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Americans are dualistically siloed from one another (urban versus rural; liberal versus conservative; Republican versus Democrat) in echo-chambers of self-noise. Now, rather than “social media,” the social **is** digital media, which is used for the vindication of the self as the optimizable project for achievement. The 20th century breakdown of social bonds (“anomie”) has transformed into compulsory social bonds (intoxicating communication with digital Others). We make a project of the self to avoid despair. Meanwhile, neoliberalism equates social relations with economic imperatives, which means humans invest in self-referentiality (Me, Inc.) to the negation of Other. Instead of transforming despair into joy via relational dialogues, despair is informationalized by way of creating an Empire of the Self. Everyone is a media mogul (YouTube channels and Podcasts). This requires the forever updating and remodeling of the self via digitalization. This Top Gun ideology means everyone is encouraged to “be yourself,” “don’t lose yourself”, “find your true self”. This is perpetuated by the mythical doctrine of “survival of the fittest,” i.e., kill or be killed, winner-take-all mentality. The strongest are naturally selected via evolution. Social Darwinism is the prerequisite for the mass shooter who morphs this notion into kill and be killed. Ironically, humans are all mass shooters in the sense that they are building an Empire of the Self (hyperactivity and agitation for space-time online) that leads to incapacitation, e.g., burnout, panic attacks, depression, suicide. What Han (2015) calls the burnout society is due to an excess of positivity, e.g., time of the self. Forever trying to be the Top Gun, i.e., be the Best of the Best. In this recording, Andrew is lecturing at Minnesota State University, Mankato on October 25th, 2022, for an annual mental health conference. The title of the conference was “Role of Social Determinants in Prevention, Trauma, Crisis, and Recovery.” Andrew’s lecture was titled, “American Despair: Cultural Forms of Passivity & Violence.”
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