Well stated! I got through a bit of The Decadent Society upon your recommendation and noted that the author seems rather unaware of the economic stagnation that has taken place over the past few decades, instead referring to the misleading growth in GDP. However, one would be better informed in checking the decline in per capita energy use: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-energy-use?tab=chart&country=~USA
Not to mention inequality, and outrageous inflation masked by "hedonic adjustments". Humans are an unusually neotenous species, which evolutionary biologists speculate maintains the curiosity required for innovation well into adulthood. However, curiosity is fundamentally a parasympathetic response, which is hard to come by during a period of relative economic decline and general socioeconomic precarity. Of course, stress also leads to a desire for the Same, since the Other is just too stressful, so both consumers and producers end up locked in the same loops.
As for Decadent Society, as I remember he was going on about how the economy is only seemingly doing good but in fact is also decadent? But honestly, I'm no homo economicus, so for me the interesting bits were the parts about the culture - cheers for taking up my rec tho!
> These complexities mean that you should be wary of anyone who comes to you bearing a catastrophic story about the American economy; a tale of immiseration and collapse. In fact, the United States is still an extraordinarily wealthy country, its middle class still prosperous beyond the dreams of centuries past, its welfare state still effective at easing the pain of recessions and buoying the poor.
Much of this is misleading or false. We are running out of fossil fuels, and the rising inflation and inequality are a direct result of this. The pain of recessions is responded to by redistributing liquidity proportionally to the upper class, which has the effect of mitigating hyperinflation through covert immiseration. Culture cannot be disconnected from economic conditions!
I mean I agree with what he's saying. there is still so much money in the US, it's ridiculous. I also agree with what you're saying! the feeling of collapse - feeding on very real experiences and processes - is breeding the culture that's on now. so you know.
Yes, this is true, which is why I said it was misleading rather than outright false. Decline relative to hedonic expectations is far more important. The anxieties of modernity (described by Christopher Lasch in The Culture of Narcissism) were barely masked by the fantasm of endless economic growth, but in a very real sense, the economy has been in managed decline since 1973.
I think I look at most non-fiction as mines, where you can find interesting bits but at the end of the day you’ll have to decide what you take from it and integrate into your own thinking, so I think it’s great you’re critiquing what you’re reading. For me, I’ll just read whatever and then see what sticks with me (a very sophisticated method I know) ^^ But yah, economy is fucked. For sure.
Of course, we must all choose our own idiosyncratic epistemic specialisations; this is a necessary compromise of cognitive bandwidth. This is to say I am certainly not attempting to invalidate a culture-specific analysis; I inevitably miss important, granular detail in my own higher-level analysis. Epistemic pluralism is in truth how we all parse reality. But postmodern relativism itself can be conceived of as a narrative palliation used to mask the unbearable truth of the Real. Or as Zizek writes in The Sublime Object of Ideology, "if over-rapid universalization produces a quasi-universal Image whose function is to make us blind to its historical, socio-symbolic determination, over-rapid historicization makes us blind to the real kernel which returns as the same through diverse historicizations/symbolizations."
But do let me know if I am being overbearing; I am perhaps a little overly enthusiastic about memetic cross-pollination. ;P
Saw you posting this on Reddit and I have to say that it was a brilliant read. Thank you for so eloquently capturing some of the same observations and reflections I've been having internally for some time now!
Thank you so much! Comments like this truly mean the world. I’m very happy you enjoyed it and you know, take a look around and hope that the next ones will also hit the spot ^^
I love trap&classical music mixed into one song. The contrast between the two only highlights the emotions and colors of the other; maybe that is what our era is about? Taking something old and looking at it again - you can do it in a way that's just boring, repetitive (all these big movies you mentioned), or you can do it through a lens of someone who knows the bigger picture, what came after, the new technology, etc.
This also reminds me of how comforting it is to me to listen to an old song, watch an old movie, read a book - and discover that my feelings, my fears, my personal troubles are nothing very unique, because humans were dealing with those things in the past already and somehow they made it through. I'm very happy that we've got a century or two of art that was not only made for the upper class, but also described the everyday. And isn't that kinda new, that the younger generations are finally not just pushing forward, marking everything from their parents and grandparents times as something uncool, but they are often open to look at the past and try to connect with it? Pretty much as if the past generations were mostly focused on being different from their ancestors, which can bring change, but can it heal what's systematic? The fact that therapy is so popular now and people are no longer ashamed to participate in it can also be considered as something unique for our times I suppose.
I also love trap classics ^^ i think the question is whether the new interpretation truly gives something to it, or it's just there to pretend to be new so that it can be sold again
Well stated! I got through a bit of The Decadent Society upon your recommendation and noted that the author seems rather unaware of the economic stagnation that has taken place over the past few decades, instead referring to the misleading growth in GDP. However, one would be better informed in checking the decline in per capita energy use: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-energy-use?tab=chart&country=~USA
Not to mention inequality, and outrageous inflation masked by "hedonic adjustments". Humans are an unusually neotenous species, which evolutionary biologists speculate maintains the curiosity required for innovation well into adulthood. However, curiosity is fundamentally a parasympathetic response, which is hard to come by during a period of relative economic decline and general socioeconomic precarity. Of course, stress also leads to a desire for the Same, since the Other is just too stressful, so both consumers and producers end up locked in the same loops.
Thank you, much appreciated ^^
As for Decadent Society, as I remember he was going on about how the economy is only seemingly doing good but in fact is also decadent? But honestly, I'm no homo economicus, so for me the interesting bits were the parts about the culture - cheers for taking up my rec tho!
He writes:
> These complexities mean that you should be wary of anyone who comes to you bearing a catastrophic story about the American economy; a tale of immiseration and collapse. In fact, the United States is still an extraordinarily wealthy country, its middle class still prosperous beyond the dreams of centuries past, its welfare state still effective at easing the pain of recessions and buoying the poor.
Much of this is misleading or false. We are running out of fossil fuels, and the rising inflation and inequality are a direct result of this. The pain of recessions is responded to by redistributing liquidity proportionally to the upper class, which has the effect of mitigating hyperinflation through covert immiseration. Culture cannot be disconnected from economic conditions!
I mean I agree with what he's saying. there is still so much money in the US, it's ridiculous. I also agree with what you're saying! the feeling of collapse - feeding on very real experiences and processes - is breeding the culture that's on now. so you know.
Yes, this is true, which is why I said it was misleading rather than outright false. Decline relative to hedonic expectations is far more important. The anxieties of modernity (described by Christopher Lasch in The Culture of Narcissism) were barely masked by the fantasm of endless economic growth, but in a very real sense, the economy has been in managed decline since 1973.
I think I look at most non-fiction as mines, where you can find interesting bits but at the end of the day you’ll have to decide what you take from it and integrate into your own thinking, so I think it’s great you’re critiquing what you’re reading. For me, I’ll just read whatever and then see what sticks with me (a very sophisticated method I know) ^^ But yah, economy is fucked. For sure.
Of course, we must all choose our own idiosyncratic epistemic specialisations; this is a necessary compromise of cognitive bandwidth. This is to say I am certainly not attempting to invalidate a culture-specific analysis; I inevitably miss important, granular detail in my own higher-level analysis. Epistemic pluralism is in truth how we all parse reality. But postmodern relativism itself can be conceived of as a narrative palliation used to mask the unbearable truth of the Real. Or as Zizek writes in The Sublime Object of Ideology, "if over-rapid universalization produces a quasi-universal Image whose function is to make us blind to its historical, socio-symbolic determination, over-rapid historicization makes us blind to the real kernel which returns as the same through diverse historicizations/symbolizations."
But do let me know if I am being overbearing; I am perhaps a little overly enthusiastic about memetic cross-pollination. ;P
Saw you posting this on Reddit and I have to say that it was a brilliant read. Thank you for so eloquently capturing some of the same observations and reflections I've been having internally for some time now!
Thank you so much! Comments like this truly mean the world. I’m very happy you enjoyed it and you know, take a look around and hope that the next ones will also hit the spot ^^
This post deserves way more love
thank you so much! this literally made my day
Great visual inspo from Sanderpants Productions.
SP needs to go in permanent acknowledgment section, at least. As well as share the spoils (which is currently 0).
I love trap&classical music mixed into one song. The contrast between the two only highlights the emotions and colors of the other; maybe that is what our era is about? Taking something old and looking at it again - you can do it in a way that's just boring, repetitive (all these big movies you mentioned), or you can do it through a lens of someone who knows the bigger picture, what came after, the new technology, etc.
This also reminds me of how comforting it is to me to listen to an old song, watch an old movie, read a book - and discover that my feelings, my fears, my personal troubles are nothing very unique, because humans were dealing with those things in the past already and somehow they made it through. I'm very happy that we've got a century or two of art that was not only made for the upper class, but also described the everyday. And isn't that kinda new, that the younger generations are finally not just pushing forward, marking everything from their parents and grandparents times as something uncool, but they are often open to look at the past and try to connect with it? Pretty much as if the past generations were mostly focused on being different from their ancestors, which can bring change, but can it heal what's systematic? The fact that therapy is so popular now and people are no longer ashamed to participate in it can also be considered as something unique for our times I suppose.
I also love trap classics ^^ i think the question is whether the new interpretation truly gives something to it, or it's just there to pretend to be new so that it can be sold again