The text explores the concept that modernity exposes and amplifies feelings of alienation, contrasting it with pre-modern society. The phenomenon of seeking immediacy in response to chronic crises serves as an escape from confronting alienation. While constant crises are often viewed as causes of alienation, they can paradoxically act as distractions, preventing individuals from fully engaging with their alienated state. This results in a cycle where mediated experiences embody the very essence of alienation, suggesting that our engagement with mediated relations highlights our disconnection from authentic experiences.
Alright this week Todd McGowan is back on the podcast to talk about his most recent book Embracing Alienation Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves.
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You can also listen to our episode on Alienation as a concept in Żižek's work here!
The subject is divided from itself even in the form in which it is completely at home...so in this first episode we're talking the status of alienation in our current context of serial crisis and what Anna Kornbluh describes as cultural immediacy.
What does a politics of alienation have to say about ‘the day after’ or how would it look in the day after? What is the significance of place and community? Why is the violence of the death drive and its self-sabotage the first emancipation that subsequently establishes the pattern for all later political acts of emancipation?
We also get into Žižek's ontology & fate, determinism, and the forced choice of alienation.
Part two will be out next week...
Enjoy!