19.7.16

Scranton: Perhaps the question here is one of interface. Because all of us – Americans, Syrian refugees, ISIS fighters, or whatever – we all possess the same fight-or-flight responses, right? And in a physical space, if you threaten me, I have to deal with you as a physical body. But if we shift to a space where we’re separated by screens, I don’t ever have to address the material consequences of the conflict. I can just go straight to maximum retaliation. I can go straight to: you’re evil, I’m good, fuck you, we’re done. The French philosopher René Girard talks a lot about this drive to extremes, and it’s a combination of framing aggression as defense, perceiving aggression in someone else, and defining yourself: “I’m not you.”

ta rich

No comments:

Post a Comment