Post by Meta Knight on Jan 27, 2013 19:33:05 GMT -5
altlitpress.com/post/41655689385/andreacoates-solipsism-and-stasis-in-millennial
this essay by andrea coates is good. Dense, and not for the faint of heart.
"Fundamentally, I’d say 99% of Human Beings want to belong to a Group of Other Human Beings with whom they share a Belief System. When we are raised on a Philosophy that is Contrary to this Basic Drive, however, when we are raised on the Collective Belief that There is no Objective Right and Wrong / Good or Bad, we loose the Ability to connect with Others as if they were our Selves. None the Less, we crave this Kind of Connection. Herein steps the Advertiser. If the Only Objective Moral Truth is that there is no Objective Moral Truth, if the Only Arbiter of what is Real is the Self, and no Other Self can ever be as Real as our Own Self because they are 100% Subjective, we must Obsessively furnish the Self with Things that reflect it, in its Solipsistic Subjectivity, in Order to feel Less a’Lone. So we get Life Style Branding, perhaps One of the Most Effective Branding Strategies ever to come into xistence because it taps into that Very Human Need to feel like we belong, if not to Other People, than to our Possessions. These Xternalized Symbols of Self become the New Means of bonding with Others ( what Clothes do you wear? What Music do you listen to? What Kind of Food do you eat? ) as no One Else’s inTeriority can be assumed to be known, and Connection on the Level of Shared Beliefs is no Longer Possible, Xcept, of Course, the Shared Belief that we must buy Things and make Facebook Profiles ( Much Millennial Art is like a Facebook Profile ) to reflect our Selves, and this becomes the New Religion under which the Economic Rulers subjugate us, as, again, on a Very Primal Level, Humans Beings love Shared Belief Systems, even when their Shared Belief System is There is no Objective Right and Wrong / Good or Bad. Look at Tao Lin, for Xample. His Belief in post Modernism has led him to write the Most “Objective” Novels that may xist, Novels in which All inTeriority is denied. Tao Lin Clearly wants to show he has Things in Common with Other People, but became of his Solipsism, the Result of his post Modernism, the Only Things he can imagine he has in Common with Other People is that they also eat, sleep, fuck, go for walks, talk, etc. Their Thoughts and Feelings are Wholly their Own, and, in that, it almost seems like they don’t have Thoughts or Feelings at All.
It’s Ironic, then, that a Philosophy that, Ostensibly, aims for the Ultimate Subjectivity creates a Kind of Conformity : the Conformity of inSularity, of Solipsism. Because under post Modernism we are All Subjective on the inSide, the Only Way to relate to Each Other on the out Side is to pretend like we are Objects devoid of Subjectivity - our Xistence on the Level of Brute Physicality is the One Thing we have in Common"
this essay by andrea coates is good. Dense, and not for the faint of heart.
"Fundamentally, I’d say 99% of Human Beings want to belong to a Group of Other Human Beings with whom they share a Belief System. When we are raised on a Philosophy that is Contrary to this Basic Drive, however, when we are raised on the Collective Belief that There is no Objective Right and Wrong / Good or Bad, we loose the Ability to connect with Others as if they were our Selves. None the Less, we crave this Kind of Connection. Herein steps the Advertiser. If the Only Objective Moral Truth is that there is no Objective Moral Truth, if the Only Arbiter of what is Real is the Self, and no Other Self can ever be as Real as our Own Self because they are 100% Subjective, we must Obsessively furnish the Self with Things that reflect it, in its Solipsistic Subjectivity, in Order to feel Less a’Lone. So we get Life Style Branding, perhaps One of the Most Effective Branding Strategies ever to come into xistence because it taps into that Very Human Need to feel like we belong, if not to Other People, than to our Possessions. These Xternalized Symbols of Self become the New Means of bonding with Others ( what Clothes do you wear? What Music do you listen to? What Kind of Food do you eat? ) as no One Else’s inTeriority can be assumed to be known, and Connection on the Level of Shared Beliefs is no Longer Possible, Xcept, of Course, the Shared Belief that we must buy Things and make Facebook Profiles ( Much Millennial Art is like a Facebook Profile ) to reflect our Selves, and this becomes the New Religion under which the Economic Rulers subjugate us, as, again, on a Very Primal Level, Humans Beings love Shared Belief Systems, even when their Shared Belief System is There is no Objective Right and Wrong / Good or Bad. Look at Tao Lin, for Xample. His Belief in post Modernism has led him to write the Most “Objective” Novels that may xist, Novels in which All inTeriority is denied. Tao Lin Clearly wants to show he has Things in Common with Other People, but became of his Solipsism, the Result of his post Modernism, the Only Things he can imagine he has in Common with Other People is that they also eat, sleep, fuck, go for walks, talk, etc. Their Thoughts and Feelings are Wholly their Own, and, in that, it almost seems like they don’t have Thoughts or Feelings at All.
It’s Ironic, then, that a Philosophy that, Ostensibly, aims for the Ultimate Subjectivity creates a Kind of Conformity : the Conformity of inSularity, of Solipsism. Because under post Modernism we are All Subjective on the inSide, the Only Way to relate to Each Other on the out Side is to pretend like we are Objects devoid of Subjectivity - our Xistence on the Level of Brute Physicality is the One Thing we have in Common"
