Raúl Duke
15th May 2012, 16:42
I don't know if this is political or not...
But I feel like US society in particular, perhaps Western society in general, has a strong rhetoric about "freedom/autonomy" and how we can all "fashion our future" anyway we desire, more or less. It's especially noticeable in some trends of "pop-philosophy" (the Secret and anything espousing magical thinking being the ultimate examples of this; just think it and you can change the universe!) but I also noticed it to some extent within some strands of Existentialism (it's certainly the part of existentialism that annoys me).
Yet I feel this "freedom/autonomy" rhetoric is basically all cliche, a pack of false platitudes. It usually comes across like this to me, as platitudes, anytime I despair and people respond with "oh you can change it all, just do it!" It sounds like platitudes to me, it totally ignores structural oppression within capitalism. There are things I cannot do because I don't have money. The less money/income/assets you have the less free (to some degree) you are in this world, especially so if you have debts as well.
But this rhetoric, these "common-sense" platitudes that people spout off with out much thought as a truism just to feel good, are so ingrained in society it seems. I remember talking to someone recently and she mentioned a few of these cliches but than we began to examine the certainty/truthfulness about them and couldn't seem to find any. It became apparent that uncertainty abounds.
(another platitude I hear often is the whole "everything will eventually be allright" one)
What's you all's opinion on this? Or am I being just tooooo pessimistic?
But I feel like US society in particular, perhaps Western society in general, has a strong rhetoric about "freedom/autonomy" and how we can all "fashion our future" anyway we desire, more or less. It's especially noticeable in some trends of "pop-philosophy" (the Secret and anything espousing magical thinking being the ultimate examples of this; just think it and you can change the universe!) but I also noticed it to some extent within some strands of Existentialism (it's certainly the part of existentialism that annoys me).
Yet I feel this "freedom/autonomy" rhetoric is basically all cliche, a pack of false platitudes. It usually comes across like this to me, as platitudes, anytime I despair and people respond with "oh you can change it all, just do it!" It sounds like platitudes to me, it totally ignores structural oppression within capitalism. There are things I cannot do because I don't have money. The less money/income/assets you have the less free (to some degree) you are in this world, especially so if you have debts as well.
But this rhetoric, these "common-sense" platitudes that people spout off with out much thought as a truism just to feel good, are so ingrained in society it seems. I remember talking to someone recently and she mentioned a few of these cliches but than we began to examine the certainty/truthfulness about them and couldn't seem to find any. It became apparent that uncertainty abounds.
(another platitude I hear often is the whole "everything will eventually be allright" one)
What's you all's opinion on this? Or am I being just tooooo pessimistic?