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.
There is a Zulu phrase, ‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’, which means ‘A person is a person through other persons.’
“I’m not interested in myself per se. I’m interested in myself as theme carrier, as host.”
― David Shields, Reality Hunger
The antithesis is that collectivist coordination is its own reward; that we “formation fly” because we simply like mutuality and interdependence more than isolation and independence, and any collectivizable rewards for doing so are simply gravy.
Venkatesh Rao • Narrative Slipstream Effects
As Dr. Nichola Raihani, British psychologist and Professor of Evolution and Behavior at University College London puts it, “The history of life on earth is a history of teamwork, of collective action, and of cooperation.” While traditional discussions of how humanity became the dominant form of life on Earth have focused on competition, the truth... See more