Acceleration generates institutions that then block further speed and get destroyed
Evidence
Thus it becomes apparent that the relationship between inertia and movement in the history of modernity is not to be understood as a linear advance from the former to the latter and hence as a linear acceleration of social change. Rather, in a peculiar way, it follows more closely the dialectical developmental logic of forces of production and relations of production worked out by Marx and Engels. It seems that the dynamic forces of acceleration themselves produce the institutions and forms of practice they need in accordance with the respective requirements of their further unfolding and then annihilate them again upon reaching the speed limits those forms have made possible. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 299
Categorization
- DEFINE: Announces the core dialectical thesis: inertia and movement alternate dialectically rather than progress linearly.
- ADDENDUM: Parallel to infrastructure essays: accelerating forces build supporting forms then outgrow and discard them, as trees/structures/tamarisks get superseded.
- XREF: connects to: Accelerating biological processes makes them disposable and short-lived — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 270; Acceleration generates slowdowns and stoppages as its own side effects — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 276; Apparent slowdowns are not counterforces but products of acceleration itself — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 294 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Modernity’s acceleration corrodes the very institutional stability it depends on
#expands(0.85) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 297 - Stable institutions paradoxically enable rapid social acceleration
#contradicts(0.80) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 296 - Social acceleration erodes the institutions that once stabilized chosen identities.
#exemplifies(0.80) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 32