Examining Georges Bataille's "The Psychological Structure of Fascism" (Part 1)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2024
- In this inaugural episode of LEPHT HAND, we delve into Georges Bataille's seminal essay, "The Psychological Structure of Fascism." We explore Bataille's analysis of the social and psychological dynamics underpinning fascist regimes. Key concepts discussed include: Marxism, anarchism, anthropology, political economy.
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Discussion of the text begins at 6:48 if you want to skip the intro!
My primary purpose here is to present Bataille's view--I don't personally adhere to all points of his analysis (though some I would defend). In a subsequent video, I will address some of what I believe are problems with his view, with regard to tensions in his own position and with respect to the analysis of present day fascism.
So glad i stumbled on this channel. Kudos to the author of the video essay
this is one of the most well spoken and clearly explained video essays i’ve ever listened to, major props.
Thank you. I appreciate your kind words.
Thank you, very excited for more content on bataille! Very little content about his writing on youtube, considering how insightful it is
Great lecture! Never run into any of your other works but love hearing folks interpreting the nonfiction works of Batille. Really well structured, looking forward to listening to part two!
Coming soon! Thanks for the kind words.
Thank you. Your ability to elucidate the finer points of the topics in the Accursed Share is refreshing. 😊
Thanks for listening and for your kind words.
Amazing. So happy this was in my feed ❤❤ I Love Acid Horizon
New Models. Seems intriguing. Few minutes in, I comment from. Hillman and Mysticism. I'm excited
Just fyi the episode cuts off a little before the audio.
All in all though this was an enlightening look into the apparent contradiction of proletariat support of fascism that is supported by capitalism. Seeing a material foundation to ideology is important, but seeing how ideology in then affects the material is necessary. This seems to be where Marx and Engels fell short if I am understanding this correctly.
Thanks for the feedback. I gave the video a bit of an edit to fix it.
"The Left Hand of Darkness"! I'm subscribing.
Thank you for producing this wonderful work
I appreciate you saying that. Thank you…and more on the way!
A hug from Brazil. Love your work
Thank you!
In 2024 30% of Ameicans have investment/retirement portfolios of $500,000 or more. this ties workers/employess to the profit making of corporations and their owners, multi-millionare or multi-billionaires. If the 1% prosper, the portfolio owners profit. In addition to small business owners they see themselves as part of the ownership (formed by merit) and identify with the biug ownership class (taxes are theft). Those who have such portfolios many "own" professional knowledge, skills, academic credentials that cannot be eliminated/confiscate but can be reduced in value (as measured by money) and be coercively tied to an authoritarian governing class. And in the case of workers/employees they remain replaceable parts as regards jobs but when decoupled from a job they can survive fairly well. As you point out, once there is some measure of economic security, even a not well paying job, people develop layred identities beyond their economic role/status. When that identity is threatened (for instance, native white Christian, religious membership opposed to abortion and not exactly in support of independent women), they can easily turn to fascism.
I’ve love to see a theoretical framework exploring the authoritarianism that swept across the western world during the covid thingy.
I think you're hoping to find more than there was. What there was was a global consensus on science then a consensus on pandemic control and suppression. The speed of the pandemic meant mistakes were made but lives were saved even though economies and communities suffered. With the speed and the global nature of events certain groups saw certain patterns and began to see conspiracy and sinister intentions. These were an illusion. That all countries have returned to normal, all activities (from tourism to war) have returned to normal support this. Some still exploit the conspiracy urge (Trump) and some made plenty of money as opportunists (UK government contacts) but they certainly never engineered the event they just exploited it. Ultimately it is reassuring that global agencies can cooperate on science and that countries can survive a major event they knew was coming (not as a plan but as a statistical evolutionary likelihood) but we're Hopelessly under prepared for.
I was following some disability activists on twitter that were discussing those dynamics back in 2020/2021, but I deleted my twitter lol, so I haven't really been keeping up with those conversations, but there's definitely some frameworks that analyze it. In a way, it's a typical reactionary attitude: illness is seen as (spiritual and moral) weakness by reactionaries, so any attempt to prevent the spread of illness tends to stir up authoritarian sentiment in anyone who feel that people who get sick are inferior and therefore _deserve_ to get sick and die. Which of course leads to refusal to mask (and attacks against those that do), to try and bring suffering and death to those that "deserve" it. There was actually a similar reaction when seatbelt laws were introduced, rebelling against it and inventing conspiracy theories about it under the belief that preventing people from dying in car accidents was some kind of attack on the natural superiority of those that would have survived anyway.
Can someone tell me the name of the black and white film playing behind the narration ?
L’inferno (1911)
The Birth Of A Nation.
The fact that the ideology is still very real unlike other ideologies such as absolute monarchy and communism tells me its actually next the stage of development after liberal capitalism. It just got suppressed for a time. (Much like the liberal revolution in Germany in 1848)
Halfway through. This stuff is pretty fascinating. As someone more science minded, are these narratives more scientific or philosophical? Like, do you learn this stuff in sociology? Maybe it's a whole video on its own?
Great question. The short answer is that I subscribe to the view that there is difference between the enterprises of philosophy and science, but they ultimately rely upon each other; there are "diagrammatic lines" (to quote philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari) which connect philosophical invention with the empirical methods of science. Bataille is doing a form of sociology here which depends on Marx's earlier empirical observation of capitalism and its observable expropriation of surplus from labor. Bataille then uses the concepts of homogeneity and heterogeneity to create a general typology of included and excluded groups to analyize the dynamics of social exclusion and its impact on the cohesiveness of a social whole. Ultimately, Bataille makes empirical claims that must be justified on the adequacy of their explanatory power. But the concepts he develops must maintain an internal consistency amidst a discussion of the adequacy of claims he makes about states of affairs in society. In short, sociology is a science, but the coarse grained methodology employed here reveals the necessity of conceptual creativity demanded in such an approach.
@@LEPHTHAND inspired by ethnology, wasn't it? Potlach, Marcel Mauss etc.
In a realm beyond reason, where limits unwind,
Lived a thinker named Bataille, with a fevered mind.
He spoke of sovereignty, wild and grand,
A dance of excess in a far-off land.
Not bound by utility, nor tied to a goal,
Sovereignty thrived in the depths of the soul.
With a wink to the sacred, a nod to the free,
It laughed at the chains of society.
In the shadows of night, where the moonlight does gleam,
Lies the essence of power in a fevered dream.
Transgression and pleasure, in a fervent spree,
Are the marks of a sovereign, wild and free.
Not a coin for the counting, nor a measure precise,
But a breathless surrender to the ultimate vice.
With sacrifice grand, where the flames do rise,
Sovereignty dances in the night's disguise.
Erotic and violent, a whirlwind of fire,
It shatters the cages of worldly desire.
In Bataille's own words, where the mind takes flight,
Sovereignty lives in the edge of the night.
So if you dare wander where the rational fades,
To the fields of excess, where the wild is made,
You'll find sovereignty there, in its splendid array,
Dancing with Bataille till the break of the day.
There is something about your voice that my mind has always keyed in on. I can't exactly express it, but something about the qualities of your voice seem to imply or indicate your beliefs, thoughts, personality. My mind has been toying with this notion of "vocal determinism", similar to this meme of "nominal determinism". "Eyes are the windows of the soul" Something like the voice is the window to the mind. As above, so below. There is correspondence there. Some of the specific qualities of voice seem possibly to correlate to structures of mind or the qualia of the personality. In yours, there is a certain noticeable "conspicuous enunciation" seems to indicate.....I don't have any way to explain the feeling it gives me about your personality in any other way than a kind of vignette of a imagined person, but its like the nerd emoji with the glasses that people use in texts and online to make fun of dorks. A kind of cringe hand-wringing nerd who over-intellectualizes and therefore misses the forest for the trees.
Did you just write a whole essay to say he has a nerdy voice?
@@myrmepropagandist yes, that is what I did. Contrary to popular belief I think we should judge and evaluate people by how they sound and look. If someone is repulsive looking to you, indicating a malaise, you should not listen to them or follow them. If someone's voice makes you cringe, you should not listen to them or follow them. Perfect example of this is Dr. Anthony Fauci, many people knew something was off with this guy the instant they saw him because they intuited he is tiny neurotic nerd with all the attendant pathologies and treachery from solely how he looked and sounded. Ie: physiognomy is real. Voice physiognomy is real.
@@robnaugle4149yer a weird dude ain'tcha
@@matthewhorrigan5848 yes, however all the people discussed on this channel could be labeled as weird, most much more than me, so that's probably not reason to disqualify anything.
@@robnaugle4149interesting… but isn’t this how societies turn against people? Remember Monty Python’s sketch in “The Holy Grail”:
“How do you know she’s a witch?”
“She looks like one”.
Nonetheless I think we all tend to do this to some extent - an immediate judgement forms of someone’s appearance or voice, and few acknowledge this to others or to ourselves. Perhaps it’s a question of acknowledging our first impression then investigating it critically to avoid being swayed by prejudice (“judging-before”) which can do so much harm?
Fucking finally don’t know who you are but you are spieling the shit I absolutely adore
Ask any Likud member or supporter
Ask any white person living on land stolen through colonialism
Was the BwO a concept in Anti-Oedipus? I thought A Thousand Plateaus.
It's all over Deleuze's and D&G's work. It's on the last page of Proust and Signs, You can find it in The Logic of Sense, an its in both AO and ATP...and elsewhere besides!
I am kiving in France. We are deep in it at the moment!
✊
Wrong and shows you don't understand what fascism is.
@@Reggie-zw8rm France is ruled by finance capital.
The source of fascism.
Yes, they are, even if they're not killing minorities yet.
Islam is fascism in disguise or actually not so subtle any longer.
please make a video on stirner
When is part 2?
Thursday or Friday of this week!
@@LEPHTHAND Wonderful. Thank you Young man I enjoy your TV video programs!
Looking forward to part two. Are you suggesting that the heterogenous energy of the fascist is appropriated and captured into the service of the homogeneous capitalist order? I'll stay turned to hear, but I wouldn't agree. As you mention, sacrifice and unproductive expenditure are expressions of this heterogenous energy. Wouldn't war also be included here? I don't really see the historical evidence for this serving the capitalist class in Germany. I would say rather that fascism is the heterogenous par excellence, expending itself in conflagration and ultimately death worship.
@@JB-du3qv war is definitely included here, and in other places this is exactly what Bataille believes we should be attempting to fend off (given the horrors of his youth and the oncoming tragedy of WWII). I think there are some serious issues with this formulation but he is definitely onto something!
La Part Maudite is "The Accursed Share" not "The Accursed Chair"...
lol, did the captions grab “chair”?
let's gooooo
War is in fact an expression and serves no other function in most cases, unless it is used as in Gaza to "clear the field." In order to take control of a new field.
Becoming fascist is so tempting. It’s like junk food, or drugs: It feels great Short term but I know in the long term it’s not good for me or the host organism (society). I choose not to indulge in it, but I get it.
How do people become not-fascist?
Ask why they become liberals and you found your answer.
Why not ?😂
Because they are complete losers.
We would have the numerical superiority then.
Weimar problems
The left is based in dialectic materialism, not mysticism, lol
Just do anything that isn't far left and boom, fascist.
Well in their minds yea
No, do fascist shit and, boom, fascist.
What is fascism?
Adorable 😂
One man's fascist is another man's bold leader
...yes, ehm, the fascist being the other man.
Because they wake up
Hard to see how everyone not born in my particular context should not exist could be called "waking up".
@@Redactedlllllllllllll what?
Too stupidity and self pride
Because leftist are breaking everyone's balls.
@@Redactedlllllllllllll you don't know what you're talking about
Anti-woke isn't anti-gay or anti-black. If Elton John or Jay Z applied to write a song for me, they would be hired on the spot. It's about quality. You can't be serious if you don't see that.
The panic around wokeness has led US states to legislate gender conformity and create forms of social surveillance to enforce these laws. This is exactly what happened under the Nazis to trans and gender non-conforming people, who temporarily enjoyed a reprieve from the earlier oppressive polices of the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. So it's with historical precedent that I remain very serious about that claim.
@@LEPHTHAND the only ones under scrutiny these days are the ones perceived to be capable of doing serious harm. I don't think this number is as big as you think.
@@jorje0068sounds fashy borther
@@matthewhorrigan5848 sounds efficient
@@jorje0068 what a coincidence, they loved fetishizing efficiency too
Article IV, Section 4 of the US Constitution: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
We don't live in a democracy dear brother.
"Were not democracy were a republic" crowd
Brother republics are democracies xD
@@Bleilock1 No they are not. Read Plato. A democracy and a republic are both forms of REPRESENTATIVE government.
Preamble says “we the People.” The People rule. Democracy.
@@ogd1146 LOL. You missed the full quote.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
All it says is that THE FOUNDING FATHERS (since we, today, don't have a say in it) created the US Constitution for our UNION TO FOLLOW and abide by.
It says absolutely nothing about democracy.
@@trentp151stupid semantic argument
Now do another one Why people become communists?
Darth Trump is on the horizon for no reason at all so hide from his scary face behind some books.
Calm down the hot spirits.
The concept of "Fascism" that have people nowadays is waaaaaay different from what Mussolini did initially.
Pre-Axis Fascism was an ideology quite shareable and interesting for the people of the time here in Italy.
Most notably, unlike Nazism or other authoritarism form of government, Fascism was "inclusive".
Yes, it was. The numbers of blacks and jews Italians inside the "Italian Fascist Party" was exactly the reason why the King of Italy gave up and gave to Mussolini the task to form a government.
Then, after Italy signed the treaty with the Nazi Germany and Hitler, it was imposed the introduction of racial laws and an increasing of authoritarism that have turned such ideology that was already controversial for it's extremely different traits, into proper nazism.
Today's definition of "Fascism" is just a state of dictatorship where civil liberties are suspended.
Fascism was betrayed even by its own creator and it's doomed because no one either remember its origins nor wants to follow that system or improve it.
If Fascism was improved instead of degraded, by imposing a strict regulation on violence, both inside and outside the country, regulating the power of the State towards the markets, then it would have necome almost a normal "severe meritocratic republic" or a sort of "martial republic" or almost a/alternative kind of, stratocracy.
@danielefabbro822 yes I'm sure it was the inclusivity, certainly not the wave of fascist violence across the country and the threat of more to come that convinced the king to hand over power. Maybe if you want to get people interested, don't start out with an obvious lie.