Ouch! It seems to me that My Special Type of Agony motivated by my status as The Intelligent One of every friend group is not That Special!! Where could I find another claim to uniqueness in this comments section? Perhaps I may ask if you are familiar Harrison White’s theory of switchings under uncertainty? If not, I think you would enjoy the vocabulary to describe struggles for control in status games.
heh I decided to combat this early by piling so many responsibilities from my image of uniqueness (kids) upon myself, that now I am chronically too exhausted to worry about it at all 😎
I wonder if “become your own reference, n of 1” is actually an escape from the status game or just the final, most sophisticated reference switch. None of us invent ourselves in isolation. Our tastes, ambitions, categories and even our idea of what counts as “meaningful” are social all the way down.
Capitalism, especially the permanently online variant through social media, monetises the fuck out of insecurity, but it didn’t invent status, vanity or the human urge to have the shiniest necklace in the village. Maybe the healthier move isn’t becoming uncategorisable, it’s getting more comfortable with being ordinary while still being particular. Possibly harder, but probably more interesting.
im glad you have figured this out, but unfortunately i myself am an uncategorizable enigma completely unlike every other person in every way
Aren't we all...
Love that you do bibliomancy with A Thousand Plateaus too - though I guess now I have to accept that doesn't make me special..
hahaha thanks for sharing
Ouch! It seems to me that My Special Type of Agony motivated by my status as The Intelligent One of every friend group is not That Special!! Where could I find another claim to uniqueness in this comments section? Perhaps I may ask if you are familiar Harrison White’s theory of switchings under uncertainty? If not, I think you would enjoy the vocabulary to describe struggles for control in status games.
heh I decided to combat this early by piling so many responsibilities from my image of uniqueness (kids) upon myself, that now I am chronically too exhausted to worry about it at all 😎
ooh ya, Sun Ra
all praise octopusyarn
I wonder if “become your own reference, n of 1” is actually an escape from the status game or just the final, most sophisticated reference switch. None of us invent ourselves in isolation. Our tastes, ambitions, categories and even our idea of what counts as “meaningful” are social all the way down.
Capitalism, especially the permanently online variant through social media, monetises the fuck out of insecurity, but it didn’t invent status, vanity or the human urge to have the shiniest necklace in the village. Maybe the healthier move isn’t becoming uncategorisable, it’s getting more comfortable with being ordinary while still being particular. Possibly harder, but probably more interesting.
Viewing everything in society as a status game and all behaviors driven by incentives is a good starting point.