Sublime

The idea that the world we experience is a solipsistic delusion projected from the interior of our mind consoles rather than disturbs us, since it conforms with our infantile fantasies of omnipotence; but the thought that our so-called interiority owe its existence to a fictionalized consensus will always carry an uncanny charge.

The peril to democracy under present conditions of information isn’t any of these things: it’s the spread of nihilism in the public and the demoralization of an elite class that has lost any claim to authority.

Comme le souligne le philosophe italien Antonio Gramsci, les options politiques qui triomphent à un moment donné de l’histoire dépendent largement de l’atmosphère métapolitique ou culturelle des sociétés dans lesquelles elles sont mises en compétition. Or l’individualisme a jusqu’ici gagné toutes les batailles culturelles.