Great essay, as usual. Mr. Cebalo you are spoiling us!
The individualism of the 60s and the distrust of government from the Vietnam war and the Nixon\Watergate meltdown, found its energy in the pursuit of money and power. Rather than find continuing ways to reform capitalistic society for the good of all, the new found individualism served to propel money and power to the forefront of American culture. As the greatest generation faded into the background, the boomers, and our love of self and money, came forward.
Money and power became our gods. As Mr. Cebalo points out, the places and spaces for informal discourse became less available. Replaced by the ultimate intelligence vacuum of the internet. And now brought to a fevered pitch by social media. The rise of evangelical Christianity played into that as anyone who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior was free to take care of themselves and be forgiven. Moral action and ethical behavior was replaced by that acceptance. And mainstream theology requires Chri
Moral clarity in deeds not in words.
Our leaders, therefore, are a reflection of who we are as a society. They do not exist in a vacuum apart from us. I have told my children since they were small, you know you are a mature adult when you can look in the mirror and accept you are the sum of all your decisions. American leadership and culture are the sum of all our decisions.
Great analysis. I think there’s something about this power of positive thinking in American life that’s starting to turn sour. I’ve been thinking about Elizabeth Gilbert’s dark new book as an example of this. It’s interesting that the big takeaway of that book is her discovery of AA, which serves for her as a form of communal spiritual belonging. Part of me wants to believe Americans are ready to recreate more of those spaces of belonging, another part of me worries that it’s too late.
On inwardness: I would say that it doesn’t always need to be individualistic. In communal spaces of belonging I think that moments of inwardness, or figures of inwardness, have their role and place. What seems terrible about America of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is the way that inwardness has been, as you note, privatized and turned into a zone of commercial exploitation. It’s become less a resource for connection and more a form of private property to develop and enhance.
"We are pessimists about outcome but act to create the positive" - paraphrase of the French filmmaker Agnes Varda. The American soul remains an uncertain admixture, trapped between admiring itself and confronting great gobs of bullshit on a daily basis. Not knowing precisely what to do with this tonnage on its doorstep every morning, it recycles it like a good citizen, spreads it over the lawn and sells it to the world. (Which gobbles it up lustily.) AI, why not ? As long as dunderheads cling to the notion that Progress is an actual property they can buy, dear America of the endless human potential will be a chimera - we'll be like those children playing in the tiny park surrounded by the terrifying expressway. I salute you for this deep dive. Your pessi-optimist in Paris, jg
Anyone curious as to what I mean by that brief outburst, I invite to read my fictional encounter with a certain French poet Baudelaire:
A mini-rant, unworthy of the hard work you put in on that essay. When i read it now, it sounds like an ex-pat defending his desire to leave. I know a few of those kicking around this town.
Meaning, my response was a mini-rant, which, at least to me, reeked of ex-pat superiority, a not uncommon phenomenon especially in Paris where I live: a city that tends to collect snobs of all nationalities. The Real Debate is about the twinned ideas of Progress and Progressivism, and what precisely are their meanings in the contemporary world.
Ah right, now I understand. Not at all, your "mini-rant" was appreciated and it resonated with me, as someone not in Paris but living in the States - a country whose main business is the grift of selling desires and progress. It's an exploitation of that inner emptiness, tragic as it is
The problem of the motorcar was that when everyone has unlimited personal mobility, nobody gets anywhere very quickly. Everyone is always in everyone else's way, all of the time. When one gets the idea to drive somewhere nice and quiet for a change of scenery, one shortly discovers that a hundred or a thousand other people were thinking the same thing, and the destination is neither nice nor quiet.
The problem of Americans' valorization (even fetishization) of individuality & authenticity was that when everyone's going their own way and doing their own thing, the number of places & people where & with whom one can meaningfully *be* one's authentic self tends to shrink. Everyone else is off being an individual alone, someplace else, and writing blog posts for an imaginary audience about "the importance of community" increasingly becomes one's chosen form of self-expression.
There's a kind of vulgar dialectic along similar lines here.
"many elites privately feared that World War II had demonstrated a dark truth—that deep inside, the average person possessed nefarious desires which could explode again and upend society."
I guess those elites didn't know that WW1 and WW2 were orchestrated by their peers. 😂
Blaming people for nefarious desires is projection of their own sociopathic minds.
Major religions did this too. They told people that without following "god" life would be chaotic and insane.
It's all a control system to blame people so they can tell them what to do and not do.
Their own "proof" is bullshit. The methods were crude and lead to wrong results. They ignored factors in order to promote the worst case situation, just like with war.
Great essay, as usual. Mr. Cebalo you are spoiling us!
The individualism of the 60s and the distrust of government from the Vietnam war and the Nixon\Watergate meltdown, found its energy in the pursuit of money and power. Rather than find continuing ways to reform capitalistic society for the good of all, the new found individualism served to propel money and power to the forefront of American culture. As the greatest generation faded into the background, the boomers, and our love of self and money, came forward.
Money and power became our gods. As Mr. Cebalo points out, the places and spaces for informal discourse became less available. Replaced by the ultimate intelligence vacuum of the internet. And now brought to a fevered pitch by social media. The rise of evangelical Christianity played into that as anyone who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior was free to take care of themselves and be forgiven. Moral action and ethical behavior was replaced by that acceptance. And mainstream theology requires Chri
Moral clarity in deeds not in words.
Our leaders, therefore, are a reflection of who we are as a society. They do not exist in a vacuum apart from us. I have told my children since they were small, you know you are a mature adult when you can look in the mirror and accept you are the sum of all your decisions. American leadership and culture are the sum of all our decisions.
Great analysis. I think there’s something about this power of positive thinking in American life that’s starting to turn sour. I’ve been thinking about Elizabeth Gilbert’s dark new book as an example of this. It’s interesting that the big takeaway of that book is her discovery of AA, which serves for her as a form of communal spiritual belonging. Part of me wants to believe Americans are ready to recreate more of those spaces of belonging, another part of me worries that it’s too late.
On inwardness: I would say that it doesn’t always need to be individualistic. In communal spaces of belonging I think that moments of inwardness, or figures of inwardness, have their role and place. What seems terrible about America of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is the way that inwardness has been, as you note, privatized and turned into a zone of commercial exploitation. It’s become less a resource for connection and more a form of private property to develop and enhance.
It's slightly surprising that the Trump administration hasn't removed the ban on Kinder Surprises. Perhaps they're saving it for his third term.
"We are pessimists about outcome but act to create the positive" - paraphrase of the French filmmaker Agnes Varda. The American soul remains an uncertain admixture, trapped between admiring itself and confronting great gobs of bullshit on a daily basis. Not knowing precisely what to do with this tonnage on its doorstep every morning, it recycles it like a good citizen, spreads it over the lawn and sells it to the world. (Which gobbles it up lustily.) AI, why not ? As long as dunderheads cling to the notion that Progress is an actual property they can buy, dear America of the endless human potential will be a chimera - we'll be like those children playing in the tiny park surrounded by the terrifying expressway. I salute you for this deep dive. Your pessi-optimist in Paris, jg
Anyone curious as to what I mean by that brief outburst, I invite to read my fictional encounter with a certain French poet Baudelaire:
https://continentalriffs.substack.com/p/mulling-over-the-progres
It won't strain eyes or brain overmuch. I'd even argue it's a more joyful way to live.
Well said, James
A mini-rant, unworthy of the hard work you put in on that essay. When i read it now, it sounds like an ex-pat defending his desire to leave. I know a few of those kicking around this town.
Can you elaborate? Not sure what you mean haha
Meaning, my response was a mini-rant, which, at least to me, reeked of ex-pat superiority, a not uncommon phenomenon especially in Paris where I live: a city that tends to collect snobs of all nationalities. The Real Debate is about the twinned ideas of Progress and Progressivism, and what precisely are their meanings in the contemporary world.
Ah right, now I understand. Not at all, your "mini-rant" was appreciated and it resonated with me, as someone not in Paris but living in the States - a country whose main business is the grift of selling desires and progress. It's an exploitation of that inner emptiness, tragic as it is
The problem of the motorcar was that when everyone has unlimited personal mobility, nobody gets anywhere very quickly. Everyone is always in everyone else's way, all of the time. When one gets the idea to drive somewhere nice and quiet for a change of scenery, one shortly discovers that a hundred or a thousand other people were thinking the same thing, and the destination is neither nice nor quiet.
The problem of Americans' valorization (even fetishization) of individuality & authenticity was that when everyone's going their own way and doing their own thing, the number of places & people where & with whom one can meaningfully *be* one's authentic self tends to shrink. Everyone else is off being an individual alone, someplace else, and writing blog posts for an imaginary audience about "the importance of community" increasingly becomes one's chosen form of self-expression.
There's a kind of vulgar dialectic along similar lines here.
"many elites privately feared that World War II had demonstrated a dark truth—that deep inside, the average person possessed nefarious desires which could explode again and upend society."
I guess those elites didn't know that WW1 and WW2 were orchestrated by their peers. 😂
Blaming people for nefarious desires is projection of their own sociopathic minds.
Major religions did this too. They told people that without following "god" life would be chaotic and insane.
It's all a control system to blame people so they can tell them what to do and not do.
Their own "proof" is bullshit. The methods were crude and lead to wrong results. They ignored factors in order to promote the worst case situation, just like with war.
https://robc137.substack.com/p/the-milgram-experiment-and-how-we
Did you know that even in the 1990s, neuroscientists thought that studying consciousness was not worth it?
It makes you wonder about their own "consciousness". Academics regularly forget themselves in favor of the system that they serve.
To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, there is a god shaped hole in every human heart — it WILL be filled with something, as “nature abhors a vacuum.”
Whether that thing which fills it supports human flourishing for both the individual and their community very much depends, doesn’t it?
There is a need for a third economy.
One which works with the dual economy, meaning the competitive and taxation economies.
The dual economy offerings of the creator economy and the green economy are false profits.
There is a need for a geosocial structure which backstops the geoeconomic and geopolitical structures.