Jamesu
Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2019
- Messages
- 37
Self Help & Neoliberalism
It seems as though we have entered an age of Self Help. Whether you call it self help, self actualization, self improvement, self discovery, the terms are fairly synonymous with one another. Self help is generally the use of one's own efforts and resources to achieve things without relying on others. The ambition and support around self help generates a great deal of corporate attention, which in tern - organizes a a marketplace, assimilating values across the market group which demands paths of action. Now, the term "Neoliberalism" in the context of this discussion will describe the modified form of liberalism tending to favor free-market capitalism.
I've outlines the basics syntax for which I will follow with my findings which intent to explain what I have learned on the subject of self help in the age of neoliberalism.
The blind economic pursuits of neoliberalism have found self help as another market of desperate consumers
One needs to come to understand how the systems of power opposes the self in the 21st century. Neoliberalism as the ubiquitous mode for economics in the west typically operates by means of the human being as an object of exploitation to which the structures of power assume respondent. Now, this runs by means of deploying “big data”, which streams in through the new private sectors of the digital economy. Neoliberalism furthers 20th century liberalism by tapping into the psychic realm and exploiting it, with the result that, as Han colorfully puts it, “individuals degrade into the genital organs of capital”
In Byung-Chul Han's book "Psychopolitics - Neoliberalism and new technologies of power", Han describes the corporate workshops, self management plans, motivational retreats and seminars on personality or mental training as being conducive to the elimination of any and all functional weakness or mental obstacle to attaining a means to ascend the economic system towards a totality of control and domination . "The neoliberal imperative of self-optimization serves only to promote perfect functioning within the system. Inhibitions, points of weakness and mistakes are to be therapeutically eliminated in order to enhance efficiency and performance. In turn everything is made comparable and measurable and subjected to the logic of the market. It is not concern for the good life that drives self-optimization. Rather, self optimization follows from systemic constraints - from the logic of quantifying success on the market". Now, what this comes to mean is that our desire for self improvement; whether mental or physical (in the form of health and fitness), is reduces to an objective of economic cycling, therefore not actually aligning with the the individuals aspirations in an empathetic and authentic sense, but in terms of economic acceleration and optimization.
Group think does not care about you - It cares about your contribution: The witch hunt
Now I would like you to consider the implications this point for those who search for self improvement through self help. Many will come to find the internet rich with resources to accelerate this ambition into what I will call a bionic relationship with a marketplace. The commodification of "help" does not interpret the individual as an individual, but as and autonomic point which responds to "personalized" aid. One example of this is the trend of Kombucha. Five to ten years ago, the majority of people out there had never heard of kombucha. Fast forward to 2018, and this fermented beverage can be found in refrigerator cases at convenience stores, major grocers, and everywhere in between. The rise of Kombucha as a healthy alternative was said to be successful, as quoted from a RealBusiness article: "We are very low in sugar, one of the lowest on the market, our flavors are unique and we are 100 per cent organic. Our product also tastes great, which not all kombucha brands can say they do." This exemplify how market forces have played a roll, not surprisingly, for there ability to be a viable alternative to soft drinks, which became increasingly difficult to fashion as sugar became enemy number one. And so we see how the feedback between market forces effectively produces objects of desire that coincide with the improve the self.
Hypothesis
Finally, I would like to explicate how this relates to one of Ray Peats most publicly unacceptable opinions: Serotonin, the monoamine neurotransmitter is responsible for increased likelihood of hypothyroid, stress-susceptibility and other adverse effects. How is it so that we can have a neurotransmitter, well known to be associated with reward, learning, memory, and numerous positive physiological processes, be so antithetical? The reason may be quite uncongenial... My hypothesis is that the psycho-physiological state which is most subordinate to neoliberal control is also the state associated with high serotonin. to determine how various phenomena relate in terms of origins and results, sometimes the connection between cause and effect is clear, but often determining the exact relationship between the two is very difficult. Which is why I bring I'm posting this piece. I would like to explore the threads between neoliberalism, self help and serotonin, which I see as being instrumentally associated with one another. I believe Ray Peat and this forum generally concurs with one another on the adversity of high serotonin effect. The role it plays within the human body is far to complex to be simply labeled good or bad - It exists for a reason in the body - The bodies main objective is to survive and reproduce - therefore we should assume that the state of any endogenous biological processes or systems is for this soul purpose - to survive. Serotonin, like PUFA, appears to be pro-hibernation. We should consider the implications of the "hibernation" state, It would have certainly been useful for humans to have this ability to adapt to cold, stressful environments.
It seems as though we have entered an age of Self Help. Whether you call it self help, self actualization, self improvement, self discovery, the terms are fairly synonymous with one another. Self help is generally the use of one's own efforts and resources to achieve things without relying on others. The ambition and support around self help generates a great deal of corporate attention, which in tern - organizes a a marketplace, assimilating values across the market group which demands paths of action. Now, the term "Neoliberalism" in the context of this discussion will describe the modified form of liberalism tending to favor free-market capitalism.
I've outlines the basics syntax for which I will follow with my findings which intent to explain what I have learned on the subject of self help in the age of neoliberalism.
The blind economic pursuits of neoliberalism have found self help as another market of desperate consumers
One needs to come to understand how the systems of power opposes the self in the 21st century. Neoliberalism as the ubiquitous mode for economics in the west typically operates by means of the human being as an object of exploitation to which the structures of power assume respondent. Now, this runs by means of deploying “big data”, which streams in through the new private sectors of the digital economy. Neoliberalism furthers 20th century liberalism by tapping into the psychic realm and exploiting it, with the result that, as Han colorfully puts it, “individuals degrade into the genital organs of capital”
In Byung-Chul Han's book "Psychopolitics - Neoliberalism and new technologies of power", Han describes the corporate workshops, self management plans, motivational retreats and seminars on personality or mental training as being conducive to the elimination of any and all functional weakness or mental obstacle to attaining a means to ascend the economic system towards a totality of control and domination . "The neoliberal imperative of self-optimization serves only to promote perfect functioning within the system. Inhibitions, points of weakness and mistakes are to be therapeutically eliminated in order to enhance efficiency and performance. In turn everything is made comparable and measurable and subjected to the logic of the market. It is not concern for the good life that drives self-optimization. Rather, self optimization follows from systemic constraints - from the logic of quantifying success on the market". Now, what this comes to mean is that our desire for self improvement; whether mental or physical (in the form of health and fitness), is reduces to an objective of economic cycling, therefore not actually aligning with the the individuals aspirations in an empathetic and authentic sense, but in terms of economic acceleration and optimization.
Group think does not care about you - It cares about your contribution: The witch hunt
Now I would like you to consider the implications this point for those who search for self improvement through self help. Many will come to find the internet rich with resources to accelerate this ambition into what I will call a bionic relationship with a marketplace. The commodification of "help" does not interpret the individual as an individual, but as and autonomic point which responds to "personalized" aid. One example of this is the trend of Kombucha. Five to ten years ago, the majority of people out there had never heard of kombucha. Fast forward to 2018, and this fermented beverage can be found in refrigerator cases at convenience stores, major grocers, and everywhere in between. The rise of Kombucha as a healthy alternative was said to be successful, as quoted from a RealBusiness article: "We are very low in sugar, one of the lowest on the market, our flavors are unique and we are 100 per cent organic. Our product also tastes great, which not all kombucha brands can say they do." This exemplify how market forces have played a roll, not surprisingly, for there ability to be a viable alternative to soft drinks, which became increasingly difficult to fashion as sugar became enemy number one. And so we see how the feedback between market forces effectively produces objects of desire that coincide with the improve the self.
Hypothesis
Finally, I would like to explicate how this relates to one of Ray Peats most publicly unacceptable opinions: Serotonin, the monoamine neurotransmitter is responsible for increased likelihood of hypothyroid, stress-susceptibility and other adverse effects. How is it so that we can have a neurotransmitter, well known to be associated with reward, learning, memory, and numerous positive physiological processes, be so antithetical? The reason may be quite uncongenial... My hypothesis is that the psycho-physiological state which is most subordinate to neoliberal control is also the state associated with high serotonin. to determine how various phenomena relate in terms of origins and results, sometimes the connection between cause and effect is clear, but often determining the exact relationship between the two is very difficult. Which is why I bring I'm posting this piece. I would like to explore the threads between neoliberalism, self help and serotonin, which I see as being instrumentally associated with one another. I believe Ray Peat and this forum generally concurs with one another on the adversity of high serotonin effect. The role it plays within the human body is far to complex to be simply labeled good or bad - It exists for a reason in the body - The bodies main objective is to survive and reproduce - therefore we should assume that the state of any endogenous biological processes or systems is for this soul purpose - to survive. Serotonin, like PUFA, appears to be pro-hibernation. We should consider the implications of the "hibernation" state, It would have certainly been useful for humans to have this ability to adapt to cold, stressful environments.
