This is such an important point that needs considering by everyone disappointed by the result today: "Harris is a neoliberal technocrat who was supported by a sclerotic Democratic party, an institution that holds the progressive mantle while being fundamentally corporate and conservative in nature. Harris offered more of the same, at a time when insight and transfomation were called for. Those who lament Trump’s victory should also lament the absence of a powerful story of the present and vision of the future - that is an even bigger problem than Trump’s victory, and part of its basis, as argued for instance by Bruno Latour in Down to Earth." Bang on
I read somewhere that fascism in America wouldn't present as sincere but as comedy and the next (first!) American dictator wouldn't be a super serious strong man but a comedian. (serious v. literal) The far-right simply adapted post modern style critique - point, deconstruct, and laugh (along with Russian disinformation tactics). Americans despise our current idiotic and corrupt system and Trump offers ridicule of it. Until the morality/ethics Dems/progressives give lip service to are manifested in real policy (end support for Israel's genocide), support American workers, regulate/end factory farming, regulate/punish business interests that exploit, etc OR until the Dems can be sincere instead of opportunistically maintaining a corrupt and exploitative system they will continue to lose. There's a genre that out competes comedy in its effective ability to transform (as the Greeks knew) - tragedy.
Your depiction of Harris as a corporate with little to offer beyond more of the same. It's depressing to see such an obvious con artist as Trump being capable of getting so many people convinced in the goodness of his offerings. This level of delusion by so many electors tells us how desperate they are to believe in something, even from someone as executable as Trump.
Having watched the saga from my perch on the southern tip of Africa, where the same analysis could be applied to our recent electoral outcome, at least South Africa has the Judiciary to turn to. In the USA Trump has already eviscerated that domain of the State.
My greatest concern is that the Trump will now have Elon Musk in his cabinet who will continue to wreak havoc with his delusional assumption that pumping up the free flow of information will equate to greater truth. As Yuval Noah Harari writes, in a sea of information truth sinks to the bottom, and it is going to require costly salvage operations to find it. Ever since the French Revolution we have seen a dynamic tension between Power, Truth and Liberty. The contestation between Power and Truth requires Liberty. That is what liberalism is really all about, isn't it?
Thanks John. I didn't know that Harari line, which is good.
"In a sea of information truth sinks to the bottom".
I am not sure about the dynamic tension between power, truth and liberty, but yes, I see what you mean. The expression "speak truth to power" tacitly assumes that one is free to do so.
In Anne Applebaum & Peter Pomerantsev podcast, Autocracy in America, she speaks to ‘when truth becomes a subset of power’… in rising autocracies. And Anne’s recent award speech in Germany, posted to her Substack, brilliantly reflects the larger existential threat that higher-information Americans see.. the post-modern support structures of autocracy… that is operating more precisely in the US.
I might have paraphrased Harari a bit. Noah has been on my mind a bit. Noah Harari, Trevor Noah (much better South African export than Musk) and Noah of the Ark fame himself. I am feeling like I am going to have to start building a metaphorical ark myself by developing a legal case for our Constitutional Court to exercise its prerogative to compel our Legislature and Executive domains to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who speak truth to power against the capricious retaliation by power against truth. It is our only "hope" but burdensome to handle, as John Cleese observes.
There's also something important in your last point to build on, about allowing ourselves to feel the grief, without trying to suppress it or gee ourselves up. We are taught in the West to deny emotion, but it is bringing stuff for us to process, if we let it pass through us.. i.e. feel it, acknowledge it, let it fully 'burn through', while (and this is important) not acting or speaking while we are in the activated state (which just multiplies and spreads the negativity). Once it has been fully felt, there is usually clarity underneath, and access to the true other side of the polarity. I'm sure you've probably experienced this before, and I think a lot of people have already found this through mindfulness type practices.
Now is the time to use them, because we need to collectively hold a really wide polarity. The skill of holding polarities (not collapsing into them) is something we all really need to develop much more, especially the skill of doing it together and supporting each other. It's a step up to approaching life from the perspective of nonduality, which is one of the things being required of us right now.
I have actually written a short post about this (my first ever on substack!) and if you find it insightful, please do share it. It's only a 3 minute read https://substack.com/home/post/p-151223253?
Kojin Karatani's thoughts about isonomia, as described in The Structure of World History is investigated further in his follow-up companion book Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy. Karatani examines isonomy with the idea that it can help inform what he envisions as a future ideal "mode of exchange," which he refers to as Mode of Exchange D. This "Mode of Exchange D" is then further developed in his most recent book, Powers and Modes of Exchange, of which the English translation is expected to be available in early 2025.
I see Karatani's vision for Mode D as a correlate with Jean Gebser's integral structure of consciousness, which is what Cynthia Bourgealt is referencing in the quote you pulled from her recent book:
"We will either make the leap to the next level of conscious evolution - the so called ‘integral’ level or capacity to think from the whole - or we will wipe out a good part of a planetary legacy millions of years in the making..."
Peter Pogany was also a Jean Gebser scholar who equated the integral structure with what he called Global System 3. To get to GS3 unfortunately seems to require a chaotic transition of perhaps epic proportion, which is where we seem to be now. Whether we successfully make the transition, or whether we "wipe out a good part of a planetary legacy" remains to be seen.
Michel Bauwens' summaries of Karatani are very good and helpful, which you linked to in the post. Also, Karatani himself has made this summary available:
I voted for Harris only to try to get rid of Trump but I didn’t expect such clear support for Trump. It’s a big wake up call for people like me who live in comfortable bubbles, to know that over 70 million Americans think so differently from me. My feeling is that America is embarking on a period of chaos which will dismantle liberal democracy and that does not have to be a bad thing. Perhaps we are headed towards something like Isonomia a few decades from now.
Very thoughtful piece. Philosophy helps to try understand where we are and how we might respond, however given this material world, we really need to track economics through this current tapestry. It's a powerful thread and I suspect most voters were focussed on their own financial situation. It seems this election is very much a response to economics but from different perspectives of this longstanding neoclassical applied theory. The wealthy want more power (less regulation) still while the other end of this economic spectrum are suffering and have somehow drank the Trump koolaide of support for their plight. I suspect the economic divide will increase and that will fuel warring passions. This issue is global and the responses may also be global - including racism and anti-immigration. The outcome may also be destabilizing the global economy as the US$ looses prominence as the 'standard'?
Your commentary provides helpful perspective. Thank you.
I think it's the "end of the liberal order" that resonates the most for me right now. Something has died. I think we knew it was dying, but now it's gone. And yes, the hope of it was substantive for many of us.
My mind is in the midst of reconfiguring for a world where money talks and social status and connection are the driving forces. Heh. Was it ever any different? For a while, we dreamed that it could be, at the scale of a nation. That dream doesn't have to die, but as humans our dreams weave in and out of what we perceive and experience as reality, and the Trump victory portends, for me, the end of "free and fair" elections.
Trump could well be the best president anyone could hope for, but during his time, can make subtly systemic changes that will be very difficult to undo without undoing a whole lot of other stuff.
It seems like the days when I could hide my right to influence are past. "Democracy" let me point the finger at the vague "we" you have written about. But now, there is nowhere to hide. I must step up to whatever influence I can, and this will inevitably involve some compromise which subverts claims on/confidence in pure and unsullied principles.
In other words, life just got messier. Or it's my perceptions of life that are now messier, and this might not be a bad thing.
So many ways into this.. thanks for all your thoughts above Jonathan. Adding a few more builds - neoliberalism has finally been recognised as dead and the embalming process was rejected. We are now tipping strongly into the decay phase, as that was the only channel that change was allowed to come in through. This is going to be difficult and degrading, as the forces of decomposition (think scavenger and fungus energy) also degrade what might otherwise be healthy and curable, but we are where we are. Trump has a very strong shadow, he is bringing out all our shadows. If we can stay conscious and not collapse into our shadows, individually and collectively, there is an important alchemical opportunity for transformation, perhaps at many levels... individual.. .group... society....?? We are all going to need to help each other to do this.
Also interesting you mention the 36 'balance holders', Sufism has a similar lore. And certainly, I think anyone on a spiritual path can feel the increased levels of support at the moment, if you can feel it, trust it, lean into it.
On a more worldly level, the real winner of the election currently seems to be Musk, it turned out to be cheaper to buy America than twitter. He is part of the Nrx neofeudal Silicon Valley contingent and they are actively keen for neoliberalism to decay into a neofeudal structure with them at the top. I think we need to all bear this in mind when we use AI and when we engage with the digital and financial spheres.
I'm very much in agreement on the "hopelessness before hope" idea. Maybe by wallowing in the despair of this moment for a bit, a realistic reason to be hopeful will emerge. I'm so over the "hopium" of wishful thinking.
This is such an important point that needs considering by everyone disappointed by the result today: "Harris is a neoliberal technocrat who was supported by a sclerotic Democratic party, an institution that holds the progressive mantle while being fundamentally corporate and conservative in nature. Harris offered more of the same, at a time when insight and transfomation were called for. Those who lament Trump’s victory should also lament the absence of a powerful story of the present and vision of the future - that is an even bigger problem than Trump’s victory, and part of its basis, as argued for instance by Bruno Latour in Down to Earth." Bang on
I read somewhere that fascism in America wouldn't present as sincere but as comedy and the next (first!) American dictator wouldn't be a super serious strong man but a comedian. (serious v. literal) The far-right simply adapted post modern style critique - point, deconstruct, and laugh (along with Russian disinformation tactics). Americans despise our current idiotic and corrupt system and Trump offers ridicule of it. Until the morality/ethics Dems/progressives give lip service to are manifested in real policy (end support for Israel's genocide), support American workers, regulate/end factory farming, regulate/punish business interests that exploit, etc OR until the Dems can be sincere instead of opportunistically maintaining a corrupt and exploitative system they will continue to lose. There's a genre that out competes comedy in its effective ability to transform (as the Greeks knew) - tragedy.
Well said.
Your depiction of Harris as a corporate with little to offer beyond more of the same. It's depressing to see such an obvious con artist as Trump being capable of getting so many people convinced in the goodness of his offerings. This level of delusion by so many electors tells us how desperate they are to believe in something, even from someone as executable as Trump.
Having watched the saga from my perch on the southern tip of Africa, where the same analysis could be applied to our recent electoral outcome, at least South Africa has the Judiciary to turn to. In the USA Trump has already eviscerated that domain of the State.
My greatest concern is that the Trump will now have Elon Musk in his cabinet who will continue to wreak havoc with his delusional assumption that pumping up the free flow of information will equate to greater truth. As Yuval Noah Harari writes, in a sea of information truth sinks to the bottom, and it is going to require costly salvage operations to find it. Ever since the French Revolution we have seen a dynamic tension between Power, Truth and Liberty. The contestation between Power and Truth requires Liberty. That is what liberalism is really all about, isn't it?
Thanks John. I didn't know that Harari line, which is good.
"In a sea of information truth sinks to the bottom".
I am not sure about the dynamic tension between power, truth and liberty, but yes, I see what you mean. The expression "speak truth to power" tacitly assumes that one is free to do so.
In Anne Applebaum & Peter Pomerantsev podcast, Autocracy in America, she speaks to ‘when truth becomes a subset of power’… in rising autocracies. And Anne’s recent award speech in Germany, posted to her Substack, brilliantly reflects the larger existential threat that higher-information Americans see.. the post-modern support structures of autocracy… that is operating more precisely in the US.
I might have paraphrased Harari a bit. Noah has been on my mind a bit. Noah Harari, Trevor Noah (much better South African export than Musk) and Noah of the Ark fame himself. I am feeling like I am going to have to start building a metaphorical ark myself by developing a legal case for our Constitutional Court to exercise its prerogative to compel our Legislature and Executive domains to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who speak truth to power against the capricious retaliation by power against truth. It is our only "hope" but burdensome to handle, as John Cleese observes.
Here is the link to the interview with Harari that got me thinking. https://youtu.be/toF5PIClNZ4?si=meCgR6UG_S-qd71a
There's also something important in your last point to build on, about allowing ourselves to feel the grief, without trying to suppress it or gee ourselves up. We are taught in the West to deny emotion, but it is bringing stuff for us to process, if we let it pass through us.. i.e. feel it, acknowledge it, let it fully 'burn through', while (and this is important) not acting or speaking while we are in the activated state (which just multiplies and spreads the negativity). Once it has been fully felt, there is usually clarity underneath, and access to the true other side of the polarity. I'm sure you've probably experienced this before, and I think a lot of people have already found this through mindfulness type practices.
Now is the time to use them, because we need to collectively hold a really wide polarity. The skill of holding polarities (not collapsing into them) is something we all really need to develop much more, especially the skill of doing it together and supporting each other. It's a step up to approaching life from the perspective of nonduality, which is one of the things being required of us right now.
I have actually written a short post about this (my first ever on substack!) and if you find it insightful, please do share it. It's only a 3 minute read https://substack.com/home/post/p-151223253?
“intelligent anarchism”, that is an interesting lead.
Yes I’m feeling that a lot this morning. And the good news is that Perspectiva is publishing a book on Anarchism next year.
Kojin Karatani's thoughts about isonomia, as described in The Structure of World History is investigated further in his follow-up companion book Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy. Karatani examines isonomy with the idea that it can help inform what he envisions as a future ideal "mode of exchange," which he refers to as Mode of Exchange D. This "Mode of Exchange D" is then further developed in his most recent book, Powers and Modes of Exchange, of which the English translation is expected to be available in early 2025.
I see Karatani's vision for Mode D as a correlate with Jean Gebser's integral structure of consciousness, which is what Cynthia Bourgealt is referencing in the quote you pulled from her recent book:
"We will either make the leap to the next level of conscious evolution - the so called ‘integral’ level or capacity to think from the whole - or we will wipe out a good part of a planetary legacy millions of years in the making..."
Peter Pogany was also a Jean Gebser scholar who equated the integral structure with what he called Global System 3. To get to GS3 unfortunately seems to require a chaotic transition of perhaps epic proportion, which is where we seem to be now. Whether we successfully make the transition, or whether we "wipe out a good part of a planetary legacy" remains to be seen.
https://daviddmacleod.substack.com/p/drifting-toward-a-new-form-of-self
Thank you David. Very helpful. Clearly I need to look more deeply into Karatani’s thought.
Michel Bauwens' summaries of Karatani are very good and helpful, which you linked to in the post. Also, Karatani himself has made this summary available:
http://www.kojinkaratani.com/en/pdf/An_Introduction_to_Modes_of_Exchange.pdf
I voted for Harris only to try to get rid of Trump but I didn’t expect such clear support for Trump. It’s a big wake up call for people like me who live in comfortable bubbles, to know that over 70 million Americans think so differently from me. My feeling is that America is embarking on a period of chaos which will dismantle liberal democracy and that does not have to be a bad thing. Perhaps we are headed towards something like Isonomia a few decades from now.
Re: Holidays from hope...
It’s Time To Give Up Hope For A Better Climate & Get Heroic
https://www.noemamag.com/its-time-to-give-up-hope-for-a-better-climate-get-heroic/
Very thoughtful piece. Philosophy helps to try understand where we are and how we might respond, however given this material world, we really need to track economics through this current tapestry. It's a powerful thread and I suspect most voters were focussed on their own financial situation. It seems this election is very much a response to economics but from different perspectives of this longstanding neoclassical applied theory. The wealthy want more power (less regulation) still while the other end of this economic spectrum are suffering and have somehow drank the Trump koolaide of support for their plight. I suspect the economic divide will increase and that will fuel warring passions. This issue is global and the responses may also be global - including racism and anti-immigration. The outcome may also be destabilizing the global economy as the US$ looses prominence as the 'standard'?
I loved this post! I demand more like it, lots more! It is smart and good. Thanks!
Now back to bathing in a sea of despair.
Your commentary provides helpful perspective. Thank you.
I think it's the "end of the liberal order" that resonates the most for me right now. Something has died. I think we knew it was dying, but now it's gone. And yes, the hope of it was substantive for many of us.
My mind is in the midst of reconfiguring for a world where money talks and social status and connection are the driving forces. Heh. Was it ever any different? For a while, we dreamed that it could be, at the scale of a nation. That dream doesn't have to die, but as humans our dreams weave in and out of what we perceive and experience as reality, and the Trump victory portends, for me, the end of "free and fair" elections.
Trump could well be the best president anyone could hope for, but during his time, can make subtly systemic changes that will be very difficult to undo without undoing a whole lot of other stuff.
It seems like the days when I could hide my right to influence are past. "Democracy" let me point the finger at the vague "we" you have written about. But now, there is nowhere to hide. I must step up to whatever influence I can, and this will inevitably involve some compromise which subverts claims on/confidence in pure and unsullied principles.
In other words, life just got messier. Or it's my perceptions of life that are now messier, and this might not be a bad thing.
So many ways into this.. thanks for all your thoughts above Jonathan. Adding a few more builds - neoliberalism has finally been recognised as dead and the embalming process was rejected. We are now tipping strongly into the decay phase, as that was the only channel that change was allowed to come in through. This is going to be difficult and degrading, as the forces of decomposition (think scavenger and fungus energy) also degrade what might otherwise be healthy and curable, but we are where we are. Trump has a very strong shadow, he is bringing out all our shadows. If we can stay conscious and not collapse into our shadows, individually and collectively, there is an important alchemical opportunity for transformation, perhaps at many levels... individual.. .group... society....?? We are all going to need to help each other to do this.
Also interesting you mention the 36 'balance holders', Sufism has a similar lore. And certainly, I think anyone on a spiritual path can feel the increased levels of support at the moment, if you can feel it, trust it, lean into it.
On a more worldly level, the real winner of the election currently seems to be Musk, it turned out to be cheaper to buy America than twitter. He is part of the Nrx neofeudal Silicon Valley contingent and they are actively keen for neoliberalism to decay into a neofeudal structure with them at the top. I think we need to all bear this in mind when we use AI and when we engage with the digital and financial spheres.
I'm very much in agreement on the "hopelessness before hope" idea. Maybe by wallowing in the despair of this moment for a bit, a realistic reason to be hopeful will emerge. I'm so over the "hopium" of wishful thinking.
Intelligent anarchy. I like that idea.
Intelligent Anarchy!
I loved that bit in Bourgeault's book about the 36 conscious beings. Good thought.
We descend into a deeper level of the 2020s, with a wildfire that will consume so new things may grow.
You sound like an arsonist! But I appreciate the thought and know what you mean.
Just trying to see clearly...
Some really helpful insights. Thank you.