THE VITAL ILLUSION

catalog

Well-known member
The major thing they seem to wanna debunk is the linear progression idea of history ie "we were all foraging, then hunter gathering, then came farming and we made cities, stored food, had surplus, therefore capitalism as now".

They are saying lots of people did farming for part of the year, then fucked it off and got into little gangs to go hunting. Did that model for a long long time. And there were massive cities before farming took hold, it's all coming up now. A lot of detail about archaeologists not getting it right cos they were in a rush etc
 

catalog

Well-known member
I have bookmarked some bits to paste up later, but the two big early revelations are along the lines of

1. Human consciousness is uniquely formed in dialogue. Their proof is that so many of the early books, from very different cultures, take the form of dialogues. So dissensus 4eva I guess?
2. Humans uniquely conspire against the strong man. They don't like anyone having too much power.
 

luka

Well-known member
"Weve talked about the red text and the black text. You must read the rubrix in the red text"
 

sus

Moderator
It is interesting because

In some sense we need to craft illusions because a certain kind of illusion has already been popped

Luke is always saying we don't feel emotions anymore, and I never know what he means, but one thing that maybe it half-means or is related to is the way that our emotional life and desires have become mediated

We don't just act on desires we interrogate them we reroute them we sublimate them

This is the transition from lizard brain to mammal brain in part, or from lower mammal to higher mammal. This is what Freud's all about. Civilization and its discontents
 

sus

Moderator
Before we wanted to put our peepee into vajayjays so we ran around doing that.

But now we have whole ethical systems and we say, Do I really want kids or is my career more important, no, none of that

So we need an elaborate vitalism an enchantment to be set up, about how God wants us to have kids, or how liberals need to procreate or they'll all commit suicide and evangelicals will rule the world, all these fantasies to get us fucking, which wasnt really necessary before
 

sus

Moderator
I don't think what I just said is right. But I think it's directionally more right than wrong. There's something there maybe someone can figure it out
 

woops

is not like other people
happiness / euphoria / love
melancholy / nostalgia / sadness
hate / anger / depression​
 

sus

Moderator
it's amazing how central nostalgia is there

I think that's right but was it always that way? Was it always so central to the human psyche?
 

germaphobian

Well-known member
The major thing they seem to wanna debunk is the linear progression idea of history ie "we were all foraging, then hunter gathering, then came farming and we made cities, stored food, had surplus, therefore capitalism as now".

They are saying lots of people did farming for part of the year, then fucked it off and got into little gangs to go hunting. Did that model for a long long time. And there were massive cities before farming took hold, it's all coming up now. A lot of detail about archaeologists not getting it right cos they were in a rush etc

Yeah, and the inhabitants of first known city - Jericho - were actually hunter gatherers although the theory states that people settled down and gave up nomadic ways because they started to grow crops. But in case of Jericho, and probably many others, you have to conflicting forms overlapping.
 
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