When concepts meet particulars only externally, administration can brand and liquidate individuals

Evidence

But because apologizing and changing our minds online is so often framed as a weakness, we either hold our tongues or risk ridicule. Friends, family, and acquaintances can see a person who lives and grows in space and time, but the crowd can only see a figure who is expected to be as monolithic and timeless as a brand. Having worked for an old and widely recognized clothing company, I know firsthand that the pillars of any brand are internal coherence and consistency over time. (That’s literally what we called them at work: “brand pillars.”) For a brand as for a public figure—which, as we now know, any Twitter user can accidentally become overnight—change, ambiguity, and contradiction are anathema. “You have one identity,” Mark Zuckerberg famously said. “The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly.” He added that “having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 552 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

As employees, men are reminded of the rational organization and urged to fit in like sensible people. As customers, the freedom of choice, the charm of novelty, is demonstrated to them on the screen or in the press by means of the human and personal anecdote. In either case they remain objects. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Public figurehood under brand logic forbids change, ambiguity, and contradiction; Deliberately mismanaging one’s brand can liberate the person trapped inside it. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 170; Corporate brand logic imposes a forced timeless consistency on personal identity — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 552 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Public figurehood under brand logic forbids change, ambiguity, and contradiction #expands (0.85)
• Corporate brand logic imposes a forced timeless consistency on personal identity #corroborates (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 552
• Deliberately mismanaging one’s brand can liberate the person trapped inside it. #contradicts (0.80) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 170
• People are reduced to objects whether addressed as employees or consumers #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113
• Personal branding requires an internal doubling that alienates and erodes trust #qualifies (0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 201
• Confusion between two public figures is understood as a branding crisis #exemplifies (0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 150