Last week, we learned the basics of Doing Things with Andrew, discovering the thoughts, dreams, and fears, in strikingly articulated vulnerability, that birthed the group and still drive it forward. But no interview is complete unless the interviewee becomes at least mildly uncomfortable due to the insensitivity of the interviewer.
We need some discomfort to remind us that an interview can, and often does, constitute a loss of or a separation within the interviewee’s private self: What is private becomes public, and so what’s private anymore? What part of the private goes public? Where’s the line? Let’s see.
Which sorts of things would you like for people to do with Andrew but that you’re hesitant to put on the listserv?
"Wow, alright. Why you gotta do me like that, man? Sometimes, people do misinterpret it as a sexual reference, but it’s not. That’s it. Next question.
I guess I might say, also, ah, go on hikes, and, yeah, get lunch with me, or dinner. Um…man, I gotta come up with a funny answer to that question. It’s a good question. Another really funny answer, I don’t want you to write this, is just “Drugs. Period.” It doesn’t really fit me as a person, I don’t do any drugs, but it’s a funny answer. Next question."
Do you feel a bit like a cyborg, having part of your social life rooted in an email list?
"Hahaha. I would like to ask people who use any social media, do you feel like a cyborg? I honestly suck at social media and texting and all that shit. But we’re kidding ourselves if we say we’re not all cyborgs in some way. If you try to put down your cell phone for a long time, you’ll realize your hand’s starting to get a tick, you need another hit of this, like, the human neural system we’ve created.
The real question is how do you make sense of that, how do you draw meaning from that? The listservs take a long time to put together: Probably at least an hour, maybe two every week. I format it, and I come up with paintings and poems and whatever people in the group are doing and put that stuff in as well and try to make it into this real production that someone would wanna look at. Strangely, making a listserv is a lot like writing letters.
Not the most interactive form of technology: You feel like you’re just shouting out into the great abyss and wondering if anyone’s listening. So I don’t really feel like a cyborg, ‘cause I’ve got to put a lot more thought into it than into a Facebook event or something. But there’s reason to argue that we’re all already cyborgs, particularly because of the uses of cell phones and communication media; they definitely have altered our brains and thought patterns.
And we change them, so there’s an interchange going on. But we use these technologies to perform a basic human function: social interaction. So you could argue that we’re all already cyborgs. But the flipside of that is that when you’re at a do things with Andrew event, you’re using some pretty old-fashioned communication: reading poetry or writing it, picnics, horse races, real live talking. But I don’t think being a cyborg is all bad. We’re just not always prepared for it mentally."
What does Do Things with Andrew think about the Board of Governors’ ban on litigation at university centers? Do you think they might have specifically intended to cripple the Civil Rights Center of UNC Law?
"Whoa, I’m not qualified for that question. But like yeah. Totally. I think it’s rooted in this phenomenon, this “moral bankruptcy” (those aren’t my original words) that characterizes our political discussions in this country. Not to say that the people of the country are morally bankrupt or that everyone involved in politics here is, that just wouldn’t be true, but our political discussions are.
We don’t talk at all about some of the major issues facing us, particularly poverty. Some countries, poverty’s like the main political topic, how to address it, how to eradicate poverty. But we don’t talk about it, or if we do, not nearly as much as we should. And I don’t know exactly why we do so much to avoid the toughest moral issues of politics, but we totally do.
There we have it: Some deep thoughts and poignant social commentary from the Andrew with whom we Do Things. As I said last week, if anyone wants to Do Things with Andrew themselves, just comment your email address under this article, and I’ll contact Andrew and get you added. Upcoming events include the first annual Carrboro Derby (a stick-horse obstacle race) and a big picnic.
[Note: The picture above is of the late, great author David Foster Wallace, who is not quite Andrew, though he looks an awful lot like him.]