Disintermediation atomized society into isolated individuals
Evidence
Western democracies had endured a slow but steady process of disintermediation: the bodies (parties, unions, churches, clubs, etc.) that used to link the citizens to society declined everywhere, thereby causing the extreme fragmentation and disorganization of the social groups to which the left used to appeal. These developments, coupled with the increasing digitalization of politics, have added considerable complexity to the century-old substantial dilemma. Aggregating disparate interests is a totally different game these days: rather than the 1890s or the 1930s, today’s social landscape looks more like 1848’s “sack of potatoes.” — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 82
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Digital light-touch organization suits today’s disorganized democracy — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 83; Social media grew in a civic void and then accelerated that void — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 277; Online communities lack the thick involuntary bonds of offline associations — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 277 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Radical socialization through exchange produces absolute solitude and alienation
#corroborates(0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 67 - Emancipation from society weakens rather than empowers the individual
#corroborates(0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 169 - Advanced capitalism generates a false conviction of individual centrality that blocks collective action
#corroborates(0.78) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 808 - Individuality is simultaneously a residue escaping the system and a wound the system inflicts
#expands(0.72)