Sublime

We live in a time where, in the words of social theorist Roberto Unger, we are governed by people who ‘confuse conformism with realism’.6

societies which depend on implausible views of humanity don’t last

That can no longer be taken for granted. Postmodern societies are marked by their lack of moral consensus.

A person’s identity is not to be found in behavior… but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative going. —Anthony Giddens, sociologist

Au XXIe siècle, cependant, on ne peut guère se permettre la stabilité. Si vous essayez de vous accrocher à une identité stable, un travail ou une vision du monde, vous risquez fort de vous retrouver en rade tandis que le monde continuera sa course folle. L’espérance de vie étant susceptible d’augmenter, vous pourriez passer des décennies dans un ét

With the emergence of an emphasis on self-fulfillment, one finds there is no end-point for self-making: individuals can continuously pursue shifting and subjective criteria for success.

Everyday life in any society is the life of these identities, roles and worlds, and to be a social creature requires us to understand and internalise them.

Baudrillard notes that people are now measured by the extent of their involvement in the flow of media messages. “Whoever is underexposed to the media is desocialized or virtually asocial,”