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Every form of rule has its own devotional objects. The theologian Ernst Troeltsch speaks of 'devotional objects that fascinate the imagination of the people'. These objects stabilize rule by making it habitual and anchoring it in the body. In German, devot also means submissive.
Smartphones have established themselves as the devotional objects of the neoliberal regime. As apparatuses that serve the purpose of submission, they resemble the rosary, which is just as mobile and handy. The like is the digital amen. By clicking on the like button, we submit ourselves to the context of rule.
Non-Things
Byung-Chul Han and Daniel Steuer
A book worth reading:
[*Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism*](https://t.densediscovery.com/CL0/https:%2F%2Fapp.thestorygraph.com%2Fbooks%2F51c3c209-fca4-4cb3-afbc-ff5ed60e2e75%3Futm_source=DenseDiscovery-276/1/0100018dc335b931-f58ebea6-67ef-4c70-8014-cbced3479dd0-000000/0Gekjb-tb0PrWygBGCIvaV04WMRKG_NIe940HbSYx9w=340) lived up to its gripping title. The book helped me realise how stale the idea of capitalism that we cling onto is, and how related discourse keeps us frozen in the arguments of the past. All the while, the rug gets pulled out from under us.
276 / Why We Need New Relationship Models
Dense Discovery
Inside, I ran into Jay Knowles, the Music Row songwriter. (It was a small town in a big city.) We talked about Nashville’s recent reputation as “Bachelorette City,” for which he offered a theory: although more than a quarter of Nashville was Black, the town was widely seen as “a white-coded city.” “I’m not saying this is a good thing,” he emphasized, but tourists viewed Nashville as a safe space, a city where groups of young white women could freely get drunk in public—unlike, say, Memphis, New Orleans, or Atlanta.
Country Music’s Culture Wars and the Remaking of Nashville | The New Yorker
Emily Nussbaum
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