Abstraction, modern thought’s key power, operates by effacing the human face

Evidence

A calibre is likewise a complex of abstractions, but without calibration it is not possible to produce real objects—real objects which are social relations, and which implicitly embody ideas. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 368 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Instead of asserting an illusory “authentic subjectivity” which supposedly lies beneath the costumes and the cosmetics, Siouxsie and Grace Jones revelled in becoming objects of the gaze. Both would no doubt have appreciated the derision Baudrillard poured upon the strategy of unmasking appearances in Seduction: “There is no God behind the images and the very nothingness they conceal must remain a secret.” Siouxsie and Jones’ embracing of their objectality testifies to the fact that there is a scopic drive that cult studs whining about “being reduced to an object” has always ignored: the exhibitionist drive to be seen. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1039 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Shared techniques render the world’s face identical for everyone; Thought itself operates as an epitomist that foreshortens events into abstractions. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1022; Modernity’s admired and genocidal faces belong to one inseparable body — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 54 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Abstractions are required to produce real social objects #complicates (0.76) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 368
• Embracing objectification can itself be a form of agency and power #complicates (0.74) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1039