‘Ultimate loyalty is no longer owed to the Institution, the Tradition or Community,
but to The Self’ (Anne Dyer-Witheford)
(‘Neospirituality, Social Change, and the Culture of the Post-Fordist Workplace’ 2017)
Dyer-Witheford’s quote perfectly sums up the reorientation & repurposing of Perennialist Education Philosophy through Progressive & Existentialist Education Philosophy, to Social Reconstructivist Education Philosophy;
‘with the child capable of expressing himself, but in such a way as to
realize social ends’
(G Stanley Hall, John Dewey’s mentor - Wilhelm Wundt’s first American student)
This is the final (2 part) commentary on the affliction of Mere Credulity. A few months ago I rewatched Adam Curtis’ series ‘The Century Of The Self’ and noticed that I hadn’t previously fully appreciated the relationship of Edward Berneys’ ‘Consumer’ Theory in its symbiosis with both Affective Learning and the reduction of Traditional Curriculum Humanities & Arts content to more of a cosmetic, rather than instructional function. A pedagogy of Custom which even Conservatives have been content to enable.
With the advent of 1960s hippy culture, eastern influenced ‘spirituality’ and alternative lifestyles, Berneys developed the technique not just of marketing discrete products, but selling a Lifestyle, or appealing to curated Identity - one which had the potential to become politicized via the manipulation of desires, fears and aspirations. This dynamic of producing & consuming one’s own ‘Self’ (as product) resonates strongly with the utopian ideal of ‘Subjective Self = Objective Self’.
(Photo credit:@ThinkB4Learning)
When I first encountered the term ‘prosumer’ I was immediately reminded of Marx and Self Creation and the Spiritual But Not Religious Personal Development ‘omniscience’.
This mindset harmonizes itself with the Sustainability & Social Justice:
From WW2 ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ to 1990s ‘Psytopiae - arrogating employees’ personal spirituality to the corporations themselves, allowing the latter to be cast as alive and spiritual.’
“Innovative” use of Mindfulness Meditation facilitates employees’ reconstruction of the corporation’s interests as their own; ‘Co-Linearization’.
‘Neospirituality imaginatively collapses the modernist self/other distinction into a unitary world, helping assimilate individual-corporate interests’
What follow are a series of excerpts from (the author oft cited above) Andrew Dawson in his Chapter; ‘Entangled Modernity & Commodified Religion: Alternative Spirituality & ‘The New Middle Class’ (Religion In Consumer Society; Brands, Consumers & Markets (ed. Gauthier & Martikainen, pub. Ashgate).
I won’t comment too much as I think these excerpts shout loud & clear on the matter of conditioning Mere Credulity, especially that of maybe not be the most radicalized teacher in the school, but more significantly, the enablers & supporters on the staff; Idealists who refuse to enact, or embody limiting principles, preferring more ‘wholistic’ approaches.
☝️Queer Theory praxis in a nutshell☝️
☝️ontological consumerism; the subject as ‘entrepreneur of the Self’
‘Virtuoso self-(re)creation’ sounds very much to me like Drag pedagogy.
‘The notion of the prosumer is paradigmatically late modern in that its merger of producer and consumer plays to the contemporary valourization of the individual as the central axis around which all else is held to revolve.’
Now compare that☝️with this👇
‘‘To make Man the One True Sun that revolves around himSelf” (Marx)
quoted recently by Dr James Lindsay in his excellent ‘American Maoism’ lecture:
In closing now, I’ll hand the mic over to Hannah Arendt. Thank you for listening, join me in part 2, following shortly and please do comment below with your own observations & insights of these dynamics at play if you encounter them in your own places of work, education, fellowship and companionship;
Maybe the idea of turning the self into God is an ideal to strive for...impossible, but a nice dreamy sales pitch.
What I see is deification of nature/climate, the Sustainability monster in disguise. The experience of unity may come about as you labor in your transformation, (doing the work (prosumption) required as the producer, in under the illusion of your own agency as this faith provides you with the virtue you should be seeking, that should satisfy the person whose liberation has begun, and the transformation in process.
Basically the tasks (life role, food, any expense or resource of society), as assigned, are to be completed for you to be in good standing of this 'liberation theology'. The faith part of communism for consumption by the current consumers. This is the skin-suit for all of us, not them. They are giving us purpose and permission to transform, but it becomes duty.
Thought provoking post- have to read again because right near the middle I got hung up, so I failed to completely process it.
Thanks for posting
I’m wondering if you’ve come across the work of Alison McDowell yet? She’s at WrenchintheGears and has loads of great research along these lines that might be useful for you.