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