#classreflection
And see Leviathan Ch 6 for Hobbes' theory of the passions, which he calls "motions" produced in our bodies, of which he considered the brain to be a mere part (no mind-body distinction for him!):
Lastly, consider how political passions, when excited, take us beyond the basic unit of analysis in modern liberal thought, namely, the individual. If one person's nervous system is connected via external objects/devices to those of others (like social media of today), then what remains of each individual? And in this post-liberal world, isn't the digital collective or cluster of data points the basic unit of analysis for algorithms on each platform? Each of us when we like, comment or post (or purchase something) produces a data point. Are we not merely bundles of overlapping data points for our phones and the platforms/sites we use?
The political upshot is clear enough: righteous collectives online have coalesced on the left and right, and the political center that dominated North Atlantic societies and beyond has collapsed. In the absence of liberalism, socialism and fascism face off. This is glossed over as "populism" in media and.academia.Non-Western societies, which associate liberalism with their colonial experience, thrive in the new media of orality that enables rapid transmission of affect. Social connectedness among "dividuals" or "overlapping selves" makes intuitive sense.
Either way, the question with which I want to end is this: do the new.digital.collectives necessarily mean that outbursts of political expression are followed by the rise of Sisi, Trump, Modi, Bolsonaro, Duterte, etc? Watching the new Napoleon film last week made me think that every revolution produces a Napoleon, Stalin or Mao soon enough. Among warring factions in today's global civil war, is it not the case, as Hobbes told us four centuries ago, that all sides will voluntarily and happily sacrifice their liberties for security, order, and "peace"? I leave you with these questions that I myself am grappling with.
@pursuit_of_truth
And see Leviathan Ch 6 for Hobbes' theory of the passions, which he calls "motions" produced in our bodies, of which he considered the brain to be a mere part (no mind-body distinction for him!):
Lastly, consider how political passions, when excited, take us beyond the basic unit of analysis in modern liberal thought, namely, the individual. If one person's nervous system is connected via external objects/devices to those of others (like social media of today), then what remains of each individual? And in this post-liberal world, isn't the digital collective or cluster of data points the basic unit of analysis for algorithms on each platform? Each of us when we like, comment or post (or purchase something) produces a data point. Are we not merely bundles of overlapping data points for our phones and the platforms/sites we use?
The political upshot is clear enough: righteous collectives online have coalesced on the left and right, and the political center that dominated North Atlantic societies and beyond has collapsed. In the absence of liberalism, socialism and fascism face off. This is glossed over as "populism" in media and.academia.Non-Western societies, which associate liberalism with their colonial experience, thrive in the new media of orality that enables rapid transmission of affect. Social connectedness among "dividuals" or "overlapping selves" makes intuitive sense.
Either way, the question with which I want to end is this: do the new.digital.collectives necessarily mean that outbursts of political expression are followed by the rise of Sisi, Trump, Modi, Bolsonaro, Duterte, etc? Watching the new Napoleon film last week made me think that every revolution produces a Napoleon, Stalin or Mao soon enough. Among warring factions in today's global civil war, is it not the case, as Hobbes told us four centuries ago, that all sides will voluntarily and happily sacrifice their liberties for security, order, and "peace"? I leave you with these questions that I myself am grappling with.
@pursuit_of_truth