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La cultura dell'egoismo: L'anima umana sotto il capitalismo
En 1986, la chaîne de télévision anglaise Channel 4 programmait un dialogue entre Cornelius Castoriadis et Christopher Lasch. Jamais rediffusé ni transcrit, inconnu des spécialistes des deux penseurs, cet entretien inédit est une contribution magistrale et extrêmement accessible au débat contemporain sur la crise des sociétés occidentales. Il analyse la naissance d'un nouvel égoïsme, au sortir de la Seconde guerre mondiale et à l'entrée dans la société de consommation. Les individus se retranchent de la sphère publique et se réfugient dans un monde exclusivement privé, perdant ainsi le "sens de soi-même (sense of self)" qui rend possible toute éthique. Le sens de soi-même n'existe en effet que lorsque les individus sont dégagés des contraintes matérielles et n'ont plus à lutter pour leur survie. Sans projet, otages d'un monde hallucinatoire sans réalité ni objets (même la science ne construit plus de réalité puisqu'elle fait tout apparaître comme possible), mais dopé par le marketing et les simulacres, les individus n'ont plus de modèles auxquels s'identifier. Le double échec du communisme et de la social-démocratie les laissent orphelins de tout idéal politique. Leur moi devient un moi vide (an empty self) que se disputent des lobbies devenus quant à eux les derniers acteurs de la scène politique. L'analyse est noire et féroce, mais elle pourrait avoir été faite hier, tant elle est d'actualité. Un texte très marquant, qui devrait trouver un fort écho.
72 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2012
92 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Lasch
30 books352 followersChristopher "Kit" Lasch (June 1, 1932 – February 14, 1994) was an American historian, moralist, and social critic who was a history professor at the University of Rochester.
Lasch sought to use history as a tool to awaken American society to the pervasiveness with which major institutions, public and private, were eroding the competence and independence of families and communities. He strove to create a historically informed social criticism that could teach Americans how to deal with rampant consumerism, proletarianization, and what he famously labeled the 'culture of narcissism.'
His books, including The New Radicalism in America (1965), Haven in a Heartless World (1977), The Culture of Narcissism (1979), and The True and Only Heaven (1991), and The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy published posthumously in 1996 were widely discussed and reviewed. The Culture of Narcissism became a surprise best-seller and won the National Book Award in the category Current Interest (paperback).
Lasch was always a critic of liberalism, and a historian of liberalism's discontents, but over time his political perspective evolved dramatically. In the 1960s, he was a neo-Marxist and acerbic critic of Cold War liberalism. During the 1970s, he began to become a far more iconoclastic figure, fusing cultural conservatism with a Marxian critique of capitalism, and drawing on Freud-influenced critical theory to diagnose the ongoing deterioration that he perceived in American culture and politics. His writings during this period are considered contradictory. They are sometimes denounced by feminists and hailed by conservatives for his apparent defense of the traditional family. But as he explained in one of his books The Minimal Self, "it goes without saying that sexual equality in itself remains an eminently desirable objective...". Moreover, in Women and the Common Life, Lasch clarified that urging women to abandon the household and forcing them into a position of economic dependence, in the workplace, pointing out the importance of professional careers does not entail liberation, as long as these careers are governed by the requirements of corporate economy.
He eventually concluded that an often unspoken but pervasive faith in "Progress" tended to make Americans resistant to many of his arguments. In his last major works he explored this theme in depth, suggesting that Americans had much to learn from the suppressed and misunderstood Populist and artisan movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Lasch sought to use history as a tool to awaken American society to the pervasiveness with which major institutions, public and private, were eroding the competence and independence of families and communities. He strove to create a historically informed social criticism that could teach Americans how to deal with rampant consumerism, proletarianization, and what he famously labeled the 'culture of narcissism.'
His books, including The New Radicalism in America (1965), Haven in a Heartless World (1977), The Culture of Narcissism (1979), and The True and Only Heaven (1991), and The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy published posthumously in 1996 were widely discussed and reviewed. The Culture of Narcissism became a surprise best-seller and won the National Book Award in the category Current Interest (paperback).
Lasch was always a critic of liberalism, and a historian of liberalism's discontents, but over time his political perspective evolved dramatically. In the 1960s, he was a neo-Marxist and acerbic critic of Cold War liberalism. During the 1970s, he began to become a far more iconoclastic figure, fusing cultural conservatism with a Marxian critique of capitalism, and drawing on Freud-influenced critical theory to diagnose the ongoing deterioration that he perceived in American culture and politics. His writings during this period are considered contradictory. They are sometimes denounced by feminists and hailed by conservatives for his apparent defense of the traditional family. But as he explained in one of his books The Minimal Self, "it goes without saying that sexual equality in itself remains an eminently desirable objective...". Moreover, in Women and the Common Life, Lasch clarified that urging women to abandon the household and forcing them into a position of economic dependence, in the workplace, pointing out the importance of professional careers does not entail liberation, as long as these careers are governed by the requirements of corporate economy.
He eventually concluded that an often unspoken but pervasive faith in "Progress" tended to make Americans resistant to many of his arguments. In his last major works he explored this theme in depth, suggesting that Americans had much to learn from the suppressed and misunderstood Populist and artisan movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 19, 2017
"Ce qui me frappe, c'est que nous vivons dans un monde sans réalité solide..."
July 26, 2020
A badly translated text. Maybe the book would have been more interesting with another translator, one that happens to understand English.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews