Radicalized uncertainty intensifies society’s hunger for orienting narratives

Evidence

Capitalist societies have always relied on their capacity to anticipate, imagine, and speculate on the future in order to navigate its uncertainty and volatility. But what happens to our power of imagination in the era of populist demagogues, “fake news,” and “culture wars,” when uncertainty becomes radicalized and the boundary between reality and fiction fades away? Deep economic, political, and environmental crises have marked the twenty-first century’s first two decades. The world over, trust in public institutions and scientific knowledge is eroding, liberal democracies are becoming hollowed out, and a global tide of nationalist populism is on a precipitous rise. Our era seems to be on a hinge. Time itself feels anxious and unpredictable, while prevailing orthodoxies are shaken in both economy and polity. As societies strive to formulate responses to the volatile conditions wrought by these profound shake-ups, their need for orienting narratives and myths becomes even greater (Beckert 2016; Bottici 2007). And as we anxiously search for cues with which to imagine such narratives and myths, finance becomes the model for society writ large. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 18

Categorization

• QUESTION: Key causal chain for the book’s core argument: does uncertainty itself raise myth-need, or is it the erosion of alternative institutions (science, democracy)? Worth chasing in the argument.
• DEFINE: First pass at defining the fin-de-siecle condition this book responds to: radicalized uncertainty dissolving fact/fiction boundary.
• XREF: connects to: A culture’s store of cautionary stories shapes its consumption behavior — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 641; A fear of machine consciousness has defined Western storytelling for millennia — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 275; Fictions become the most reliable ordering principle amid collapsing social promises — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 119 (+6 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: A culture’s store of cautionary stories shapes its consumption behavior — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 641; A fear of machine consciousness has defined Western storytelling for millennia — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 275; Fictions become the most reliable ordering principle amid collapsing social promises — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 119 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Uncertainty deepens societies’ need for narratives and makes finance their model #expands (0.92) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 36