Do you ever feel like the world we live in isn’t particularly real? I think it’s untethered from any kind of value that feels instinctive to us, and therefore it’s very hard to take things seriously. To be specific, it’s hard for people who are very privileged to take things seriously
I feel this a lot. Sometimes it's like a high, closing my eyes and knowing that once I die everything I care about, think about, worry about so much will just end; and sometimes it's anxiety-producing, the disconnect from reality, the obviousness of its artifice, frightening and overwhelming. It definitely feels like ideology is dead, like there's little left to believe in in the way of grand societal or governmental projects that will save us. But the meaninglessness and absurdity of reality definitely aren't new. I also think the technologies of finding meaning—or at least joy?—aren't new. For me it's mostly in building intimate community; living at a smaller, more manageable scale. I want the systems failure, the implosion, if only just to prove that anything that's too big is bound to fail. So that we're left to figure things out with each other rather than waiting for leaders to dominate. I don't really think I care if that's utopian, either. At least it's something to work toward that isn't in an ad. But I'm also more of a bottom than Jenny Holzer, so idk.
I feel like this is all I think about lately. Have you watched the doc "HyperNormalisation" by Adam Curtis? We're just trying to make sense in a senseless world, and the powers that be use that to their advantage.
That, and check out the Instagram account @kardashian_kolloquium for a VERY interesting lens on postmodernism and the simulacra.
If I apply the metaphor of children leaving their parents house, feeling a sense of freedom, and then feeling a desire for order again one step further... it seems like most people get to a phase in their life as young adults (20s) where they start to worry about the meaninglessness of an existence without rules. They know they can't move back to their parents so instead they become parents and find meaning in creating rules for a child.
Maybe in the post-post-post-modernist phase, society will have found something to create and govern, which itself creates meaning for us.
I don't think humans are psychologically capable of dealing with all the world's imperfections at once. We all have to live only where we are and do only what we can.
I've never read Debord but it's still possible to just Be.
The world isn’t actually fake though. The real world continues to exist and it is as real as it always has been.
The problem is in our heads and our relationships with each other. Not that this solves the problem but I find it reassuring. It’s not metaphysical, it’s the kind of problem that can be solved.
"We were supposed to be liberated and instead most of us are more trapped than ever." Trapped how? I hear this a lot from people who have money and options, who could get jobs in thousands of places, who could travel or write or go hard on MMA or dance or whatever. What optionality do you (and they) lack?
I have been thinking a lot about this lately. Will we just continue on and on? It feels like inertia really is one of the main driving forces in our post-modern society, but I also feel this system we created is absolutely unsustainable, and that's one of the reasons we're seeing so much social unrest. It's like we're detached from all meaning, and life is just surviving, performing and optimizing. Was there ever a meaning though?
I feel this a lot. Sometimes it's like a high, closing my eyes and knowing that once I die everything I care about, think about, worry about so much will just end; and sometimes it's anxiety-producing, the disconnect from reality, the obviousness of its artifice, frightening and overwhelming. It definitely feels like ideology is dead, like there's little left to believe in in the way of grand societal or governmental projects that will save us. But the meaninglessness and absurdity of reality definitely aren't new. I also think the technologies of finding meaning—or at least joy?—aren't new. For me it's mostly in building intimate community; living at a smaller, more manageable scale. I want the systems failure, the implosion, if only just to prove that anything that's too big is bound to fail. So that we're left to figure things out with each other rather than waiting for leaders to dominate. I don't really think I care if that's utopian, either. At least it's something to work toward that isn't in an ad. But I'm also more of a bottom than Jenny Holzer, so idk.
I feel like this is all I think about lately. Have you watched the doc "HyperNormalisation" by Adam Curtis? We're just trying to make sense in a senseless world, and the powers that be use that to their advantage.
That, and check out the Instagram account @kardashian_kolloquium for a VERY interesting lens on postmodernism and the simulacra.
I didn't know what you meant by postmodernism, so I found this david foster wallace quote that helped.
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16xc3o/eli5_what_in_the_hell_is_postmodernism/c80dfhn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
If I apply the metaphor of children leaving their parents house, feeling a sense of freedom, and then feeling a desire for order again one step further... it seems like most people get to a phase in their life as young adults (20s) where they start to worry about the meaninglessness of an existence without rules. They know they can't move back to their parents so instead they become parents and find meaning in creating rules for a child.
Maybe in the post-post-post-modernist phase, society will have found something to create and govern, which itself creates meaning for us.
I don't think humans are psychologically capable of dealing with all the world's imperfections at once. We all have to live only where we are and do only what we can.
I've never read Debord but it's still possible to just Be.
The world isn’t actually fake though. The real world continues to exist and it is as real as it always has been.
The problem is in our heads and our relationships with each other. Not that this solves the problem but I find it reassuring. It’s not metaphysical, it’s the kind of problem that can be solved.
"We were supposed to be liberated and instead most of us are more trapped than ever." Trapped how? I hear this a lot from people who have money and options, who could get jobs in thousands of places, who could travel or write or go hard on MMA or dance or whatever. What optionality do you (and they) lack?
I have been thinking a lot about this lately. Will we just continue on and on? It feels like inertia really is one of the main driving forces in our post-modern society, but I also feel this system we created is absolutely unsustainable, and that's one of the reasons we're seeing so much social unrest. It's like we're detached from all meaning, and life is just surviving, performing and optimizing. Was there ever a meaning though?