Post-individualism
Severin Matusek and
Post-individualism
Episode #188 Achievement Society and the rise of narcissism depression and anxiety - Byung-Chul Han
youtube.comThis was illuminating. My notes:
Negative power is the way people have been control for most of human history.
Negative power means being controlled by prohibition or limitation, telling people you can’t do this or that. Today, people are controlled through positive power. Positive power tells you you can be whatever you want, you’re in charge, so you have no limitations. As long as you can put your head down, focus, grind, achieve your short term goals, set new ones and achieve those.
Authenticity is an ad campaign of neo-liberalism. It's a self absorbed nightmare. People now have to define themselves through themselves without any sort of help from the outside. Everyone is their own little personal project. Everything we learn is not just learning anymore. It's an investment in ourselves. Everything is about mentally optimizing yourself working, producing more efficiently with your mind.
Of course families have fallen apart in every generation. But even a few decades ago children from broken homes had communities, they had neighbourhoods. Now our families fall apart and there is nothing, nobody, to catch us. We live far from extended family. We are more estranged than ever. And I can’t get across how little familiarity Gen Z has
... See moreFreya India • The Age of Abandonment
That ‘individual responsibility’ idea is present in so many messages from awareness campaigns: the idea that it is our duty to reach out to loved ones and services for help; the suggestion that mental health support should come in the form of a ‘service’ at all; the emphasis on individual tools like therapy, meds, self-help, mindfulness and apps to
... See moreDazed • This New Book Asks Whether Capitalism Really Is Driving Us All Crazy
oftentimes when folks think about existing in groups, their self sort of gets lost. But, actually, caring for yourself—and, maybe, reinventing the individual narrative that has been so Americanized into something that’s going to contribute to the group’s care—is what I’m getting at.
Alexis Aceves Garcia • What if care is the work?
no good alone - by rayne fisher-quann - internet princess no good alone
rayne fisher-quanninternetprincess.substack.com
fuck this hits so hard. "The process of becoming yourself is not a corporate desk job, and it is not homework. You do not have to treat your flaws like action items that must be systematically targeted in order to receive a return on investment."