Enduring Love
Background information. Period contained between 1990 until 2001
Ideologies: capitalism (conservative and social democracy) vs. communism
Marx Power struggle 1945 1990 2001
1850’s History has been told neo-liberalism
Inspired by: in dialectical closure
Hegel
Darwin
H. Spencer
Schopenhauer
When communism proved to be a failure, all countries turned to capitalism. Capitalism ended
the war of ideologies. We don’t talk anymore about individuals, but about consumers. The
consumer is a co-modified individual. We don’t talk about individuals against society but
about consumers.
In England in 1997, Tony Blair accepted neo-liberalism and he empowered the social services
from the states. It has begun the era of technocracy. At the end of the 90’s it begun to take
place a “millennium anxiety”. Millennium anxiety can be defined as the fear of the individual
that he doesn’t know who he/she is. The reality becomes unpredictable. People fear and
wonder which the nature of the humankind is.
Analysis
Joe and Clarissa lack of individuality. They are not individuals but consumers. At the
beginning of the book we get to know the name of the wine because they are defined by
what they consume . It’s an expensive wine. They are standardized individuals. We get to
know the name of the wine before his name because Joe is part of the world of consumption.
At the beginning, Joe and Clarissa have a peaceful life. Joe claims that they live comfortable
but with a small scare. It is a social disease which is called paranoia. He claims that the fear is
unsubstantiated but still he fears. He also claims that they have a “free and intimate
existence”. He has the sensation that intimacy means freedom. It is paradoxical because there
is no freedom if there are worried. He defines a limited space. There’s lack of individuality
because they could be anyone in the world. They define in comparison to the others.
He calls his life until that point of the accident an “idiocy”2. The idiocy is to lock himself in
his life and ignoring the other possibilities. Life offers lot of other possibilities such as people
dying in a bloody way. What they had before was a comfortable, ritualistic life. By doing
rituals they feel comfortable. They accept the limits and experience very little. The repetition
4Idea of technocracy
