this essay and documenting by joshua has been very helpful for an essay i've been working on. i've been formulating some thoughts on the "end of history" with how we've seen a shift in the means by which radical thinking is presented....
past rebellions were swiftly commodified and reabsorbed into the system, or the status quo (cc 2008). today's political meme culture and more fluid ideologies present a new kind of dissent....one that attempts to be more volatile to avoid being co-opted, too self-aware to be tamed.
there's something constantly drawing us towards subverting established power structures while not being shackled to predefined ideological categories. this is where political memes, for example, come into play. they've become tools for reframing serious political ideas in ways that don't fit neatly into the narratives of the current structure (or predicted structure).
memes are used to mock, distort, and undermine, thus creating a chaotic form of dissent that defies traditional methods of control and resist the structure's attempts to co-opt rebellion. they attempt to slip through the cracks, forcing the system to chase something it can never fully contain or categorize.
and i think this partly involves a need to reembrace some form of individuality....not the self-obsessed narcissism that is currently being pressurized....but instead a deep and unwavering sense of self that recognizes its inextricable connection to the collective (class, consciousness, society, world, nature, all the above).
maybe an egoism in the Stirner sense, where we are inevitably interconnected, yet recognize a need for an individual ego to navigate the structure. and continue the attempt to break free of the closed loop that i think many younger people are finding difficult to break out of....they wish to escape their sense of an "end of history."
so by refusing to be pinned down by ideological purity or moral obligation....this might serve as the necessary rupture point that allows for new forms of rebellion, which are dynamic, fluid, and difficult for the system to co-opt. and if the status quo structure or system fails to integrate the rebellion or categorize it....
then we might find ourselves witnessing moments of substantial change. the dialectic lives another day and the end of history can be moved to a later date.
this essay and documenting by joshua has been very helpful for an essay i've been working on. i've been formulating some thoughts on the "end of history" with how we've seen a shift in the means by which radical thinking is presented....
past rebellions were swiftly commodified and reabsorbed into the system, or the status quo (cc 2008). today's political meme culture and more fluid ideologies present a new kind of dissent....one that attempts to be more volatile to avoid being co-opted, too self-aware to be tamed.
there's something constantly drawing us towards subverting established power structures while not being shackled to predefined ideological categories. this is where political memes, for example, come into play. they've become tools for reframing serious political ideas in ways that don't fit neatly into the narratives of the current structure (or predicted structure).
memes are used to mock, distort, and undermine, thus creating a chaotic form of dissent that defies traditional methods of control and resist the structure's attempts to co-opt rebellion. they attempt to slip through the cracks, forcing the system to chase something it can never fully contain or categorize.
and i think this partly involves a need to reembrace some form of individuality....not the self-obsessed narcissism that is currently being pressurized....but instead a deep and unwavering sense of self that recognizes its inextricable connection to the collective (class, consciousness, society, world, nature, all the above).
maybe an egoism in the Stirner sense, where we are inevitably interconnected, yet recognize a need for an individual ego to navigate the structure. and continue the attempt to break free of the closed loop that i think many younger people are finding difficult to break out of....they wish to escape their sense of an "end of history."
so by refusing to be pinned down by ideological purity or moral obligation....this might serve as the necessary rupture point that allows for new forms of rebellion, which are dynamic, fluid, and difficult for the system to co-opt. and if the status quo structure or system fails to integrate the rebellion or categorize it....
then we might find ourselves witnessing moments of substantial change. the dialectic lives another day and the end of history can be moved to a later date.
give this a read.