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Disbelief and Discredit #2
Uncontrollable Societies of Disaffected Individuals: Disbelief and Discredit, Volume 2
Max Weber argued that the development of capitalism would lead to the progressive rationalization and disenchantment of society: today this process is reaching its endpoint and capitalism is collapsing into a disturbing kind of irrationality. It engenders spiritual misery - a paralysis of the function of the human mind or spirit - where reason disappears as a motive of hope, a ‘kingdom of ends’ in Kant’s sense. Absolute disenchantment afflicts all those who no longer have anything to expect from the development of hyper-industrial society. Those who are desperate become ‘desperados’, and they are becoming more and more numerous.
No longer having anything to expect means, at the same time, no longer having anything to fear. And the proliferating repressive mechanisms that are supposed to cope with the effects of this loss of authority turn out to be less and less effective. For such measures engender more and more the opposite of that for which they were intended, but in extreme and totally irrational, unpredictable forms.
This is where we are today: the technical system of the hyper-industrial epoch can maintain its power only so long as it is backed up by blind trust, but this trust is undermined by the destructive irrationality stemming from the liquidation of the kingdom of ends. From the moment this trust is lost, hyper-power is inverted into hyper-vulnerability and impotence. The loss of motives of hope then expands, encompassing all of us like a contagious illness. But this ‘all’ is no longer a ‘we’: it is a panic.
No longer having anything to expect means, at the same time, no longer having anything to fear. And the proliferating repressive mechanisms that are supposed to cope with the effects of this loss of authority turn out to be less and less effective. For such measures engender more and more the opposite of that for which they were intended, but in extreme and totally irrational, unpredictable forms.
This is where we are today: the technical system of the hyper-industrial epoch can maintain its power only so long as it is backed up by blind trust, but this trust is undermined by the destructive irrationality stemming from the liquidation of the kingdom of ends. From the moment this trust is lost, hyper-power is inverted into hyper-vulnerability and impotence. The loss of motives of hope then expands, encompassing all of us like a contagious illness. But this ‘all’ is no longer a ‘we’: it is a panic.
- GenresPhilosophySociology
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
102 people want to read
About the author
Bernard Stiegler
87 books182 followersBernard Stiegler heads the Department of Cultural Development at the Pompidou Center in Paris and is co-founder of the political group Ars Industrialis. Stanford University Press has published the first two volumes of Technics and Time, The Fault of Epimetheus (1998) and Disorientation (2008), as well as his Acting Out (2008) and Taking Care of Youth and the Generations (2010).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 21, 2022
This is a really thin book for such a deep topic. Nonetheless as a second book, it makes sense, although I am not sure that it makes as much sense when read as a standalone book. There is an attempt here to provide some frame work for how to think about our relationship with social rules/authority/laws but that seems forced as using Greek myths in this way is more of a rhetorically accepted style for a certain type of philosophy than it is for us "common folk" although we are the ones who are most affected by the topic brought up in this book.
I think this should be more widely read, although it is not framed appropriately for most people to understand. The first book is perhaps a better one to read, but that book is less focused and would probably be off putting for most people as most of us aren't used to considering such far reaching topics.
The topic is very important but the framing is off, as it is an academic speaking to other academics (or at least those familiar with the genre). I'd rather it was re-written for the general population, nonetheless if you are reading this because you are interested in this topic of how credit/authority and its mechanisms has led to the disenchantment and disfranchisement of individuals in modern civilization than this is a must read!
I think this should be more widely read, although it is not framed appropriately for most people to understand. The first book is perhaps a better one to read, but that book is less focused and would probably be off putting for most people as most of us aren't used to considering such far reaching topics.
The topic is very important but the framing is off, as it is an academic speaking to other academics (or at least those familiar with the genre). I'd rather it was re-written for the general population, nonetheless if you are reading this because you are interested in this topic of how credit/authority and its mechanisms has led to the disenchantment and disfranchisement of individuals in modern civilization than this is a must read!
January 27, 2019
Potent connection of the lack of credit/trust to demotivation as a whole.
I read this as part of my project to read one book from every aisle of Olin Library at Cornell; you can read my reactions to other books from the project here: https://jacobklehman.com/
A fuller review/reaction will follow on my website.
I read this as part of my project to read one book from every aisle of Olin Library at Cornell; you can read my reactions to other books from the project here: https://jacobklehman.com/
A fuller review/reaction will follow on my website.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews