This could be a thesis, legitimately amazing work. I kind of always dismissed brave new world but this has made me see it in a new light

Interesting. I guess I have a bit of a problem accepting it as the BNW people, despite having an objectively horrible life perceive themselves as having ultimate security. They also perceive themselves as happy. Neither is the case in a neoliberal order which is characterized by constant economic insecurity as well as a more complex relationship to happiness. A society that superficially promotes pleasures of all kinds but in reality has serious problems with depression and alienation. Of course I don't envy the inhabitants of Huxley's world as their enjoyment of their lot and their sense of total social integration is at the expense if their humanity. I think the classic dystopia that best fits our world (in the contemporary West at least) is Fahrenheit 451.

The soft-serve ice cream of contemporary philosophy.

This is the most ridiculous claim I think I’ve ever heard. Ron Paul Ronald Reagan and Margaret Treacher‘s policies are not being implemented right now. The problem is they’ve been abandoned.

People don’t read as many books today because there is so much media competing with them today. Do you think people back then said I’m going to leave my books at home, I just want to be alone with my thoughts all weekend? Lol

Thoughtful video

Wtf how is this is so high quality. Most amazing video essay. Truly bravo

This is the most forced interpretation of Brave New World I've ever seen. The parallels of Huxley's world are far more congruent to utopian centrally-managed Socialism than the ham-fisted attempt to shoehorn it into a Neo-Liberal framework you've attempted here. I just wasted an hour listening to non-stop Zizek worship.

In "friendly fashism" Bertram gross describes how the ultrarich (1% which owns as mich as the rest of the world) frame our world via their executives/ globals corps, media. I think that the Spirit of materialism (e.g. Madonna "Material Girl) is cosiously pushed in order to create the neoliberal self. If we Dive into hedonism and egocentric view, we are easy to be put in coopartive collective. Instead of understanding that we are part of humanity and that each progress inside is progress for all.

Our modern economy cannot be classified as 'free market' even under the most generous of understanding. Markets are heavily regulated and subsidized, our currency is tightly controlled and arbitrarily manipulated. How do you call a government, media, tech industry and major commercial market that moves in lockstep decentralized?

It doesn’t really matter what system is used. Socialism, communism, national socialism, fascism, neoliberalism. The fundamental problem is human nature itself. We are a “panier de crabes” as the French say. People are born with different and unequal abilities and motivations. Attempting to impose an ideology on humanity to somehow equalise everything will never work.

Great work. More please.

Thank you. Very interesting and very worrying. I'd say we're more familiar with Orwell and the phraseology from 1984, yet It seems Huxley's work is more of an accurate description of "The West", while Orwell's is more aligned to my imaginings of somewhere like North Korea. Listened to a recent lecture where it was argued that the thing which gave people a dominant position in society transitioned from land ownership, to owning the means of production, and now to owning the digital market place. It appears governments have stopped pretending to even try to be able to control mobile finance, which doesn't recognise national borders. No large political party has challenged the recent general attitude that housing exists as a commodity, rather than being a necessity for a population.

That was a great video. Time to read BNW again.

END NEOLIBRALISM NOW!

This makes me want to read the book again. Very interesting analysis. Any thoughts on changes made by the Peacock series adaptation? It featured an epsilon revolution against the biological class system, although this was depicted as a violent bloodbath.

The future is probably world government by artificial ignorance, a government of dummies, or god for short, only accessible via a dumb phone app, and completely irresponsible with regard to personal extinctions, for example if you cross the road on a 'don't walk' and then order a pizza the pizza waits till you're half finished and then explodes, knowing you'll be at least half satisfied, allowing the artificial ignorance to still regard itself as quite democratic. the hardest part of gaining artificially ignorant governance is in getting people dumb enough to vote for it which is getting close to where we're at now.

Great subject, and reminder of the situation we face. Greetings from USA.

all roads lead to Rome when traveled far enough

Brilliant content. Thank you!

I'm glad i found your channel.

Article: Privatization is at the Core of Fascism. Today we have billionaires like Peter Theil who want to create their own nations with their own corporate constitution. But libertarian dreams have already turned into nightmares: Article: My libertarian vacation nightmare: How Ayn Rand, Ron Paul & their groupies were all debunked "My family and I traveled last month to a Honduras city known for its libertarian ideals. Here's what happened next" "The Reagan Revolution's libertarian experiment (economic capitalist freedom at the expense of social freedom) have brought us the predictable result: - the highest rate of child poverty and maternal death in the developed world - one in seven American children going to bed hungry - our schools, roads, bridges and rail systems in shambles - millions without access to healthcare - historically low tax rates on corporations and billionaires - an impoverished middle-class - devastated labor unions
 Libertarianism is a poison that's crept into our society on the backs of rightwing billionaires like Libertarian David Koch, who ran for Vice President in 1980 on a platform of shutting down every government agency except the military, courts, and police.” No borders: “In a libertarian society, there is no commons or public space. There are property lines, not borders. When it comes to real property and physical movement across such real property, there are owners, guests, licensees, business invitees, and trespassers - not legal and illegal immigrants.” ~ Jeff Deist, president of the Mises Institute

Lulz duh. I knew this while I was reading the book. 💁‍♀️

Great vid

This video is a bit different to my last one - if you have any ideas on something I should cover, let me know! Equally if you disagree with my thesis or notice any more parallels between neoliberalism & Brave New World, feel free to comment!

Irony is hitting me hard with this one. Very meta to watch. Thank you for art. The neoliberal golden goose they call the algorithm delivers another golden egg.

❤

Awesome video, thanks! Somne very interesting takes. I am wondering though, to what extent the shanzai products (i.e. cell phones) is really an act of subversion/playfulness or rather an extension of capitalist competitive dynamics. I mean, in recent years Chinese smart phone companies have become huge, using, as all the Western ones do, methods of brutal exploitation.

This video reminded me of Spinoza's view about everything being a manifestation of God himself, and therefore, there truly is no contradiction between original and reproduction, between Plato's ideas and Zen-Buddhist thought, between the West and the East: they are just manifestations of God, or of the apparent order of the universe at a given moment. Brilliant video. Brazilian greetings, already waiting for the next ones. 

This video was fascinating, please keep making things!

very interesting presentation, thank you. I do not however agree with the idea that museification intrinsically repurposes a space. That kinda ignores the purpose of preserving something for reliving; reliving something is a feat of imagination so really the main distinction between east and west could rather be cognitive and cultural second

This differing view of originality in the East and West is fascinating. I’ve read a bit about Chinese landscape painting and the Western concept is ego based. The prices that Western paintings fetch at auction would indicate that they’re the idols of our time.

At 24:00 I was reminded of a scene in Blood Meridian: “This other man he could never see in his entirety but he seemed an artisan and a worker in metal. The judge enshadowed him where he crouched at his trade but he was a coldforger who worked with hammer and die, perhaps under some indictment and an exile from men's fires, hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be. It is this false moneyer with his gravers and burins who seeks favor with the judge and he is at contriving from cold slag brute in the crucible a face that will pass, an image that will render this residual specie current in the markets where men barter. Of this is the judge judge and the night does not end.”

Its very important that your analyses is truth about the west after the enlightment. This was not the case in the middle age. Very important.

Most interesting video, thanks for making it

thanks so much..

Nice. Do a video on Hegel and make him look this cool.

amazing videod

Really great video. As a working artist in the west, so many of these ideas rocked me (in the best way). Really glad you shone a light on this work, looking forward to giving it a read!

Thank you for providing such a thoughtful analysis and presenting it in a way that was engaging and relevant. Inspiring.

May I ask what is the art work ar 3:20? Is beautiful

Wonderful video! Please make more! This is such precious content… 🙏🏽

I thank you for this video. It's rare to see someone who touched on Han's lesser known works, especially Shanzhai. It's very different to his recent critique of neoliberalism. Perhaps Han's concept of de-creation shines light on the current issue about AI art, intellectual property and the copyright system. And perhaps, as you also explained in the video, Han unveils our fetishism with the original genius artist and showed how the novel is not sudden event, but always created through engagement with past works, collaboration and slow hard work. Keep up with the video and good luck to your channel man!

The point at 18:23 reminds me of the passage in Don Dellio’s White Noise, in where two characters go visit the “most photographed barn in America.” One of the characters points out how no one visiting the barn is able to see the barn as it was before it got that title. Enjoyed the video 👍