Sociology follows technology. This has always been clear, as much as the following truth: politics follows economics. In language derived from seventeenth-century political theorist James Harrington, the ‘superstructure’ follows the ‘foundation’ of society. According to Harrington’s principle of ‘ballance’, the structure of politics follows the structure of the material world underpinning it. And according to … Continue reading From fission to fusion: The technological germ of a future past
Tag: Foucault
Time of Miracles: The Shadow and the Sun
I feel like a broken record these days. It is said that one position or another is correct, when it seems obvious to me all stated positions are, taken as they appear to us, incorrect. That being said, I cannot help but take a side, or forfeit my own role in the political economy of … Continue reading Time of Miracles: The Shadow and the Sun
Kant do charisma: Why Anthony Fantano is wrong about Kanye West
I have for more times than I can recall drawn a distinction between two pillars of modern music: 1. Technique, and 2. Art. Technique relates to instrumental skill and general musical nous. Think musical theory but also the practical application of this theory. What space, then, does this leave for art? Art relates to a … Continue reading Kant do charisma: Why Anthony Fantano is wrong about Kanye West
A hypothesis for slower ageing
Many hypotheses have been offered for why people age slower than they used to — in other words, why people look younger than they used to. It is sometimes said among those of a reactionary political inclination that the relative decline in violence among great powers means that usual rites of passage for ageing are … Continue reading A hypothesis for slower ageing
Nietzsche, Foucault, and the bridge of power
Mass culture has ironically deemed the central ill of western civilisation as ‘the lust for power’. The alternative is human affection and interpersonal love, in the form of familial or friendly ties, or, alternatively, transactional commercial deals. Power, however, is dangerous because it is impersonal, abstract, and therefore a potential alternative to the ruling abstraction: … Continue reading Nietzsche, Foucault, and the bridge of power
The banality of sociality
Hannah Arendt’s seminal Eichmann in Jerusalem famously describes Nazism, personified in the Holocaust administrator Adolf Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem, as ‘the banality of evil’. In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt considers the alliance between ‘elite’ and ‘mob’ underpinning totalitarian politics. If the totalitarian elite is characterised by a sinister banality, a strange coupling of … Continue reading The banality of sociality
The banality of sociality
Hannah Arendt’s seminal Eichmann in Jerusalem famously describes Nazism, personified in the Holocaust administrator on trial in Jerusalem, as ‘the banality of evil’. In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt considers the alliance between ‘elite’ and ‘mob’ underpinning totalitarian politics. If the totalitarian elite is characterised by a sinister banality, a strange coupling of dull personality and callous calculation, … Continue reading The banality of sociality
Edmund Wilson 