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The zeitgeist is one of clinical depression; Negative outcomes are taken for granted, every action to improve the situation is futile, and fatigue and paralysis

by tveita 4y ago

The zeitgeist is one of clinical depression; Negative outcomes are taken for granted, every action to improve the situation is futile, and fatigue and paralysis sets in. We might expect the fashion to turn from activism to nihilism and then hedonism. But as the pendulum swings again we could again see increased sense of responsibility, maybe with a twist like the return of small communities instead of global connections, carving out a future for yourself and your loved ones. Who knows, the motions of the pendulum are chaotic and always reactionary.

kardianos 4y ago
I don't strictly disagree with you, but I dislike the pendulum model for the same reason I dislike modeling history/future as linear. Society can regress, it can progress, it can do both in different areas. It can be reactionary, but it can also way too far for a hundred or more years. Maoist China was not by itself reactionary or linear, but a totaling force. The Dang era that followed changed some essential aspects, but even that has been reversing under Xe. Each component in life must be modeled by itself. Societies can and have destroyed themselves. There are real better and worse ways of living.
nonrandomstring 4y ago
You may well be right, but as an optimist I look hard for other explanations regarding our collective psychology. Depression is not the same as frustration. And self limitation is not the same as confinement. The latter allow more for overcoming, whereas depresssion can be an inescapable existential state for Kirkegaardian reasons. As discussed in another thread today, on the rise of mental illness connected to technology [1], there is a sense of societal trauma. So many wars, recessions, pandemics and tragedies flow like water under the bridge, never giving us time to grieve, reflect or learn. We are, as Nietzsche said, forever tumbling, "plunging continually" into a future, with nothing to grab hold of [2]. Some years ago I gave a talk at Goldsmiths University in London at a conference "Against the Slow Cancellation of the Future" [3] on the role of technology in paradoxically limiting available futures. David Graeber and Peter Thiel [4] had more or less the same debate we had at Goldsmiths. Inevitably the much maligned Fukuyama, simplified into a sound-bite about the "End of History" [5] is brought out for a whipping. Part of the issue is the transformed role of capital as a closure around possibility, rather than an enabler of radical possibility. But that's not limited to Capital(ism) as such. Indeed, one possibly apocryphal story was the Chinese CCP banning stories about time travel and alternative futures. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31268222 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31268222 [2] Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Parable of the Madman" (1882) http://historyguide.org/europe/madman.html http://historyguide.org/europe/madman.html [3] https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/178054/against-slow-cancellation-future-cfp-centre-cultural-studies https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/178054/a... [4] https://thebaffler.com/latest/graeber-thiel https://thebaffler.com/latest/graeber-thiel [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Las...

by tveita 4y ago

kardianos 4y ago

I don't strictly disagree with you, but I dislike the pendulum model for the same reason I dislike modeling history/future as linear. Society can regress, it can progress, it can do both in different areas. It can be reactionary, but it can also way too far for a hundred or more years. Maoist China was not by itself reactionary or linear, but a totaling force. The Dang era that followed changed some essential aspects, but even that has been reversing under Xe. Each component in life must be modeled by itself. Societies can and have destroyed themselves. There are real better and worse ways of living.

nonrandomstring 4y ago

You may well be right, but as an optimist I look hard for other explanations regarding our collective psychology. Depression is not the same as frustration. And self limitation is not the same as confinement. The latter allow more for overcoming, whereas depresssion can be an inescapable existential state for Kirkegaardian reasons. As discussed in another thread today, on the rise of mental illness connected to technology [1], there is a sense of societal trauma. So many wars, recessions, pandemics and tragedies flow like water under the bridge, never giving us time to grieve, reflect or learn. We are, as Nietzsche said, forever tumbling, "plunging continually" into a future, with nothing to grab hold of [2]. Some years ago I gave a talk at Goldsmiths University in London at a conference "Against the Slow Cancellation of the Future" [3] on the role of technology in paradoxically limiting available futures. David Graeber and Peter Thiel [4] had more or less the same debate we had at Goldsmiths. Inevitably the much maligned Fukuyama, simplified into a sound-bite about the "End of History" [5] is brought out for a whipping. Part of the issue is the transformed role of capital as a closure around possibility, rather than an enabler of radical possibility. But that's not limited to Capital(ism) as such. Indeed, one possibly apocryphal story was the Chinese CCP banning stories about time travel and alternative futures. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31268222 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31268222 [2] Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Parable of the Madman" (1882) http://historyguide.org/europe/madman.html http://historyguide.org/europe/madman.html [3] https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/178054/against-slow-cancellation-future-cfp-centre-cultural-studies https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/178054/a... [4] https://thebaffler.com/latest/graeber-thiel https://thebaffler.com/latest/graeber-thiel [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Las...