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The invocation of souls is interesting, a reminder that this is not the first generation to shape itself for an omniscient eye. What is an all-seeing God, capable of knowing our thoughts and intentions, if not the most effective surveillance tool ever invented? The genius of this form of religion is the way it seduces believers into performing purity in life in order to reap rewards after death. And unlike today’s surveillance state—which knows only what we type, say, and do—monotheistic gods claim to know our intentions as well.
On the one hand, this is a culture that privileges only the present and the immediate – the extirpation of the long term extends backwards as well as forwards in time (for example, media stories monopolize attention for a week or so then are instantly forgotten); on the other hand, it is a culture that is excessively nostalgic, given over to retrospection, incapable of generating any authentic novelty.
Capitalist Realism
Mark Fisher
And action, of course, implies place and community. There can be disembodied thought, but not disembodied action. Action – embodied thought – requires local and communal reference. To act, in short, is to live. Living ‘is a total act. Thinking is a partial act.’ And one does not live alone. Living is a communal act, whether or not its communality is acknowledged.
The World-Ending Fire
Wendell Berry
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