(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The essay as a genre flourishes in uncertain times, when old norms disintegrate and new ways of life have not yet established themselves. The essayist's exploration of opportunities is often the result of confusion in society.
German journalist Axel Hackes book about decency (chaperone) is a good example. "About Decency in Difficult Times and the Question of How We Get Together" sounds like a book title from the 1700 century. Hacke has pulled the word out of the mill bag: The term decency scents undeniably of lavender. Nevertheless, it is used against 400 times a year by the Norwegian press. Most recently 19. September had an article in Akershus Amtstidende entitled "Where has it got the decency?" Maybe we have a closer relationship with the word "obscene", with its strong sexual connotations, as in the film Indecent Proposition (1993) ("An Obscene Proposal"), starring Demi Moore and Robert Redford.
The moralizing essay stood strong during the Enlightenment period. As at that time, society was undergoing great change and therefore in search of norms for customs and use. Who talks about decency today? Wasn't that an expression of a stuffy device that disappeared with the sexual revolution from the 1960's? Blueness has become a virtue for the few. Nevertheless, there are Norwegian schoolchildren who are afraid to take off their panties in the shower – despite the fact that the internet is flooded with porn. The culture has become both more shameless and obscene, and at the same time more moralistic. Suddenly, one can switch to the other in an erratic way.
This creates a need for essays that reflect on good acting. In Germany, the fronts have hardened after the refugee crisis, and racism has come to the surface. The trend follows a familiar pattern: increasing polarization between "us" and "them", verbal outbursts and then open acts of violence. We witness that the civilized behavior is a thin varnish that can crack cracks at any time. Courtesy and respectful conduct cannot be taken for granted.
Hack's little book is currently in third place on the weekly magazine Der Spiegel's bestseller list. The author starts fresh by stating that courtesy and formed behavior has fallen into course: Donald Trump became president because of their own inferiority. Why do civilized behavior thrive in rich societies? Wouldn't brutalization be easier to explain if distress prevailed and the social Darwinian "struggle for existence" put pressure on the tone of the lap? Hacke is experimenting with different thought models to understand how civilization losses in a wealthy society are possible.
More and more occupations are being hit by globalization, and "adaptation skills" are becoming a new virtue. Thus, professional pride declines in course, while disrespect and rage get wind of the sails. The level of communication is correspondingly weakened. In this context, Hacke draws on the German philosopher and economist Georg Franck's book The economy of attention (1998): "One who does not receive attention begins to stoop to those who deny him the recognition he feels is justified." Since many necessarily fall short in the battle for attention, it resembles a structural crib bite that threatens the public's decency.
Donald Trump became president because of their own inferiority.
Another explanation model is that when society becomes more liberal and authorities no longer provide regulations for how we live, the individual must create rules for himself. In the past, the church regulated what to eat at what times, for example, through fasting and holidays. Now many are trying to achieve a sense of control over life by imposing self-designed eating regimens. Social psychologist Ernst-Dieter Lantermann argues in The radicalized society - about the logic of fanaticism (2016) that humans have become more uncertain and disoriented. They have lost their confidence and feel powerless. This expresses a crisis of confidence in relation to society that can end in rage, hatred and bullying. For those who hate, in a sense, they are happy people, Lantermann claims. Uncertainty is compensated by click formation – people isolate themselves with their traps. Values such as decency, justice and solidarity apply only to those who belong to the group.
A perspective Hacking really does not follow up, is the connection between the lapse of decency and shamelessness and obscene insults by politicians and opponents. Slavoj Žižek's idea of the transition from a hysterical to a perverse personality type could have been mentioned in this regard. Unlike the classic neurotic, the perverse doesn't lack anything – he thinks. But precisely the lack is the condition of communication: We talk to others to understand things better. If we think we know everything best, then there is no point in paying attention to others. Therefore, it is important to maintain a culture where we not understand is the key. The universities should play an important role here. If they are transformed into teacher schools, the development in the perverse direction is intensified.
When old forms disintegrating, the time has come for custom-and-use books and self-help literature, Klara Klok columns and lifestyle articles. How should we behave? This question is not new, but was actually the starting point for the periodic press in Europe: Addison and Steeles The Tatler, The Spectator and The Guardian set the standard for hundreds of newspapers and magazines in 1700th century Europe and were filled with reflections on virtues and vices and how man should behave decently.
We no longer go to the theater or read novels to find out how to behave properly. Instead, we are usually reminded of what we should not do. But when philosopher Marcus Jakob Monrad wrote about theater and nationality in 1854, he perceived theater as the place of popular education: It was to be a mirror for Norwegian values. Today's novels also no longer describe people who can serve as examples of imitation, such as the so-called formation novel – instead, people who perish are often portrayed.
In fact, the question of how to behave was the starting point for the periodic press in Europe.
Still have Decency has been an important topic in recent Norwegian literature. In Stein Mehren's first novel They are indistinct (1972), the journalist Sandengren writes an open letter to his colleagues: “I can no longer cope with this pursuit of decency. I despise my previous articles, my attempts to comfort the world, my unconscious belief that I live forever only I don't spill soup on the tie, only I'm a good enough educator, my naive decision to improve my fellow human beings and comfort the world. I despise my own bourgeois remnant of decency, my conservative sense of decency, and I despise the radical back of that decency, my social curator's attitude to the world's suffering. ”
The year before, Dag Solstad wrote: "The most beautiful word Arild Asnes knew was 'decent'. He was 28 and he wanted to be a decent person. " But Asnes realizes that "there was no way to make a decent living in capitalist society." In China, however, Asnes believed that the people lived a decent life. Conclusion: "What decent person did not want a revolution in Norway?" The basis for this utopia is emphatically pulverized by Jung Chang and Jon Hallidays, among others MAO. The real story (2005). Who's talking about decency today in connection with Mao's dictatorship?
In Matias Faldbakkens recently released novel The Hills the civilized behavior is closed inside a reserve. At a restaurant reminiscent of the Theater Café in Oslo, the remains of an ancient culture are depicted: a bubble that oozes decay and false experience. What is most noteworthy is that a restaurant guest spills food on the suit: "It's a shock to the entire table, and everyone watching, including the Boss Chef and myself, gasps inside."
The novel states that "we move around in a representation, a social, political, economic, existential representation, which, as more and more people realize, has become a pure parody of what was once a 'existence' ; The situation, the condition, has gone so far as to be a joke, a pure joke, that all decent response has ceased to be decent. Mockery is the only thing left. "
The word "courtesy" comes from how one acts at the court. Thus, decent behavior becomes a two-edged sword. Hacke gives a good example of this: A long time ago, Zhao Gao, chief minister and prime minister, had a deer at the Chinese court saying: "A horse for you, Your Majesty!" The ministers who opposed him and claimed that the horse was a deer were executed. Those who accepted that the deer were a horse had proved their loyalty and were allowed to keep their lives.
The protagonist of Sigurd Hoel's novel Meeting at the milestone (1950) complains that he "is paralyzed by the cowardly calling decency; and – in part, may – of a certain decency which is often called cowardice '.
When decency leads to submissiveness, may it be best to act obscene?
