One-Dimensional Man

A prelude: I do not plan on re-reading these posts after I write them. They mostly exist for myself so I may be able to somewhat organize my thoughts. I hope you can get beyond any grammatical errors so we may discuss the more important issues in the content, if you wish.

A middle-class family sits around the dinner table, long after the meal is done. There is a spirited discussion concerning nationalistic biases, social stereotypes, and political issues, with input coming from representatives of three generations. There is attacking and defending of perspective, morality, and personal values, but there is certainly an air of detachment in the dialogue which allows for all issues to be resolved while also allowing for quick and painless subject changes. There are big issues that arise for sure; issues that change the direction of an entire life. Yet there is a sense of conservative calm which, in the end, chooses to resolve the dialectical tensions that may have eventually forced someone to actually reflect on their own, personal world view. 

At one point in the discussion a generational gap was pointed out between the youth of the sixties and the youth of today, in regards to why my generation seems so apathetic. "Why aren't you guys storming the administration buildings like we did?" Moving completely away from this particular situation, I am going to provide an answer which hopefully synthesizes a lot of the ideas I have been reflecting on but have been too lazy to write down.

The entire history of Western thought has been a constant process of creating binary oppositions. The Ancient Greeks took the most famous philosophical binary of all, good versus evil, from the mythos (religion for the purpose of this discussion). Our morality is thus shaped in a way that we view good as superior to evil.  Another opposition which I find interesting is that of reality versus appearance, because although the division itself is certainly ambiguous outside of the realm of metaphysics, we still seem to blindly favor a "reality" which can always and absolutely be achieved by rational methods in some form or another. In as few sentences as possible, this is a two-thousand year tradition which has seeped through every aspect of our Western civilization, from the most psychological to the most universally accepted truths of society and culture. I'd love to spend more time on this thesis, but I'd rather apply it to a situation and give it some sort of social significance.

In reply to the question of our generation's assumed apathy, I presented this problem of binary oppositions and dialectical thought. It is our system of thought at it's very core and in it's most pervasive form which has defined our "modern" world. Yes, Marxism divided society into the "haves" and the "have-nots," favoring the revolutionary proletariat over the oppressive bourgeoisie, and from that point on the oppressed lower classes were forever limited to proletarian revolution. Unfortunately, Capitalism (which we have come to accept as superior to it's binary opposite) has created it's own division of society into the individual versus the collective. So now we have all of these multiple divisions working together to further and further divide. Yet although we can never (with objective assurance) pinpoint any individual into a specific category, we continue to hold onto this system of rational thought in hopes of finding some higher truth or reality which will somehow help us avoid living our lives based on appearances. 

Why am I not storming the White House to stop this? We are far beyond binary oppositions in terms of the way the younger generation naturally perceives it's world. We understand that the triumph of good over evil (or hippie over dean of college in this argument) is not so black or white anymore, and that the level of complexity in our cultural environment solely based on the fact that the internet exists has increased drastically. While this seems common sense to many, it takes a constant critical reflection of both the self and anything we consider "other" to really live up to the open-minded attitude which this ambiguity creates. 

Perhaps the most problematic division we have created is between what has come to be known as "high" and "low." In creating this division, the entire metaphysical tradition of critical thought and self-reflection has greatly limited itself. To even call academia "liberal" or "conservative" just plays into this dehumanizing opposition. What is needed is a true synthesis of the rationality of academia with the emotionality of popular culture, unfortunately the entire rational mode of thinking and dividing things into categories has crippled any path toward progress. Meanwhile in popular culture, the drive for money and profit has prevented critical thought and social progress in everything from art to healthcare. 

I don't expect this situation to change anytime soon, I think all I have ever asked of both myself and my society is to continue to critique our situation and to keep an open mind as much as possible despite everything. Unfortunately I have even marginalized many important things in creating this blog, yet I have a lot more to say with seemingly unlimited web space. Utilizing the technology of our generation also seems to be an important aspect of my life. You would be surprised at how many people of our age are still afraid of music made with machines.