QUICK THOUGHTS: January 02, 2023, my generation
QUICK
THOUGHTS: January 02, 2023, my generation
A few years ago I was lucky enough to be live at one of those Bernard Stiegler
"summer schools" (I'm not saying who it is, you can search for
yourself). The summer schools were organized in Epineuil-le-Fleuriel, in the
middle of France, and since then one of his statements has come and gone in my
head: <<the problem is not only that we don't know how to criticize
Google, but that Google criticizes us> >, that is to analyze ourselves by
tracing our digital profiles, fueling the diabolical exploitation of digital
capitalism and the "proletarianization" which I, in agreement with
Bernard, understand as a loss of knowledge. Yes, proletarianization of human
capabilities, loss of human power, loss of knowing how to do, of knowing how to
say, loss of resistance, of knowing how to live and of all the theoretical
knowledge that remains such. Google forces us into a new kind of misery. A
mortal misery! It makes us perceive our critical capacity and our individual
behavior as useless, it makes all our initiatives out of place, drowning them
in the ocean of mass behaviour. Apart from Stiegler's individual and
non-collective personal experience (which ended not too well), he has the merit
of going beyond the limits at which Marx, Heidegger, Simondon, Foucault,
Deleuze, Guattari stopped, which are the great interpreters of the thought of
the last two centuries. Radical like his master Derrida reiterated: <<It
is necessary to think of technique as a continuation of life by other
means>>. Where this continuation is purely pharmacological, or remedy and
poison of our collective feeling. This is what plagues my generation. We must
accept the new without the filter of a philosophy of novelty. Everything fell
upon us so quickly that we were left baffled and at the mercy of events and
technological innovations. The web has confused us, not those who follow us
from a generational point of view. Taking abysmal distance from patriarchal
culture was a great event, but how many of us haven't forfeited confusion?
Entrusting our life expectancy no longer to intelligence, to study, to the
experience of years of development of human capabilities, but to the nihilism
of algorithmic and demented capitalism, or to the medicine of statistics, means
entrusting the difficulties of being elderly , no longer to human experience,
but to medical procedures, the regulations of support structures, and the laws
of the market. No one can believe that all this is a tool for prolonging
individual existence. This is all crazy!!! Drug intoxication will do some good,
but when you get up in the morning and stagger, somehow transport yourself to
the bathroom, drag your body from room to room, you need to be able to handle
real primal suffering, you need to have learned defeat , one must be aware of
contact with death as the last of life's events. This is part of the human
capacity, it is part of the magic of events, of our body's ability to fight, it
is part of the spirit of conservation that a human develops by living, and not
with boxes of medicines. Today in January 2023 and for some time already our
ability to live, derived from knowledge, is no longer our reference nor our
individual resource. We rely on the algorithm of physical, psychic, cultural
and food needs. Stiegler has not only given us tools to diagnose the nihilism
typical of our times, but also the critical and creative escape to survive
change. This is the remarkable heritage that he has left us. Now it's up to us
to make an effort to understand him in depth and make him work in the practice
of our lives, we have to handle his ideas like a pharmakon, so that a greater
life expectancy is really achieved with "other means". Which ones for
example? Bringing together individual strengths derived from different
ethnicities and different customs. Get together and stop thinking it's better
to live alone. Learn everything possible from those who are close to us and are
more "robust" than us. Being critical of the chemistry that the
market dispenses us at very high costs and as the only remedy for pain. Be
selfless. Finally understand that in addition to training the muscles of the
legs and arms, cuddling animals, and climbing mountains, having an aperitif,
skiing, etc. other needs of our body are important, such as love , sex,
emotions and affection. To overcome the confusion of changes, my generation
must use an app like Tripadvisor no longer for reviews of restaurants and
hotels, but to check the reviews of anyone who might be close to them. Choosing
who possesses lightness, creativity and irony, as indispensable values.
Together we form a new force. We need to ban jealousy, exclusivity and any
interference that tends to limit our ability to "associate". It is
necessary to be far from any religion that speculates on our misfortunes and
needs for psychic and mental support. It is necessary to avoid being
suspicious, to overcome all prejudices, to put aside all issues deriving from
gender identity, to overcome mating jealousies, to eliminate baroque
exclusivity and economic classisms, to stay away from selfishness and
subterfuge. It is necessary to create more work projects, to do creative manual
activities, to be part of game tables, and of common and uniting hobbies. We
need to believe in others despite sometimes life has taught us to distrust. On
January 2, 2023, now how come it's time to change, so profoundly that we return
to being true, certainly fragile, but strong in our humanity. Exactly like our
grandparents in 1946, in the aftermath of the worst war in modern history,
poor, altruistic, passionate about life, light on difficulties, who were in
physical and not just verbal contact. They were ready for any difficulty,
sought autonomy from their children and had no fear of death. After all,
Stiegler tells us nothing that we could not understand on our own. Above:
Florentine New Year 's Eve 2023