there are constitutive contradictions in liberalism
i.e. universalism and individualism
stress (i.e. crisis, Collapse) exposes them
this creates the Liberalism Legitimacy Crisis:
as these contradictions intensify, liberalism loses credibility|validity as an ideological system.
it can’t produce the resolutions it promises
so it shifts to promising regulation
see Foucault
California as projection zone: California Gold Rush, Misiones Californianas (the Patronato Real of California), psychedelic revolution, Hollywood, Esalen Institute, techno-utopianism
californication is a process of responding to systemic contradictions by performing personal coherence?
doesn’t address structural tension
processes it as a material to be commodified
aesthetic, affect
Brian Wilson (and the Barenaked Ladies song)
Valley of the Dolls
On the Road
californication as genre scripting: genre structures expectation (Lauren Berlant)
platformal liberalism induces californication as the dominant genre of contradiction management
crisis is trauma, mood, healing
MASH television show, Red Hot Chili Peppers, skateboarding
cybernetic settlerism, cybernetic subject
you change the world by how you route events into mood, not with your beliefs or action (which come from mood)
Calm app, Burning Man, lifehacking, microdosing
Zen
don’t fear Collapse: be serene
detachmenet
nonreactivity
Apple advertisement (1984 novel)
Starfleet and San Fransisco (Misiones Fransiscanas?)
ayahuasca entrepreneurism
stoicism, in late-season MASH
eroticization of detachment
crisis is desireable:
source of good affect, source of good life
crisis is the source of healing, spiritual growth, betterment of self
liberalism is legitimate /because/ it produces crisis
trauma aesthetic and aesthetic trauma
vagus nerve, self-regulation
savior-slave subject
californicational subject is:
savior
personally responsible for managing global crises
slave
governed by external systems (and crises)
Collapse as performable norm:
collapse is not hidden or denied, it’s:
narrativized (healing arc)
monetized (survivalism, resilience, adaptation)
collapse becomes sustained because it is wanted
this makes wanting to resolve it incommensurable
more structures and incentive and power-force to sustain it than end it