Academics say that the unstable, heterogeneous elements of society have been made part of the production system (e.g. shit and punks and so forth are now salable) -- this co-option of the heterogeneous cannot be automatically presumed to be a good thing. It just flattens out emotions a lot more -- gets rid of the highs and lows by making us blasé in our expectations of finding everything about life to be equally integrated. So, that is the postmodern condition, which superseded, you know, Bataille's modernism.
But, in my opinion, it is still possible to transgress. Just as it was ever possible to transgress. The postmodern condition is a social condition which has been introjected to become most people's modern "natures". Transgression would be in any state of mind that denied this postmodern condition -- especially at the level of its emotional normalization. That means that radical Nietzscheanism is transgressive, radical Marxism is transgressive, hell, fundamentalist Christianity would be transgressive to the postmodern model. Too obvious, I think. But, I kid.
People who don't imagine that their selves have boundaries based on socially conditioned premises haven't bothered to check themselves out at all. The inability to look within is the real postmodernism condition.
But, in my opinion, it is still possible to transgress. Just as it was ever possible to transgress. The postmodern condition is a social condition which has been introjected to become most people's modern "natures". Transgression would be in any state of mind that denied this postmodern condition -- especially at the level of its emotional normalization. That means that radical Nietzscheanism is transgressive, radical Marxism is transgressive, hell, fundamentalist Christianity would be transgressive to the postmodern model. Too obvious, I think. But, I kid.
People who don't imagine that their selves have boundaries based on socially conditioned premises haven't bothered to check themselves out at all. The inability to look within is the real postmodernism condition.
1 comment:
Hi there.
Yes, I'm sure I implicitly understand the critique. The thing is, it still seems to me to be about a lack of self-management. The saturated self -- no doubt saturated with experiences -- is like the person who has eaten too much sugar and fat. They suffer from metabolic syndrome and life has lost its spark for them. Nietzsche's solution for that kind of social decline was war.
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