Since you mentioned pop culture depictions of the current state of affairs: I've been working on a Girardian analysis of Attack on Titan and found striking parallels with your argument here - particularly the deterrence mechanisms that crystallize history into a kind of living death, where genuine desire and historical action are fossilized, making individual and collective self-determination impossible.
Paradis, AoT's setting, as perfect embodiment of the 'threat of non-violence'. Frozen peace through hidden violence.
As others have been pointing out (like the Pageau brothers), it feels like the containment mechanisms are getting undone, though it seems you're pointing to a more dystopic unfolding.
Taking the European example, tourism gobbling up historical sites and displacing the local population in the center is half of the pincer, the other being foreigners entrenching in the margins of cities.
This adds an underlying threat that risks exploding and bringing in violence, thereby disrupting the peace deterrence.
The problem with immigration is the same with tourism. What we notice now as a loss by large-scale immigration is the lack that allowed it to happen in the first place, which is our exit from history.
The left sees the immigrants as a source of cultural and ethical renewal, even revolutionary potential but of course, the immigrants come here to "assimilate" into the "present culture" which, because its deterred from history, is a sort of grey goo and so there's no ethical, revolutionary or cultural potential in them --even worse, they are not even under the illusion of politics and thus are overtly not part of the polity. Of course, the leftist would mistake this overt alienation as this "novel culture", but of course, this is foolish. Even the leftist has to admit, after a while, that what the immigrant ultimately is, is the status of the native presented nakedly. Similarly to the tourist, the territory into which the immigrant enters into is more and more aware that its status is equal to that of an airport or an amusement park, i.e., more aware of its post-historical status.
The right, on the other hand, rises against the overflow of immigrants, but similarly to the problem of tourism, cannot engage with the core of the problem directly, as its rise itself is one of the primary symptoms of said problem and is directly sustained by it. How do you sell an estate that has equal status to an airport, as a nation? By simulating the use of authority without that authority ever entering historical status. Even if indeed the right wing will be the one who'll probably cross the line into the vertical simulation of history, their use of authority will only mimic history. Violence will be violence, but it will have no historical status.
Either way, politics today exist solely to cover up the fact that politics seized being an active historical mechanism the moment the peace set in. All current politics exist to deter politics. We are driven by different forces.
Outstanding piece.
Since you mentioned pop culture depictions of the current state of affairs: I've been working on a Girardian analysis of Attack on Titan and found striking parallels with your argument here - particularly the deterrence mechanisms that crystallize history into a kind of living death, where genuine desire and historical action are fossilized, making individual and collective self-determination impossible.
Paradis, AoT's setting, as perfect embodiment of the 'threat of non-violence'. Frozen peace through hidden violence.
As others have been pointing out (like the Pageau brothers), it feels like the containment mechanisms are getting undone, though it seems you're pointing to a more dystopic unfolding.
How would immigration fit this?
Taking the European example, tourism gobbling up historical sites and displacing the local population in the center is half of the pincer, the other being foreigners entrenching in the margins of cities.
This adds an underlying threat that risks exploding and bringing in violence, thereby disrupting the peace deterrence.
The problem with immigration is the same with tourism. What we notice now as a loss by large-scale immigration is the lack that allowed it to happen in the first place, which is our exit from history.
The left sees the immigrants as a source of cultural and ethical renewal, even revolutionary potential but of course, the immigrants come here to "assimilate" into the "present culture" which, because its deterred from history, is a sort of grey goo and so there's no ethical, revolutionary or cultural potential in them --even worse, they are not even under the illusion of politics and thus are overtly not part of the polity. Of course, the leftist would mistake this overt alienation as this "novel culture", but of course, this is foolish. Even the leftist has to admit, after a while, that what the immigrant ultimately is, is the status of the native presented nakedly. Similarly to the tourist, the territory into which the immigrant enters into is more and more aware that its status is equal to that of an airport or an amusement park, i.e., more aware of its post-historical status.
The right, on the other hand, rises against the overflow of immigrants, but similarly to the problem of tourism, cannot engage with the core of the problem directly, as its rise itself is one of the primary symptoms of said problem and is directly sustained by it. How do you sell an estate that has equal status to an airport, as a nation? By simulating the use of authority without that authority ever entering historical status. Even if indeed the right wing will be the one who'll probably cross the line into the vertical simulation of history, their use of authority will only mimic history. Violence will be violence, but it will have no historical status.
Either way, politics today exist solely to cover up the fact that politics seized being an active historical mechanism the moment the peace set in. All current politics exist to deter politics. We are driven by different forces.
Wow. This is outstanding.
This gives an incredible glimpse into why we
(especially in the west) are so alienated from our cultural roots and identity!
How long did it take to type this up? Did it come from a “flow state” like Gryphon’s Abraxsis poem?
I typed it up in one sitting, got inspired
What sort of analysis/ what object, led you to these conclusions? I agree with your conclusions but I couldn't have reached them myself.