Refusal stories build a shared vocabulary for future refusals

Evidence

In the eighteenth century, Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert wrote that “[e]very age…needs a Diogenes.” I would agree. We need a Diogenes not just for entertainment, nor just to show that there are alternatives, but because stories like his contribute to our vocabulary of refusal even centuries later. When we hear about Diogenes blowing off Alexander the Great, it’s hard not to laugh and think, “Fuck yeah!” Although most people aren’t likely to do something so extreme, the story provides a locus for our wish to do so. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 252