Attention-crisis discourse has become nostalgic, not futuristic

Evidence

In contrast to this necessarily brief sketch, while we complain more than ever at the beginning of the third millennium of information overload, our wailing is now, generally speaking, devoid of hope – except the hope that the future may be wise enough to return us to ways and qualities of life associated with the past. The assessment is unremarkable: our collective inability to pay (serious and effective) attention to the ecological threats and social injustices that threaten our common future translates into an intellectual horizon that is so overcast that it appears completely closed off. Forty years of crisis discourse have revealed the futility of declarations that we are at the end of the tunnel and convinced many that we should turn back – towards the ‘Les Trente Glorieuses’ of a triumphant wage system (which were also the years of unprecedented environmental destruction), towards the Nation State as the sole defender of the politics of social solidarity (sending anything that smacks too much of the world’s misery back to the borders) or towards the tribal values that supposedly guarantee the superiority of our civilization (Christianity, the heterosexual family, the Republic). — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 398

Categorization

• XREF: The 1970s-hope-versus-today-nostalgia arc maps onto the Frankfurt School’s pessimism about the administered society and its turn away from utopian futures. — connects to: Nostalgia is an adjustment mechanism during crises — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 540; Future-oriented discourse masks the loss of a genuine public sphere — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 765; Future-oriented discourse evades present political participation (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Nostalgia is an adjustment mechanism during crises #expands (0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 540
• Future-oriented discourse masks the loss of a genuine public sphere #qualifies (0.72) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 765
• Future-oriented discourse evades present political participation #qualifies (0.72)
• Claimed cultural crisis rhetoric drew on a shared vocabulary borrowed from earlier sources #complicates (0.70) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 533