index
000 Manifesto
001 Atomic Theory and Wasting Time
002 Recapped: March 2025
003 Health is Wealth – Notes on Pilates
004 Recapped: April 2025
welcome to
the magpi
𓅪
a passion project by theia gabatan.
Recapped: April 2025
Favourites from my media diet this month. Things I’ve read, listened to and watched.
THIS MONTH’S REFLECTION:
One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is how power is legitimised and how control over populations is maintained over time. Most people think that these things happen through force, but true power is quiet, softer, targets that internal need for belonging. True power is not won through duress and coercion, it’s earned through trust and belief. We believe that we are perfectly logical rational beings who form opinions and take action based on fact – but we aren’t. We are emotional and illogical.
The reason I’ve been thinking about this a lot is because of the Pope’s death. I am not a Catholic, and I’m skeptical and critical about organised religion. But even I have become fascinated by what has been happening. Sure, organised religion has its shadows, but it’s incredible to me how it has managed to last for so long.
Every lasting institution and pillar of power – the last standing monarchies and the Catholic church – have lasted not because of their hard power. In reality they have none. It is their ability to command ritual, myth and mystery that is the cornerstone for why these institutions have lasted over time. Hard power ebbs and flows, but this kind of power can be sustained with the reinforcement of the rituals, the myths and the maintenance of mystery.
THINGS I’VE BEEN Writing:
Health is Wealth – Notes on Pilates
THINGS I’VE BEEN READING:
[NON-FICTION] [CURRENTLY READING] The Aristocracy of Talent by Adrian Wooldridge
[NON-FICTION] [CURRENTLY READING] On Creativity by David Bohm
[NON-FICTION] [CURRENTLY READING] Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen by Peter Ball
THINGS I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Seventeen by Sharon Van Etten ✱✱✱✱
Flood by Little Simz, Obongjayar and Moonchild Sanelly ✱✱✱✱✱
Agadez by Etran de L’Air ✱✱✱✱
Khayal by Kazdoura ✱✱✱✱✱
Keep it to Yourself by Sonny Boy Williamson II ✱✱✱✱
Bad Bunny: Tiny Desk Concert ✱✱✱✱✱
THINGS I’VE BEEN WATCHING:
[FILM] Conclave (2024) – I did not expect to like this, but I loved it. Extremely well made, excellent performances and cinematography. The monologue on certainty was a chefs kiss ✱✱✱✱✱
[FILM] From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) – Literally WTF. Extremely camp, a diabolical mid-movie genre shift, an insanely stacked cast, and an iconic end scene. George Clooney’s second best performance (after the Oceans trilogy) ✱✱✱✱✱
[FILM] The Book of Eli (2010) – I love a dystopian movie and this one was stunning. The plot twist was great. Gary Oldman and Denzel Washington was a great combo ✱✱✱✱
[FILM] Rush (2013) – My annual watch of my favourite racing movie ever. Ron Howard cooked with this one ✱✱✱✱✱
[FILM] The Jurassic World Trilogy (2015-22) – I really love the questions these movies ask about science, technology and biological engineering ✱✱✱✱1/2
[TV SERIES] Black Mirror Season 7
- S07 E03 Hotel Reverie // I liked this so much and the only reason I didn’t love it is because Issa Rae was completely miscast. When you put her next to someone like Emma Corrin (who absolutely nailed this role), it was so jarring ✱✱✱
- S07 E04 Plaything // What happens when you choose digital relationships over real human connection? ✱✱✱✱
- S07 E05 Eulogy // I loved this. A great meditation on how powerful emotions can influence memories. And how easily we can distort reality to fit our own narratives of reality – and how sometimes this can lead to misery and self-sabotage ✱✱✱✱
- S07 E06 USS Callister: Into Infinity // This was so good. No notes ✱✱✱✱
[TV SERIES] The White Lotus, Season 3 – This was my favourite season so far. I loved the exploration of identity and spirituality throughout the entire season across all the characters. I found the ending somewhat predictable but still satisfying. The saddest character is Gaitok – the guy really traded his morals for earthly rewards. He was promoted and got the girl – but at what cost? ✱✱✱✱
[TV SERIES] Senna – Really well made, the racing sequences were a 10/10 ✱✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] I Hate My Phone So I Got Rid of It by Eddy Burback – Honestly such an enjoyable 40+ minutes and great storytelling. Actually considered getting a timed lockable container after this for a phone prison.
[VIDEO ESSAY] Ben Stiller is Low Key a Genius – I agree with everything in this video.
[VIDEO] The Process of Making a Camera Lens. The Best Optical Equipment Factory in Japan – As someone who regularly complains about the cost of lenses, this has effectively shut me up from future complaints.
[VIDEO] Animated St. James Infirmary Blues by Cab Calloway – Maybe one of the earliest fusions of dance, music and animation. Something about this music video just hits right. Extremely captivating.
APRIL 2025 MOODBOARD
Health is Wealth – Notes on Pilates
If old forms of status, largely centred around consumption and attainment, no longer confer the cultural capital that they once did – what are the new status symbols?
We live in a hypervisual world. Everywhere we turn we are bombarded with images. These images may be AI-generated content, it might be ads,
Status used to be contingent on your ability to project a certain image of yourself, or how well you could adopt a certain style or aesthetic. This is still largely true, but today has perhaps taken a more nefarious twist. With the rise of dupe culture, the availability of weight loss drugs, the cost of living crisis, and the oversaturation of these symbols, status has shifted away from mere consumption and rather towards consumption and visual aesthetics tied to behaviour.
Status is not just about what you own, it’s about how you behave.
In Thorstein Veblen’s essay, Conspicuous Consumption, the author presents a shallow and materialistic leisure class obsessed by clothes, cars and consumption as a means for elevating one’s social status.
“The best measure of cultural capital is undoubtedly the amount of time devoted to acquiring it.” (i.e. “I have the means and the time to acquite these esoteric ideas.”)
The same is true in an aesthetic sense. In our world, we present an idealised image of ourselves in the digital sphere. In these digital spaces, attention and admiration is won and lost through visual means first, and ideas second. In this world, our world, the human body is the new battle ground for conveying one’s status – it is the one thing that can transcend the divide between the digital and the real.
The new signifier of class is drinking ceremonial grade matcha prepared the traditional way instead of mere coffee. It’s eating organic because you believe there’s less toxins in your food. It’s not enough to wear the latest Lululemon or Alo yoga sets and post it on social media. Now, you also have to go to a wellness retreat in Bali, do hot reformer pilates, and drink copious vitamin supplements.
“Luxury beliefs have, to a large extent, replaced luxury goods. Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.”
Rather than consumption conferring social capital, it’s our behaviours and the resulting aesthetic consequence of these behaviours that imply where we place on the social strata.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the context of Ozempic and the rise of ‘the pilates body’. When ozempic first took the world by storm, it was only available to people who had the means, or the necessity, for it. Suddenly, celebrities and public figures looked ‘snatched’ and seemingly miraculously lost pounds of weight overnight.
Most denied the use of ozempic or other similar products and credited exercise, diet and consistency as the cause of their weight loss.
Before ozempic, being skinny was seen as something aspirational. Being skinny implied you had access to good food, had good fitness and consistent exercise and generally had the moral restraint to keep yourself at a certain weight. Being skinny meant that you could buy from any brand and look good in clothing – which translated well on social media. Thereby giving you social capital by form of attention.
As ozempic began to become more easily accessible, the drug trickled down to mainstream consumers (at least in the context of the US and other markets). More and more people were becoming skinny. Being skinny no longer implied you exercised or ate well – it just meant you probably had access to ozempic (or if we want to get bleak, just couldn’t eat enough because of the cost of living).
So how did the affluent class react? Enter, the pilates body.
In 2024, Miley Cyrus performed at the Grammy’s in a gold dress made of safety pins.
You would expect for most of the coverage to be about her performance. But it wasn’t. Instead most of the coverage was about her body – or rather, how toned her arms and legs were. Soon after, people found out that Miley had been a longtime pilates fan, and so enter the ‘pilates body’.
Since 2022, there has been a 250% rise in popularity for pilates. In Australia alone, pilates and yoga studios contributed $630.3million to the economy across 3,722 studios and business that employed 11,411 people. On TikTok and other platforms, people vlog about their (hot, reformer, etc etc) pilates classes.
None of this is a surprise. The key marker of affluent classes is their desire to diverge from lower classes. As Bourdieu put it: “Distance from necessity [characterises] the affluent classes. In a highly visual world, the pendulum was bound to swing towards the intangible behaviours.
My problem with all of this is that many people have conflated these behaviours with morality. This is a dangerous and sure road towards the alt-right and fascism. This wasn’t caused by pilates – this started long before during the pandemic.
Most of us are familiar with the term ‘heatlh is wealth’ – but now health is also apparently linked to morality. There are a great many reasons why someone may look a certain way, and it is not always attributed to bad habits. There are countless unseen maladies that affect the way someone looks. But in a highly visual and capitalistic society, we have conflated a visual representation of health (someone skinny, toned, ‘fit) with actual health.
This is the consequence of what happens when we place visual aesthetics as the epoch of modern society. And it is precisely one of the reasons many Western societies are waltzing ever closer to fascism. It’s easy to ‘other’ people based on visuals and aesthetics – what they look like. And it’s easier still to make assumptions about someone’s morality based on how they present themselves to the world.
A pilates body is an aesthetic choice. Nothing more. When we start to conflate it with morality, this should give us pause.
Recapped: March 2025
A non-exhaustive summary of my media diet from this month. Things I’ve read, listened to and watched.
THINGS I’VE BEEN READING:
I’ve been watching a lot more video essays this month which has taken the place of written essays that I would normally read.
[NON-FICTION] The Good Ancestor by Roman Krznaric // I started this book in November 2024 and finished it earlier this month. This is one of those books that should be read slowly over time so the ideas really marinate and settle and convert into behavioural change ✱✱✱✱
[NON-FICTION] The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer // I really enjoyed this and it’s a good intro to gift economies. I did however find it extremely repetitive. It’s an extended version of this essay published in Emergence Magazine ✱✱✱
[FICTION] The Garden of Time by J.G Ballard // On a big short-story kick as I ease back into fiction. This is one of my new favourites that explores how the wealthy have the means to suspend reality and insulate themselves from the outside world – though ultimately it is a futile exercise in escapism ✱✱✱✱
[NON-FICTION] Anatomy of a Trend by Henrik Vejlgaard // I wanted to learn more about how trends emerge and trend cycles, this was a good intro albeit quite outdated ✱✱✱
[NON-FICTION] [CURRENTLY READING] The Aristocracy of Talent by Adrian Wooldridge
[NON-FICTION] [CURRENTLY READING] On Creativity by David Bohm
THINGS I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
H.O.O.D by KNEECAP ✱✱✱✱
Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac ✱✱✱✱
KALAMANTINA by Saint Levant, Marwan Moussa ✱✱✱
Mr. Brew by El Michels Affair ✱✱✱
Get Your Brits Out by KNEECAP // Really obsessed with the energy and vibe of KNEECAP, feels very punk and anti-establishment ✱✱✱✱
I’d Love to Change the World by Ten Years After ✱✱✱✱
Corrida by Charif Magarbane ✱✱✱✱
[ALBUM] Cartoon Darkness by Amyl and The Sniffers ✱✱✱✱ // Punk is so back 🤘🏽
Customer Service by Sugar Pit // Retail/hospitality employee anthem ✱✱✱✱
Human Fly by The Cramps // I love the Cramps but also everything about this song reminds me of a fly ✱✱✱✱
THINGS I’VE BEEN WATCHING:
I’m back on Youtube so my watch history is EXTREMELY overinflated this month.
[VIDEO ESSAY] How to Erase a People by uncivilized // Genuinely one of the best things I saw this month. An incredible deep dive into Indigeneity, forcible displacement and Indigenous connection to the land. It reinforced for me this idea that land is not just a resource to be exploited, but a gift and a relationship between man and nature, which when harmonious is mutually beneficial ✱✱✱✱✱
[TV SERIES] Severance Season 2 (2025) // I’ve been a Ben Stiller defender since The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (this film defs influenced Severance) and I’m so glad he is getting all the hype he deserves as a filmmaker/storyteller. I loved this season, and I loved all the little nods and references to Classical Greek/Roman Mythology (Orpheus x Eurydice, Persephone x Hades, the Underworld, Labyrinths) ✱✱✱✱
[SHORT] Life of a Doduo by Pokearth // Something very wholesome about someone’s passion project being the creation of David Attenborough-style mini-documentaries about Pokemon (sidenote: the fact that this is how Doduos are meant to fly absolutely sent me) ✱✱✱✱
[SHORT] Cat’s Cosmic Dance with the Bird from Flow (2024) // This is my not-so subtle way of telling you to watch this movie because it is a masterpiece and a beautiful reflection on struggle, death, adversity and life but with animals. A singularly unique visual language and proof that passion and meaningful stories will always have a place amongst AI/profit-driven slop ✱✱✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] How Empires Fall and Why The US is Next by uncivilized ✱✱✱✱
[DOCUMENTARY] No Other Land (2024), Directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor // This was a hard watch, but I urge you to watch it ✱✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] The Insane Graphic Design in Severance // How seemingly innocuous design choices can reinforce structures of power and control ✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] A Marxist Analysis of Shrek by trolleybolley // I need to write another Shrek essay and publish it this time lol ✱✱✱
[TV SERIES] Adolescence (2025) // Another hard and disturbing watch, but extremely timely and important. An insight into incel culture, toxic masculinity, and how sinister and pervasive the normalisation of gender-based violence is in young people ✱✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] The Secret to Good Airport Design: Aesthetics vs Efficiency by Architectural Digest // I love liminal spaces, and airports are my favourite liminal space. This deep dive into how they’re designed is FASCINATING ✱✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] Piracy is Morally Correct, Actually by noRugrats ✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] Fascists Have No Drip: The History of Fashion in Fascist Italy by Taipeiqueen // Validated my suspicions around the popularity of clean girl aesthetics, quiet luxury, and the beige-ification of fashion ✱✱✱✱
[CLIP] “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
[VIDEO] A Tour of Walton Goggins’ Home by Architectural Digest // I always knew this guy had taste, and this video proves it
[VIDEO ESSAY] How F1 Exploded by Wendover Productions ✱✱✱✱
[VIDEO ESSAY] The World is Poorly Designed. But Copying Nature Helps // A nice beginner intro to biomimicry and biophilic design principles ✱✱✱✱
MARCH 2025 IMAGES
Atomic Theory and Wasting Time
Written in February 2024 while reading Lucretius’ ‘The Nature of Things’.
Our lives are made up of a myriad of rituals.
A ritual can be as simple as our morning routine: turning off the alarm, making the bed, brushing our teeth, getting dressed, having breakfast, gulping down your first hit of caffeine for the day. Ever since I went travelling last year, one of my rituals has been to waste time.
In a world obsessed with extracting maximum productivity from every single activity and resource, wasting time might seem strange. But I view it as a simple and subversive act of rebellion.
It is also an opportunity to come to terms with the simple yet obvious fact that we are in fact human. And to be human is to reckon with the idea that we cannot be or do everything all the time without consequence.
When I first leaned into the idea of wasting time, I confess that I felt terrible about it. I felt as though I should be producing something, working on a side hustle, seeing friends, or learning something that would make me a better person. The idea of being still, to just be felt unnatural and wrong. Like it was somehow a waste.
We are conditioned into believing that time – by virtue of it being finite – is a precious resource that must be hoarded and protected. Value must be extracted from every second and the most heinous modern crime you can commit is to waste even a single moment.
When I went travelling on my first solo trip, I was met with endless expanses of time and no commitments. Save for my flights and train rides, my calendar was empty and I had nowhere to be and nothing to do. Time took on a different shape entirely, and rather than extract value from every moment, there was space to rest and wander.
In late 2023, while on these travels, I picked up a random book from the Uffizi Gallery. The old adage about not judging a book by its cover feels relevant to mention here, but I’m glad I did judge it by its cover otherwise I would never have picked it up. The book was a series of didactic poems exploring Epicurean philosophy, The Nature of Things by Lucretius.
In one of the essays, titled Matter and Void, Lucretius teaches us the atomic theory – a core tenet of Epicurianism. In the essay, Lucretius teaches us that everything in the universe comprises two fundamental elements: matter (atoms) and void (empty space).
Atoms are eternal and indivisible – moving and combining together to create all things. On the other hand, void provides the necessary space for atoms to move and interact.
The logical temptation might be to believe that void’s role in atomic theory is inferior to matter. After all, everything is made of matter – what does void produce or create in return other than, quite literally, nothing?
But it is the very presence of void that enables atoms to move freely and interact.
In Lucretius’ own words:
‘For if there were no emptiness, nothing could move; since it’s the property of matter to obstruct and to resist... Sans void, these would not only lack for agitated motion but existence altogether. They could no way come to pass with all things at a total standstill, chock-a-block with mass.’
In other words, without void, atoms would be too closely packed together, thereby rendering them useless. There would be no room for change, for movement, for unexpected collissions and evolution.
Matter and void are symbiotic. They need each other and both must be in constant equilibrium to maintain balance in the universe. We can view time through this lens as well. As a delicate balance between two opposing states. Neither taking precedence over the other.
Our time must be balanced between periods of momentum and idleness. Unchecked momentum leads to decay, exhaustion and burnout. While unchecked idleness keeps us stagnant and rooted in the same place.
Hustling and pursuing a goal gives our life meaning and direction. Taking an afternoon to sit in the park and watch the clouds is equally meaningful and directive. These moments of mere existence, where there are no expectations of production are necessary for living rich and meaningful lives.
The stillness gives us time to reflect and to contemplate. It gives us time to imagine, to dream and to wonder. Without the stillness, we cannot envision wonderful alternate futures for ourselves or take stock of the choices we have already made, and whether they give us fulfilment. It is these very things that make the experience of living so uniquely human. And yet it is precisely these things that we do not value, and in fact consider a waste.
What is wasteful about being grounded in nature? What is wasteful about rest? What is wasteful about contemplation and reflection?
We hide behind busy schedules, plans and full calendars to escape from being still. It is easy to flit between obligations and apppointments, but it is hard to be comfortable with an empty calendar and hours of nothingness. The latter requires that we sit with our own thoughts – which one could argue is the very thing most people try to avoid.
Time, like the universe, is an endless expanse before us. And in the same way that matter and void give the universe structure; ritual, routine and rest gives our lives structure.
In the same way that we make a ritual of our morning routines, so too should we make a ritual of wasting time. This means blocks of time for scheduled nothingness.
When I started the ritual of wasting time upon returning from my travels, it felt wrong at first. But in doing so I have seen significant changes in my life. I feel more creative, more disciplined, and more self aware. I feel more grounded in the present and more grateful. My thoughts are clearer, my mind is less chaotic, and the frantic propulsion to be constantly doing things has largely disappeared.
If I could distil what wasting time has taught me it is that idleness and contemplation – doing nothing – gives us the necessary pause to make and find meaning. To be grounded in the present and to decide where and how to direct our attention and energy.
In Seneca’s letter to Paulinus he says:
‘It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.
...So it is – the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it.’
...So it is – the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it.’
Some might take this to mean that we must maximise our time, but I interpret it differently.
Contrary to what many may say, we have enough time. The question is not in how we prolong it, but rather how we choose to spend it.
While we try and make the most of this one life that we do have, and the time that we are given, we cannot also forget to make time for rest and for stillness. It is in this stillness that we craft and derive meaning.
Magpi Manifesto
This is an outlet for me to explore ideas from culture, science, and philosophy. I’m in search of meaning, and a better vision for the future while learning and understanding from what came before.
When we look back through history, it is ideas that inspire thoughts. Thoughts inspire words. Words inspire action. And it is through action that people bring ideas into reality. This is how history is shaped and made.
Ideas are most potent when shared and can be an impetus for discourse. For years I have hoarded knowledge and locked it away without sharing it. This exists as a platform for me to share these ideas with others.
Why Magpi?
Mag = magpies. I feed a family of magpies at my home and love their funny personalities. Magpies are extremely intelligent and urban myths cite them as collectors of shiny things.
Pi = pigeons. I love pigeons. They are underappreciated, overlooked, and have survived adversity to become one of the most resilient and populous bird populations found worldwide.
Put together, Magpi reflects my love of shiny things, the overlooked, and freedom through the flight of ideas and curiosity.
Finally, the quote that inspired all of this by Roman Krznaric:
“It is the prevailing culture of ideas that shapes the direction of a society. That determines what is thinkable and unthinkable. What is possible and impossible.”
~ Theia