A while back, I noticed adults talking about "superpowers", in all seriousness, or maybe better put--in relation to the kind of eternal job seeking mode we're all supposed to be in (and some have to be in) since the gig economy took over--which has become sort of internalized and unconscious, I think--there is no longer a state of being at rest--you're either working or looking for something better, or you're homeless...at least here in the US.
So I would hear grownups saying things like:"my superpower is getting the job done even if I have to work 19 hours straight. " or something absurd. "tenacity," "I'm a workaholic", etc. It seemed a further reification of that question they used to put on job applications--describe your strengths and weaknesses or whatever. Not only are you being asked to commodify an aspect of yourself, or pretend to, but then in a way you also have to take on that commodification and reduce yourself to that aspect. So yawning at work would mean you had misrepresented your very self.
And of course, wrt: superpowers--that's also a further infantilization of the whole reificaction, because now,, being merely a human who can type 90wpm or whatever and wants to go home at 5 is not enough. This, I think, also has something to do with guilt--in the US, guilt over lack of money, or maybe it's shame--is rampant.
The gig economy was also sold as "freedom." I think David Graeber talked a lot about that, too.
I agree, it's an infantilizing metaphor both with regard to the narrative context it references and how it's actually used here.
But as you astutely observe, it sort of serves to affirm the commodification process as something maximally desirable. One should perhaps look at the entire corpus of contemporary superhero fiction through this lens, but I really can't stand most of it and have no real idea of how popular it is. I've heard it's popular in China though, but can't confirm.
I think that the "superpower" idea I'm talking about, among western adults, has far less to do with contemporary superhero fiction (which, as far as I can tell is more fetishistic and collectionistic)--than sort of a branding attempt,, and another example of how language (and narrative) is increasingly reduced to pattern recognition, as you and John Steppling have pointed out.--"super" applied to anything equals desirable.
it's also a strange way of negating any question of skill or mastery. You "have" a superpower, you don't acquire it. It's identity again.
Tamara's comment also brought up something else, related to Kung Fu, which gets lumped in with superhero stuff, especially lately. In the late 70s I was a teenager in Chicago, and most of the working class black guys I knew, and some of the white, were Bruce Lee fans. But not fans in the passive sense--dojos had opened everywhere in neighborhood walk-ups. And people trained. The ostensible selling point, in a lot of instances--was tradition; the idea of learning something ancient. There was a lot of magical thinking around it, of course but it was physical training, and a lot did put in the hours.
but something I didn't really get until now (and it's probably obvious)--relating to Tamara's comment, and your response, and Steppling's "Vanished" -- is that these dojos and their senseis were Father energy,--discipline, respect, humility etc. "the mythic rigidity of the father". And a lot of these guys I knew did not have fathers in the house. This is of course wildly generalized. Women were allowed in the dojos of course, not many went. I remember thinking I'd rather go to ballet class (I was a dancer). I think I got that there was something other than physical training going on.
People still train (on zoom ha ha) but I don't know if that same energy existed--I kinda doubt it.
Transhumanism an its pseudo-freedom would mean you don't have to train, you would download mastery. (as in some William Gibson stories). and that would maybe serve to assuage the feeling endemic in the western world, of inadequacy
"Remoteness" and "doubtfulness" have to be replaced by an increased "subtlety and variety" when we remove the original mythical rigidity of the father.
Right! Exactly! The elimination of the lawgiver from view (which is a complex historical process, but also manifests in the culture's multifaceted death of the father) will inevitably bring about a good deal of existential vertigo.
And in this situation, we get a process quite akin to how the Freudian superego gets recruited to protect the basic integrity of the self, and a societal ethos of affirming the baser libidinous desires as virtuous gets erected.
It's also interesting to note how the mtf transition is one of the highest acts of virtue in the contemporary woke ideology. A sort of exorcism of the maleness is a significant step to beatification in this context (cf many Breadtube influencers).
I'm ever wary of 'officialese'...'Gender reassignment' sounds efficient, clinical and clean...It's easier to favour than 'genital mutilation'...
The family since WW2 has shrunk, many are now fatherless...The formation of the young's superegos has largely been outsourced to state institutions/state functionaries...
During the past two years Australian states have implemented plans to incorporate all kids from
age three into the schooling system... France's President also intends such...
The Father may be disappearing, is being replaced by functionaries of The State...
There is a battle over the sexual education of the very young taking place...The state wants control by its appointed functionaries in schools...(The 'protest' over drag queens reading to
kids in local libraries, or even in schools, is a surface phenoma of the battle)...
A while back, I noticed adults talking about "superpowers", in all seriousness, or maybe better put--in relation to the kind of eternal job seeking mode we're all supposed to be in (and some have to be in) since the gig economy took over--which has become sort of internalized and unconscious, I think--there is no longer a state of being at rest--you're either working or looking for something better, or you're homeless...at least here in the US.
So I would hear grownups saying things like:"my superpower is getting the job done even if I have to work 19 hours straight. " or something absurd. "tenacity," "I'm a workaholic", etc. It seemed a further reification of that question they used to put on job applications--describe your strengths and weaknesses or whatever. Not only are you being asked to commodify an aspect of yourself, or pretend to, but then in a way you also have to take on that commodification and reduce yourself to that aspect. So yawning at work would mean you had misrepresented your very self.
And of course, wrt: superpowers--that's also a further infantilization of the whole reificaction, because now,, being merely a human who can type 90wpm or whatever and wants to go home at 5 is not enough. This, I think, also has something to do with guilt--in the US, guilt over lack of money, or maybe it's shame--is rampant.
The gig economy was also sold as "freedom." I think David Graeber talked a lot about that, too.
(Hi Tamara!)
I agree, it's an infantilizing metaphor both with regard to the narrative context it references and how it's actually used here.
But as you astutely observe, it sort of serves to affirm the commodification process as something maximally desirable. One should perhaps look at the entire corpus of contemporary superhero fiction through this lens, but I really can't stand most of it and have no real idea of how popular it is. I've heard it's popular in China though, but can't confirm.
I think that the "superpower" idea I'm talking about, among western adults, has far less to do with contemporary superhero fiction (which, as far as I can tell is more fetishistic and collectionistic)--than sort of a branding attempt,, and another example of how language (and narrative) is increasingly reduced to pattern recognition, as you and John Steppling have pointed out.--"super" applied to anything equals desirable.
it's also a strange way of negating any question of skill or mastery. You "have" a superpower, you don't acquire it. It's identity again.
Tamara's comment also brought up something else, related to Kung Fu, which gets lumped in with superhero stuff, especially lately. In the late 70s I was a teenager in Chicago, and most of the working class black guys I knew, and some of the white, were Bruce Lee fans. But not fans in the passive sense--dojos had opened everywhere in neighborhood walk-ups. And people trained. The ostensible selling point, in a lot of instances--was tradition; the idea of learning something ancient. There was a lot of magical thinking around it, of course but it was physical training, and a lot did put in the hours.
but something I didn't really get until now (and it's probably obvious)--relating to Tamara's comment, and your response, and Steppling's "Vanished" -- is that these dojos and their senseis were Father energy,--discipline, respect, humility etc. "the mythic rigidity of the father". And a lot of these guys I knew did not have fathers in the house. This is of course wildly generalized. Women were allowed in the dojos of course, not many went. I remember thinking I'd rather go to ballet class (I was a dancer). I think I got that there was something other than physical training going on.
People still train (on zoom ha ha) but I don't know if that same energy existed--I kinda doubt it.
Transhumanism an its pseudo-freedom would mean you don't have to train, you would download mastery. (as in some William Gibson stories). and that would maybe serve to assuage the feeling endemic in the western world, of inadequacy
"Remoteness" and "doubtfulness" have to be replaced by an increased "subtlety and variety" when we remove the original mythical rigidity of the father.
Right! Exactly! The elimination of the lawgiver from view (which is a complex historical process, but also manifests in the culture's multifaceted death of the father) will inevitably bring about a good deal of existential vertigo.
And in this situation, we get a process quite akin to how the Freudian superego gets recruited to protect the basic integrity of the self, and a societal ethos of affirming the baser libidinous desires as virtuous gets erected.
It's also interesting to note how the mtf transition is one of the highest acts of virtue in the contemporary woke ideology. A sort of exorcism of the maleness is a significant step to beatification in this context (cf many Breadtube influencers).
I'm ever wary of 'officialese'...'Gender reassignment' sounds efficient, clinical and clean...It's easier to favour than 'genital mutilation'...
The family since WW2 has shrunk, many are now fatherless...The formation of the young's superegos has largely been outsourced to state institutions/state functionaries...
During the past two years Australian states have implemented plans to incorporate all kids from
age three into the schooling system... France's President also intends such...
The Father may be disappearing, is being replaced by functionaries of The State...
There is a battle over the sexual education of the very young taking place...The state wants control by its appointed functionaries in schools...(The 'protest' over drag queens reading to
kids in local libraries, or even in schools, is a surface phenoma of the battle)...