Saturday, March 27, 2010

2 comments:

Dag said...

The problem most of us have is that the omen we meet have too much in common with us.

truepeers said...

That's a problem people have in general: our mimetic nature and consequent rivalry acts to erode our sense of differences. In a world without well-defended (or ritualized) social distinctions we are always feeling something of the war of all against all. Consumer society and the distinctions provided by professional lives provide ways to mediate this, allowing us ways to forge a differentiated identity through the signs attached to the products we consume and the activities we pursue. As often noted, modern liberal society is most destructive for those without the money or jobs that allow them access to these modern ways of differentiating themselves from each other.

Politics and intellectual life promises some other ways to differentiate ourselves and/or our consciousness. Politics today seems to pose the choice of either the pursuit of neo-feudalism - for the faithless - or the renewal of the covenant of freedom - for the faithful.

But none of this is well understood. So I don't think it is surprising that nihilism is particularly common among the young - they no longer have well-differentiated social identities ascribed to them, and no formal initiations into a ritualized social order. They have little to believe in, and fewer opportunities to "make a difference" through consumerism, professionalism, or politics (especially truly creative, covenantal, politics which their teachers generally know nothing about). Hence the appeal of things they can do to mark themselves in unique ways, like tatooing and piercing.

But it is just in the face of such crises of undifferentiation that the necessity emerges for creative discoveries of new ways to make a difference. It requires individual initiative and the faith that you can make a sign that others will recognize as good and something they in turn can manipulate, change, use in differentiating themselves...

Don't ask what's wrong - one can spin endless circles around the loss of difference and never really "grasp" it; however, the patient one may always ask what can I/we do now to make a difference...

NOt that I was thinking of anyone in particular when I posted this. I was over at Spengler's where he writes:
For the first time in history the barbarians have breached the citadel; to have Barack Obama in the White House is the cultural equivalent of electing Madonna to the papacy. America, the source of a civil religion that held together the world’s only remaining superpower, is committed to its own self-demolition. Nihilists around the world are in a triumphant mood and believe that it is time to mop up the remnants of their enemies everywhere.

And someone posted that cartoon in the comments and I just laughed and copied... it's all mimetic, and we all need to attach distinctive signs to ourselves, even if only to our web names...