A Lonely Consciousness, and False
Rufus writes, commenting on Ned Resnikoff’s generational self-indictment below:
What I find more interesting though is that both the left and right are expressing deep misgivings about that atomistic individualism. The right, of course, has been talking about this for decades in terms of the loss of tradition and the collapse of institutions of cultural authority, and the personal instability that collapse has caused. But, while the left doesn’t quite talk about the same things, I don’t know anyone on the left anymore who doesn’t talk about “the loss of community” in much the same way. So, there really might be a deep loneliness there that transcends politics.
This misses the real radicalism of the sustained critiques of “social atomism.” Rufus naturally psychologizes the problem, which changes from individualism to “loneliness.” The tendency to recast abstract nouns as affects has been well hashed out, most blogically by James Poulos, but like its master it returns sometimes as an angel of light, and must be resisted with equal vigilance. This turn vitiates the force of almost all radical critiques of contemporary Western society, because what is common to almost all of them, Marxist, traditionalist, Environmentalist, etc., is that they address themselves to objective conditions. So, a Marxist believes workers to be exploited even if the worker is delighted with his lot, thinks it fair, etc. A defender of our order would say that his being delighted with his lot, thinking it fair, etc., is just what matters. In the same way, a program to alleviate the loneliness of the citizenry (easy if sinister, as ThatPirateGuy writes: “If you talked to me before I met beth, I would have felt a lack of community and loneliness but I really don’t feel it anymore”) wouldn’t do anything to address the criticism that humans under liberal capitalism are “atomized.”
“humans under liberal capitalism are “atomized.””
And, why is that? Although we aren’t under liberal capitalism, I’m curious.Report
@MFarmer,
To hazard a guess:
Because a true market economy (or indeed a compromised mixed economy such as we have now) is premised on individual liberty and individual choice, which cannot exist without the philosophical ideal of the individual consciousness as a thing in itself, divorced from society, an ideal which did not exist until at least the 15th century and which was a fundamental break with pre-modern metaphysics.
Capitalism requires the elevation of the individual will and individual judgement, which alienates us from one another, and from the true nature of the universe – basically, from God.
I’m not at all sure I agree with this (though I’m inclined to it at more paleocon-leaning times), but that’s the argument as best I understand it.Report
I think you’re right that I tried to elude- actually intentionally missed- the radicalism of those critiques, mostly out of skepticism that any programs to undo the order of things will work at this point. I think the psychological turn was an attempt to avoid the fact that I both feel that atomization on a personal level that has recently reached a crisis point, as I recently attempted to articulate here, and haven’t the slightest idea what program to change objective conditions offers any hope of actually doing so. And, I suppose part of taking that turn is holding out hope that, while things certainly seem to me to be the way you’ve described them, maybe I’m wrong and it’s just affectual- subjective instead of objective. Certainly, there’s a large mental health establishment dedicated to servicing that hope.Report
I’m not sure pre-Enlightenment folks spent all that much time worrying about loneliness, anomie and the meaning of life. They were more worried about food.
That said, there’s plenty about modern America that sucks. How many people are all that secure in their work? (so now, there’s plenty of food, you just can’t afford it. This is progress?) It seems that the fundamental message of liberal capitalism is that you might get fired at any time, and conservatives are trying to extinguish what little remains of social safety nets, so work your ass off and don’t make waves. This appears to be profitable for capitalists, but it’s not so good for labor. (How capitalists have persuaded people without capital to vote pro-capital / anti-labor policies [here and elsewhere around the world] is one of the great mysteries of the planet to me.)
In addition to being unemployed (back in school), I’m worried about (in no particular order) (a) the unequal distribution of wealth in our society; (b) killing foreigners to get peace; (c) what the Republicans actually want to do if they actually take power; (d) global warming; (e) drought in western states; (f) the destruction of commercial fisheries globally; (g) the deficit; and (h) my ever-expanding waistline. What’s keeping you up nights?Report
@Francis, I recommend “The Canterbury Tales”.Report
So, how should it be? What economic system is necessary to avoid atomization?Report
Count me as unconvinced. A lot of the much-vaunted community of the past was involuntary – you had to stay with your band, village, family, army, or whatever or you’d starve. While forcing people to cooperate through circumstance may well produce deep and abiding friendships (and enmities), all the evidence says that given the choice people don’t do it. Consider the closest things we have to involuntary community now – adult children still living at home, or taking care of elderly parents, homeowners associating meetings, the local city council … these are not things from which we derived joy, even if they may involve substantial heroism and deep emotions (okay, not the HOA meetings – those are just annoying). All the evidence says that given the choice, people avoid involuntary community. Voluntary community just produce the same level of drama – a girl ditches you on a date, or someone unfriends you of facebook just doesn’t produce the same depth of emotion as your children starving because the potatoes got blight.
What changed is that we have an economic system now that produces more-or-less enough for everyone based mostly on voluntary relationships. That is a considerable acheivment.Report