• Registered: 2005-03-07

Topic: Alienation

It seems obvious to me that our civilization fosters alienation. 

The car is insulating.  Literally.  It physically separates you from warmth or wind or cold and the experience of being outside. 

Housing is separative.  We live mostly in single-family units or alone.

Movie theatres, in the last ten years I've noticed, have even begun building seats with individual armrests so that one doesn't have to go through the uncomfortable motions of either keeping one's arm in one's lap or occupying an armrest at the expense of another arm (or, even more uncomfortable, actually touching a stranger!)

Yet, while alienation is built into our existence through a wide variety of physical technologies and conveniences, the alienation is also obviously deeper.  I mean, normally, people who drive cars don't suddenly strike up friendly conversations on a bus merely because the physical, alienating barrier has been taken away.

The alienation is physical and mental. 

...I tried to explaining to somebody the other day how trippy I think it is that our culture is almost constantly viewing a type of simulacra.  The person didn't get it.  I had to say something like, "Imagine that it's 1900, and you're hearing a radio recording for the first time ever, and you think it's magic, like: 'Hey, how are they doing that?...It's pulling the sound out of the air?  But I don't hear anything in the air around the thing...Radiowaves?  What's radiowaves?'"  The person from 1900 is as aware of the device as they are of the sound from it; in 2006, for many, talking on the phone is more or less the same as spending time with someone. 

We're surrounded by electronic representations of things instead of the real things.  Instead of an evening walk, people unwind by listening to pre-recorded crickets.  We've torn down wetlands and installed 24 Hour Fitnesses with jogging tracks and maybe, maybe, a watercolor painting of a nature scene in the brushed steel lobby. 

Weirder than the alienation is the alienation from the feeling of alienation.  The group approval of the controlled simulacra over the "chaotic" real.  Would there be as many sitcoms if everybody shared an apartment with three or four of their college friends?

Is the physical alienation the progenitor of the mental?  Or is there mental alienation that has nothing to do with the conditioning of physical barriers?  The concept of "Other" is probably the beginning of alienation.  But, from there, how does it enter our lives and what does it look like at that point?

You can't change a tiger's stripes,
but you can avoid its teeth.

2 Reply by E3mpirical1 (edited by E3mpirical1 2006-02-05 23:49:15)

  • From: Florida
  • Registered: 2004-12-23

Re: Alienation

Yup we're learning to not-trust ourselves because we all think we're evil, IMO I believe most of this is very subjective though. Boundries are meant to be broken because there really are none.

I want to get back to the subjective part though because I believe there is a very important aspect to it. I think that the reason why this alienation exists is because; by getting to know other people we are getting to know ourselves more. Think about it.... while at the same time we're getting to know that person they're also reflecting a little bit of us back while also refelcting all of the 'other people' that they have met before.
To be honest, and even psycology or sociology determines this that we are really nobody. We are all reflections of ourselves. And to be honest I think we are all afraid of "our-selves".   Just to go a little deeper in thought, I think ALL of us are in essense love but evil fears love.

  • Registered: 2005-12-27

Re: Alienation

We also live in an alien nation, where many of us are foreign to this realm.  It is much easier now to become a hermit then in the past.  I shut myself up for weeks barely going out for social contact.  You have the internet, video games, TV.  I have lived in fear of people for so long, now I need to try and break out. 

Good topic.

"...But Nothing is Lost:" "Nothing lasts... nothing lasts. Everything is changing into something else. Nothing's wrong. Nothing is wrong. Everything is on track. William Blake said nothing is lost and I believe that we all move on." - Terrence McKenna - Shpongle - But Nothing Is Lost
  • Registered: 2005-03-07

Re: Alienation

Capitan wrote:

We also live in an alien nation, where many of us are foreign to this realm.  It is much easier now to become a hermit then in the past.  I shut myself up for weeks...

I "got" a cat last November, and having a cat around has super-highlighted the issue of my own domestication and patterns of solitude. 

From the beginning I decided I wanted a "wild" cat: he would be indoor/outdoor (though he's not exactly free to come and go since I don't have a cat-door), he would keep his claws, he would keep his balls, I'll let him eat birds--on my back porch--if he ever catches one, and I haven't taken him for an immunization yet.  I'm considering the rabies vaccination, but I wonder how many cases of cat rabies there really are.  I'm the Humane Society's worst nightmare. 

Anyway, my point is is he loves being outside, hates to be alone, and acts out if he's either indoors for too long or alone for too long.  And observing that has made me question my own emotional gradient regarding those two issues, domestication and solitude.

A friend wrote to me today that alienation probably began with domestication.  I think I agree.  But what is domestication?  Are we domesticating the earth and ourselves when we first build shelter?  I think not because there are plenty of animal species who build shelters--even elaborate shelters, and yet aren't considered to be apart from nature like humans are.  Where does domestication begin?

You can't change a tiger's stripes,
but you can avoid its teeth.
  • morningsun76
  • morningsun76
  • the answer has been with you the whole time
  • Offline
  • From: In two worlds
  • Registered: 2004-09-10

Re: Alienation

dreamosis wrote:

A friend wrote to me today that alienation probably began with domestication.  I think I agree ... Where does domestication begin?

I'm not sure whether domestication = alienation, but I'd venture a guess that alienation begins right around the time that you forget about the Spirit, and start taking yourself too seriously.