Resonance

Dear Netherlands,


this week's post is all about resonance as the title gives away.
On Wednesday I attended an evening lecture by the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BwKasee9Qc ) called 'Living in times of acceleration'.
He said that modernization sets the world in motion. A society can be called modern when it systematically requires (material) growth, acceleration, increase in production. The economy , science, art/literature and politics run on the promise of increase.
Humans strive for increasing their horizon, making the world 'available, accessible and attainable' on the promise of making 'more' of the world at an incredible speed. According to Rosa, we run on the promise that eventually there willl come a time where life slows down. E.g. "I only have to do this one job and then everything will be fine and I'll be happy!. Yet, says Rosa, it won't get better. It will be even worse next year.
In our constant process of making the world more 'available, accessible and attainable' (Triple A), the world eventually becomes more arid, quiet, numb, because not all sub-systems in the system can keep up. Rosa asks: Why do people listen to music? To feel alive, to feel connected to the world, it is an access to resonance. We answer to it.
While writing this blog entry I (ironically!) listen to a playlist on Spotify. Rosa asks: Through Spotify 9 million titles are available. But does this enhance our music experience? No. We still only listen to what we know, what we like. Same with streaming: in effect, fewer films are watched, people turn to the blockbusters.
We feel overwhelmed. So the world becomes silent. Eventually, with some people this leads to burnout because nothing touches anymore, the world becomes empty, dead, grey. The access to resonance is dead and we feel that we lose the world. Because we are overwhelmed by the speed, complexity and options.
Structurally, we experience a desynchronization, and culturally, the dream of Triple A leads to a loss of the world.
What are we going to do about it?, Rosa asks. He does not wish for a static society, but a new institutionalisation. He says that humanity needs a society which does not need to grow, speed-up and innovate just to keep up the status, a so-called 'mode of adaptive stabilization'. Society should grow if change is needed and desired. It should be modern in a liberal, pluralistic and democratic sense.
He calls for a Responsive World. For resonance as a way of relating to the world, where the subject and the world appear to touch and transform each other. People ought to reconnect with things and be transformed by their interactions. Resonanace requires that 'both sides speak their own voices, which includes contradiction and dissonance and leads to non-predictable transformation'. People ought to be willing to be transformed and to respond. Resonance is listening to voices different from yours and to get in touch with the difference.
Contradictory to the Triple A theory, resonance necessarily entails non-availabilty and elusiveness. It cannot be accumulated or increased or stored or controlled since we do not know the result of resonance. Resonance is not a set of mind, but a relationship.
In a competitive system as we live in at the moment, there is no resonance. Therefore, according to Rosa, the system and its institutions must enable resonance. Rosa calls for a revolution. Since we know that it is possible to live differently we should structure the world differently from the system of capitalism which consists of explotation, inequality and alienation.


Get out there and get in touch with the world. With yourself. With other people. With objects. With nature. With the system.
Make life worth living. Give it a meaning. Break out of 'more'.
Do not live in a dead and silent world. Get in touch. Be and feel alive.
This might sound naive to some people, but I, personally, genuinely believe that the key to a happy life lies in there. In being in love and being inspired by work.
What leads to a good life? That's what I am here for to figure out. It's easy for us to see what is wrong. But it is hard to see what is good for us.


Inspired by the lecture I made a small bike tour on Thursday afternoon alongside the Waal-Maas-Kanaal which I have a beautiful view of from my window. It had been a lovely day and in the late afternoon the warm sunlight and the soft breeze made me hop on my bike and discover a new part of Nijmegen. Riding my bicycle was inspiring, liberating and refreshing. I love going new places with my bike. It gives me such freedom, such joy!

Today, I talked to my dear friend who is on her Erasmus in Glasgow on Skype. Our conversation was also inspired by Rosa's lecture. We talked about how we do not want to be controlled or lead by companies, the system or society but by our ideas and visions. Is it not sufficient in life to be a good, honest, friendly, kind, polite and pleasant person? To do random acts of kindness and live in an exemplary manner. This certainly makes a good life in our opinion. People should focus on making life and the system we live in ethically better.
What sense is there in increased consumption and focus on profit while neglecting 'humanity' in the sense what makes humans human? To care about each other.


Love,


Jane