in times of social upheaval, people often find themselves desiring something that is actually an obstacle to their flourishing. She calls it a form of “cruel optimism.” In her 2011 book of the same name, she explains how politics can often take the form of cruel optimism. In times of great change, political desires happen at the affective, pre-refl... See more

He explored these ideas in a fictionalized letter to philosopher Francis Bacon called The Chandos Letter (1902).

In it, Lord Chandos writes to Bacon about a world he no longer recognizes.

For me, everything disintegrated into parts, those parts again into parts; no longer would anything let itself be encompassed by one idea.

Single words floated ro

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The psychological profile Bahr laid out captured the mood: the ego was temporary, we are now unable to feel continuously, and our internal lives are utterly disjointed.

Man no longer moves towards objects through an act of will, he no longer chooses or examines objects: the world has dissolved, the objects move incoherently past the incoherent man.

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