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The methodology is interesting, though I'd simply call it "thematic analysis". Psycholinguistics is much more complex than trigram frequency though, as simple s
by nonrandomstring 4y ago
The methodology is interesting, though I'd simply call it "thematic
analysis". Psycholinguistics is much more complex than trigram
frequency though, as simple spam filtering proves. I suppose the
schtick here is "Big Data", with a corpus that earlier researchers
could never approach "by hand".
I didn't find much new here at the conceptual level. This is what
"Zeitgeist" means, and many epochs have been characterised as joyous
or depressive.
However the framing of the study is important for me, because I
broadly agree with the hypothesis that we are in a depressive epoch.
In fact we are in an interregnum, which themselves go through phases
in the gap between "a world that is dead and one still waiting to be
born".
Why might the psyche of the Anglosphere be battered more than other
groups or nations? Sure, we've had industrial revolution, slavery, two
world wars, decades of proxy wars, environmental and financial
disasters... but is our lot any worse than the long suffering people of
Russia, China or Africa who carry traumatic histories?
I would argue that what ails "the West" is a loss of sense of positive
future. That is actually a symptom of clinical depression too. The
Fukuyaman conceit of the "end of history" is actually a dark and
troubling stuckness. For me the prevalence of words like "inevitable",
"ubiquitous" and "inescapable", especially around technology, are
markers of a profound loss of creative vision and optimism.
- themisto 4y agoLove learning about words and ideas like "interregnum". It's uncomfortable to think of a global societal interregnum -- at what point we may be in it, where it will end up, and if things will be "better" on the other side.
- nonrandomstring 4y agoIt's a good concept isn't it. I prefer it to talking about a "crisis" of this or that - because the idea that a society or humankind might "Just not know what's going on any more" is less loaded than a "crisis" which implies some correct way of being that we deviated from. But beware. There's a half-dozen varying accounts of what it really means and when our journey into the wilderness started. By Nietzsche's account it was the 1900s.
- uplifter 4y ago> By Nietzsche's account it was the 1900s. I’m confused by this because Nietzsche died in 1900. Was it a prophecy? Or did you mean the 1800s?
- nonrandomstring 4y ago> Or did you mean the 1800s? Yes, silly me. He was talking about the times he saw around him (late 1800s) rather than prophesising. In Beyond Good and Evil he poses the open question "what sacred games shall we have to invent?". It was Freud and Jung who were possessed with visions of awful wars to fill the vacuum.
- Mezzie 4y ago> I would argue that what ails "the West" is a loss of sense of positive future. That is actually a symptom of clinical depression too. The Fukuyaman conceit of the "end of history" is actually a dark and troubling stuckness. For me the prevalence of words like "inevitable", "ubiquitous" and "inescapable", especially around technology, are markers of a profound loss of creative vision and optimism. Agree. In addition to creative vision and optimism, I would add a sense of agency has almost completely vanished from the Anglosphere starting with Gen X. The average person (and now a disturbing portion of those with power) believes that there is no way they can influence the trajectory of their life. This is not good. That's where desperate, angry people come from.
- nonrandomstring 4y ago> no way they can influence the trajectory of their life. This is not > good. That's where desperate, angry people come from. Indeed. It's also the antithesis of what I understand to be the "American Dream", perhaps synonymous with "freedom" in our time. The kind of thing people will fight wars to hold on to. Really not good. So in my opinion worth courageously fighting for *now" rather than waiting for things to get that bad again.