Two concepts can help us explain the interesting behavior of Harvard graduates.
One is essentialism, something Marx got a lot criticism for, back in the day, from his young Hegelian friends. If you rely on alienation to explain the discomfort and disconnect people feel in the current times, it is because you somehow have a grasp of their true nature or 'essence'. While I think we can have a better idea of what is to be human than Marx's, thanks to strides in anthropology and neuroscience, ultimately I believe we cannot know the human condition, and Marx doesn't either, largely abandoning the discourse of alienation after his period in Paris post 1844 (This I take from Michael Heinrich, but do double check). Ultimately the conception of the 'good' will widely vary according to each Harvard graduate, from total cynics to do-gooders, and their purchase of ruling ideology might just alter their ethics enough to go work for Goldman Sachs, but crucially as Don Quixote showed us in his passage with the oarsmen, wanting to do chivalry and justice isn't the same as actually doing chivalry and justice. Machiavelli also cautions us to put certain people into the good or bad category box and would agree with the mature Marx that is more productive to carefully analyze the social dynamics of our times.
The second concept that can aid us in explaining the abundance of sell outs is Marcuse's repressive desublimation. Current society Marcuse, explains, is not too concerned in repress and discipline you into a particular role model, the 'good' doctor, politician, teacher or carpenter, farmer, father for the plebs, but rather, allows you to take any commodified path to your own self realization or in more typically millennial terms 'you can become everything you desire'. You want to be a social revolutionary? yes of course! We have a che Guevara t-shirt freshly made in a sweatshop for you to go to the rally. You want to be racist? There's a 4chan channel for you. You want to transgress every social convention and tradition? There is a YT or TikTok creator just for you. You want to positively contribute to the world? Yes! just come to work for Goldman Sachs and once you made enough bank you can be effectively altruistic. I'm a bit out of my depth with some of these concepts as I follow psychoanalysis only as hobbyist, but hopefully the point went across.
Anyhow a great piece to think about current ideology, applicable to both Harvard and non-graduates.
Thanks! I think there are lots of ways to think about alienation without assuming too much about essence, but I understand what you are saying I think. And Marcuse is always useful.
This hits a big nail on the head. People go against their foundational natural intelligence and loose touch of what their basics needs are. Abstract appetites take over. Cleverness substitutes for intelligence, etc. What could be more abstract than effective altruism? They don't know how to go back to their foundations, which are not gone and will proceed to haunt them.
These huge appetites of ours. A Very Wealthy, Very Successful person eats huge proportions, can't metabolize it, shits out the excess, calls it wealth, puts in a storehouse for later use.
Two concepts can help us explain the interesting behavior of Harvard graduates.
One is essentialism, something Marx got a lot criticism for, back in the day, from his young Hegelian friends. If you rely on alienation to explain the discomfort and disconnect people feel in the current times, it is because you somehow have a grasp of their true nature or 'essence'. While I think we can have a better idea of what is to be human than Marx's, thanks to strides in anthropology and neuroscience, ultimately I believe we cannot know the human condition, and Marx doesn't either, largely abandoning the discourse of alienation after his period in Paris post 1844 (This I take from Michael Heinrich, but do double check). Ultimately the conception of the 'good' will widely vary according to each Harvard graduate, from total cynics to do-gooders, and their purchase of ruling ideology might just alter their ethics enough to go work for Goldman Sachs, but crucially as Don Quixote showed us in his passage with the oarsmen, wanting to do chivalry and justice isn't the same as actually doing chivalry and justice. Machiavelli also cautions us to put certain people into the good or bad category box and would agree with the mature Marx that is more productive to carefully analyze the social dynamics of our times.
The second concept that can aid us in explaining the abundance of sell outs is Marcuse's repressive desublimation. Current society Marcuse, explains, is not too concerned in repress and discipline you into a particular role model, the 'good' doctor, politician, teacher or carpenter, farmer, father for the plebs, but rather, allows you to take any commodified path to your own self realization or in more typically millennial terms 'you can become everything you desire'. You want to be a social revolutionary? yes of course! We have a che Guevara t-shirt freshly made in a sweatshop for you to go to the rally. You want to be racist? There's a 4chan channel for you. You want to transgress every social convention and tradition? There is a YT or TikTok creator just for you. You want to positively contribute to the world? Yes! just come to work for Goldman Sachs and once you made enough bank you can be effectively altruistic. I'm a bit out of my depth with some of these concepts as I follow psychoanalysis only as hobbyist, but hopefully the point went across.
Anyhow a great piece to think about current ideology, applicable to both Harvard and non-graduates.
Thanks! I think there are lots of ways to think about alienation without assuming too much about essence, but I understand what you are saying I think. And Marcuse is always useful.
This hits a big nail on the head. People go against their foundational natural intelligence and loose touch of what their basics needs are. Abstract appetites take over. Cleverness substitutes for intelligence, etc. What could be more abstract than effective altruism? They don't know how to go back to their foundations, which are not gone and will proceed to haunt them.
These huge appetites of ours. A Very Wealthy, Very Successful person eats huge proportions, can't metabolize it, shits out the excess, calls it wealth, puts in a storehouse for later use.
Really, a failure of education.