/427/ Why Do We Make Our Emotions Match the Market? ft. Eva Illouz
Added 2024-07-30 07:00:09 +0000 UTCOn emotional capitalism + Israeli politics.
Renowned sociologist Eva Illouz joins us to talk about her recent book on the emotions of populism, and her work on the sociology of emotions in general. We discuss:
Why have emotions become such a collective obsession?
Where can you buy emotional commodities? What are influencers really selling?
What emotions accompany victim culture?
How is identity and victimhood linked in a way that allow us never to forgive or forget?
Plus:
How has Netanyahu failed even on his own terms?
How has Israeli populism channelled fear, disgust, resentment, and love?
Why have Eva's views on the progressive left changed?
Readings & Links:
The Emotional Life of Populism: How Fear, Disgust, Resentment, and Love Undermine Democracy, Eva Illouz
Emotion Sickness: The Politics of Feelings, Bungacast series
Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism, Eva Illouz
/232/ Reading Club: Cold, Hard / Warm, Soft - on Eva's 'Cold Intimacies'
The Global Left Needs to Renounce Judith Butler, Eva Illouz, Ha'aretz
Israel Is Facing Existential Threats From Inside and Out. There's One Solution, Eva Illouz, Ha'aretz
Comments
Ilouz was 100% correct about emotional regulation required to work in bureaucratic organisations. On the other stuff, have we heard from a Palestinian voice yet? It would be good to hear from someone on the non-religious left eg maybe socialist/workers party background.
Daniel L
2024-07-31 21:42:40 +0000 UTCAs a parenthetical to the conversation between Eli S and myself below, it seems to me that we were able to connect, at least in part because we connected on the basis of our vulnerability. Longtime followers of this comments section will know we have come for each other's throats in the past. This is standard process/encounter group stuff, so not remotely surprising if you've been in therapy-world. But it speaks potentially to the way in which victim ideology has grown: we all have moments of being victims, almost without exception. Is it empathy, or is it substitution? Solidarity, or just acceptable sublimation of revenge fantasies? Part of what is so insidious about identity-based victimhood as a political ideology is that it takes a universal experience--say being a boy and being bashed by other boys for some or another effete moment--and excludes everyone from it unless the boys who did it to you happened to be correct that you were, in fact, a queer--to take an easy example. Otherwise, you're not a "victim of homophobia", you're just a toxic masculine type. Liberals and conservatives alike agree you should shut up about it, but for different reasons. I am reminded of a joke I used to have with friends, about how all jilted lovers are allies. The loser romanticism of Sloterdijk also. Still, I am hesitant to throw out vulneration entirely. Taken the right way, it can be a basis of connection that has some resilience. Can we own our vulnerability without displacing it on to some identified enemy? Can we be responsible for our irresponsibility? Can we be empowered by our vulnerability as a vector of genuine connection?
Richard R
2024-07-31 01:14:01 +0000 UTCEquating 10/7 with Krushchev’s secret speech is probably the least unhinged Israeli take, but connecting the dots between victimhood and identity politics is really good stuff.
Jacob Bucci
2024-07-30 23:29:40 +0000 UTCWith great wisdom, restraint, and a sweating brow, I must decline to comment on the radioactive latter part of the episode. I also must say that I found Ilouz's musings on the emotional structure of victimhood, and the two-part history of its commodification to be very compelling. This narrative solves many of the problems that result from recounting, for example, the Civil Rights Movement in the US as an identitarian misadventure of erstwhile communists. It was in fact widely supported by communists. I might suggest an interim chapter where, for example, communists like Angela Davis turned to Black Nationalism. The third chapter being when identitarian bantustans started being institutionalized by the Democrats.
Richard R
2024-07-30 19:57:54 +0000 UTC
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