You are right on the meaning point and the destabalising consequences of a continuous presence - but to project an alternative we need to find answers to people's quest for meaning.
The awareness mission seems to have an inherent instability. Awareness raising does not spontaneously produce meaning. Neither does the attempt to distance the aware from the unaware. I would describe the fate of awareness raising as inextricably linked to a process called cultural quantitative easing. Like its economic counterpart, cultural QE needs to import more and more external meaning (money). It has to do this because it cannot produce enough meaning spontaneously (profit). This process of printing or importing meaning creates a strain on the whole system.
This strain is manifest in instability and a corresponding insecurity. It affects three classes: the unaware; the aware and awareness dissenters. Each of the three are trapped in a continuous present that demands more and more external importation of meaning. At any point, any one of the three can be cancelled. The effects and circumstances of the cancellation of the aware are different but can be just as dramatic. This is partly why we have the fascinating and frightening spectacle of the problem hungry (meaning hungry) elites never solving problems. Can a vampire drink too much blood?
This is why the tyranny of the continuous present is so destabilising. Tantalisingly, this instability provides very fertile ground for counter attack and a collective assertion of shared sovereignty. Continuity with the past, a shared strategic vision creates the conditions for strong, self generating meaning and motivation. Quantitative easing has had its day.
You are right on the meaning point and the destabalising consequences of a continuous presence - but to project an alternative we need to find answers to people's quest for meaning.
The awareness mission seems to have an inherent instability. Awareness raising does not spontaneously produce meaning. Neither does the attempt to distance the aware from the unaware. I would describe the fate of awareness raising as inextricably linked to a process called cultural quantitative easing. Like its economic counterpart, cultural QE needs to import more and more external meaning (money). It has to do this because it cannot produce enough meaning spontaneously (profit). This process of printing or importing meaning creates a strain on the whole system.
This strain is manifest in instability and a corresponding insecurity. It affects three classes: the unaware; the aware and awareness dissenters. Each of the three are trapped in a continuous present that demands more and more external importation of meaning. At any point, any one of the three can be cancelled. The effects and circumstances of the cancellation of the aware are different but can be just as dramatic. This is partly why we have the fascinating and frightening spectacle of the problem hungry (meaning hungry) elites never solving problems. Can a vampire drink too much blood?
This is why the tyranny of the continuous present is so destabilising. Tantalisingly, this instability provides very fertile ground for counter attack and a collective assertion of shared sovereignty. Continuity with the past, a shared strategic vision creates the conditions for strong, self generating meaning and motivation. Quantitative easing has had its day.