Modernity’s acceleration corrodes the very institutional stability it depends on
Evidence
This contradiction between the idea of institutions, whose etymological roots in Latin already indicate something standing, inert, and subject to at most incremental change, and the “spirit of modernity” was already seen by Nietzsche in the following formulation of his critique of modernity: “The West as a whole has lost the instincts that give rise to institutions, that give rise to a future: it might well be that nothing rubs its ‘modern spirit’ the wrong way more than this. People live for today, people live very fast,—people live very irresponsibly: and this is precisely what one calls ‘freedom.’ The things that make an institution into an institution are despised, hated, rejected.” — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 297
Categorization
- DEFINE: Etymology of ‘institution’ from Latin denotes standing, inert things — contrast with dynamic modernity.
- XREF: Connects to the standing-directives note ‘Small acts of decorum toward corpses matter more than practical logic’ and to the theme in The Frankfort School book about fascism vs. institutions. — connects to: Modernity’s constitutive acceleration reaches a threshold beyond which societal integration fails — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 120; Modernity is a universal maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 157; Social acceleration compresses the present across all institutional spheres — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 261 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Social acceleration first enabled then collapsed modernity’s promise of autonomy
#expands(0.90) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 23 - Stable background institutions were the precondition for modern acceleration
#qualifies(0.85) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 286 - Modernity’s institutional framework has itself been set in motion.
#corroborates(0.85) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 552 - Sustained capitalist mutation requires new institutional forms, not merely destruction
#complicates(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 156 - Fundamental social change erupts when progress is blocked by anachronistic institutions
#complicates(0.70) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 251