Thank you Rajani, for this interesting essay. So much here I would endorse, that we seek the felicity of 'warm kindred relations', and that our separation from nature promotes disease.
One aspect of alienation that you don't name, though it is implicit in this article, is alienation from ourselves. (Did the 'self' exist for Marx outside of its position in the economic and historical structure of society?) What we are seeing currently is a challenge to conventional gender divisions, based on claims to the 'validity of subjective experience'. LGBTQ plus non binary offer a whole range of alternatives to those who feel constricted by conventional gender assignments. This choice is being given to children as young as 10 years old within the UK education system, and the UK Labour Party has recently agreed to accept applicants for women's positions from those who 'self-identify as women'. Questioning gender divisions also challenges our whole notion of what we think of as 'masculine' and 'feminine' qualities. What Is happening now within EM (to use your terminology) is that there is beginning to be a recognition of the validity of a subjective experience, which is not tied to social norms. This freedom allows us to see that though there may be distinct biological differences, (and even these vary much more than is generally supposed) between masculine and feminine, this does not define qualitative differences between genders. Women are free to be as 'masculine' as they want and vice versa. This is acknowledged within enlightenment philosophies, by proposing that everybody has both masculine and feminine qualities within them, 'the yin yang paradigm'. Although this makes a nonsense of the distinction between masculine and feminine qualities, yet it seems difficult for people to abandon that mindset. Perhaps it is time for you to re-assess your thoughts on this as quoted from Wikipaedia: "that men and women are distinct sub-species embodying a "paradigm of masculinity" and a "paradigm of femininity", respectively, correlated to violence and nurturance, that are basically instinctual in nature despite their cultural variation". Anna > On 11 Jul 2018, at 03:27, Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: r kanth <[email protected]> > Date: Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 3:54 AM > Subject: Fwd: From Rajani: On Alienation: : A Non-Eurocentric View > To: Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> > > > > > Further Notes on > Euro-Modernism* > > On > Alienation > > > > Alienation is a major theme in European discourse, both theological and > philosophical, in its EM (EuroModernist) phase. > > Marx , one of the great canonicals in that august lineage, e.g., noted > several aspects of alienation: of workers - from their product, from the > production process(run by owners/agents) , from each other(via ‘competition’) > , and from their own species essence (Gattungswesen). > > I wish to identify the last as specially important, if in a marginally > different sense, as far as our ‘species-essence’ goes– perhaps – from Marx. > > I also wish to add another species of alienation, a little less relevant, > perhaps, to a child of the enlightenment, and an heir to industrial > society, like Marx: i.e. alienation from nature. > > * > > Gattungswesen. > > I have argued that , contra all the norms of EM, we as a species are > affective beings, led to seek the felicity of warm kindred relations, > instinctually: familial, co-operative, and communal. > > EM, by setting up its alternate template of competition, > acquisitivenessness, individualist, self-seeking behavior (as in the > pseudo-science of “Economics”), offers a paradigm strikingly opposed to this > human essence. > > This sets up not so-called ‘cognitive dissonance’ – a buzz-word if ever > there was one - but , even deeper, an existential nightmare for humans > compelled to act against their very own natures. > > This is the ontic basis of angst and despair, noted by existentialist > writers, for generations. > > This is why the so-called ‘happiness index’ is so low in all societies > most ‘advanced’ in EM norms, such as the US; and why the UK, uabashedly, > recently set up , no less, a ministry for ‘loneliness’. > > * > > Nature. > > We are , contra the shibboleths of Biblical ideology, part of nature, i.e ., > we are animals > > Even the radical Marx, echoing his own Judeo-Christian heritage, spoke of > “Man’ proudly as the ‘sovereign of creation”. > > He hadn’t studied Darwin (Darwin’s classic work was published, late: the > same year as one of Marx’s classic works: 1859). > > At any rate, we are part of nature: and when we are kept away from it, as we > are, more or less, in all EM societies, in arid cityscapes of cement and > steel, our ‘spirits sag’ (all but unconsciously) and we experience an > ineffable distress (poetically depicted in Keats’ To One Who Has Been Long > in City Pent’ verse) . > > Presumably parks exist , here and there, in cities, to alleviate that > disorder. > > It is a unique form of alienation – i.e. suffering - lifted by that trope > of ‘One Touch of Nature”, as Shakespeare had it, that “ Makes the Whole > World Kin" . > > It is a misery quite akin to that caused by the rupture with Gattungswesen. > > * > > To sum up. > > In my view, we are, as a species, alienated when separated from family, > community, and nature. > > Marx, subscribing – as did most all his peers in political economy - - to > EM’s (philosophical) materialism , prioritised human engagement in > production as critical (‘work’ is an important concept in Protestant > -Calvinist - theology as well), whence his ‘alienations’ , leastways, begin > in that domain. > > I theorise, au contraire, the priority of family, culture, and society, > within the geist of our species. > > Native American children, cruelly and brutishly separated from their > families/culture/ and society by their oppressors, as part of an > ‘experiment’ to ‘civilise the savage’ , apparently died ‘mysteriously’ in > large numbers, or so it is reported. > > No: no mystery. > > It is explained by what I argue, above: no EM philosophy can ‘explain’ it. > > This alienation is critical: at its extreme, we suffer a loss of being, of > sanity, of wholeness, and incur a debilitating anomie when so separated. > > I will repeat: when separated from family, community, and nature, we > experience a critical breach of what we could term the wholeness of being. > > For humans, involuntary isolation could well be the ultimate terror (which > is why being put away’ in solitary ‘ is such a barbaric mode of ‘correction’). > > Such ‘isolation’ is now, sadly, near-chronic in EM societies (vide > Ministries of Loneliness) > > It may well account for the unmistakable madness of our (EM) age, in the > final stages of what I have termed, in my recent book (2017) ‘Human > Devolution’. > > I will conclude by repeating my principal thesis : in virtually Everything > it claims , represents, or commends, Euromodernism is categorically mistaken > : and , worse, more often than not, positively injurious to human > existence. > > The sooner we see through, and reject, its many charades, the sooner we > might have a chance to save what still remains of our social, natural , and > emotive/personal, world. > > *EuroModernism , or EM, for short, is my term for the specific form of > Modernism that Europe first invented, and imposed on itself, and its > benighted populace, and then exported - perforce, to its everlasting > detriment - to the world at large. > > > > R E F E R E N > C E S > > > > Kanth, R. Breaking with the Enlightenment, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997 > > _______ Farewell to Modernism, NY: Peter Lang, 2017 > > [©R.Kanth 2018] > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net > > Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: > http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation > > Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; > http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens > > > > > _______________________________________________ > P2P Foundation - Mailing list > > Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net > Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net > > Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by > making a donation. Thank you for your support. > https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation > > https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
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