping education, the need to be taught (not just in school, but in general). He sees education as a form of alchemy, a ritual we collectively participate in. --- There will be the option to join a (synchronous) Discord call and/or participate in using a group note-taking software whenever you have the time, or if you can't make the call. (hosted by Henry Zhu) ## Async Discussion *Intro*: we are using the free/open source [Hypothesis](https://web.hypothes.is/) project to take notes on any readings we do (as we read). It allows annotating webpages (+PDF/EPUB via [docdrop](https://docdrop.org/)). This way we can ask questions, make comments, reference other things while being specific about what sentences, words, phrases we are talking about. You can also annotate publicly but we'll just have a private group. ### How to Get Started! - [ ] [Make a Hypothesis account](https://web.hypothes.is/start/) - [ ] Ask for the link to join the private [Hypothesis](https://web.hypothes.is/) Group in the #public-library [Gitcoin Discord](https://discord.gg/gitcoin) if you don't have it already! Ask me or [Linh](https://twitter.com/linhsights) if you have any other questions! --- You should see something like this when you go to the link! ![](https://i.imgur.com/LgnQmV8.png) After logging in, you should see this page (which is just a summary of anyone's annotations for the private group, our reading club) ![](https://i.imgur.com/npqQ3pW.png) > - [x] ~~Adding Hypothesis to the browser.~~ **EDIT: I embedded hypothesis into the reading page so you don't have to download the extension yourself.** - You can add the [browser extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hypothesis-web-pdf-annota/bjfhmglciegochdpefhhlphglcehbmek) but it looks like you can just add a "bookmarklet" too, like if you are using Firefox (or a non-chrome browser). ![](https://i.imgur.com/QTJvBmy.png) Once installed, you can check our their brief [guide](https://hypothes.is/welcome/f973421e506546eb) for more information. For our group, you'll want to make sure you select the specific group vs. the default "public" group. If you don't see it, it's possible you didn't accept the link to join the group yet. ![](https://i.imgur.com/dPPhpdn.png) Once logged in, you can click on the right side bar to view and comment on annotations, assuming there is one for the URL you are visiting. Depending on the URL, you may see other annotations/comments. ![](https://i.imgur.com/CB2SDFX.png) If you want to annotate, you can select any amount of text and a popup should show up. You can make a new annotation for the group or even highlight a selection (highlights are private). ![](https://i.imgur.com/UzAiR1W.png) ### Tips on Annotations This is my (Henry) first time using Hypothesis, or even doing group note taking so we'll have to just learn as we go, as with most things! > Here's an [example](https://hyp.is/En6ThsaWEeya_4sOg1IASQ/www.henryzoo.com/illich/silent-commons) I made. It's a bit longer than it has to be; it could simply just be a question. I think you should feel free to make a comment on anything that you'd like to start a discussion on with the group. Specifically this could look like: - Questions about the use of a word/phrase. Illich in particular seems to use a lot of words but with older definitions, or just other languages (I assume since English doesn't have a good word for that idea). Maybe it's translated into English. Always good to get a better idea, or even make a comment if you already looked it up to help others with it. - Disagreements with a point: always a good discussion point to figure out a few things. What is the author even saying (are we clear we understand the point being made), what do I even think, and how can we understand the difference? - Referring to other parts of the essay, or other works we may have talked about in the past. - Referring outside the text: it's helpful and probably easy to do - this might be more of an issue in the call since it's easy to get side-tracked to talking about something else entirely but it's always good to connect different thinkers and ideas together! - Is there a main point, or is it a bunch of interrelated ideas (more likely the case with Illich) ## Synch Discussion *Intro*: We'll probably use the Gitcoin Discord like in the regular public library call. Might not be too much to say here. The difference between this and the regular call is that there doesn't need to be a guest that is presenting on a topic. We'll have an assigned reading (at least the the beginning I'll suggest the essays/chapters, in the future we can add in different authors as we see how it goes - I think there's benefit to going through a specific persons work deeply and mostly why I wanted to do this already). Hopefully most of these essays/chapters are short enough we can set aside time *before*/during the actual call that if you aren't able to set aside time during the week you can just show up early and read on your own or just join the call muted and read together so everyone should already be on the same page to discuss. Ideally we'll have some amount of discussion/input in the Discord and/or from Hypothesis that we can use to prompt for initial questions/ideas. We'll also have a Discord thread during the call as per usual! --- Let me know if anything else could be added to this little guide!