Utopias of We Me I and Time
Time as An Introduction
Let us go with the idea that time is a construct and does exist without observation. Along, this line of thinking, history becomes a delineation of time, meaning it also requires recognition for validity. Marx argued history was “nothing but the activity of men pursuing their purposes”. Perhaps — but then, one also has to define: men, activities, and purpose. And then, what happens when men have no activity or purpose — are they still men? And, is that an end to history?
There are often debates about what time is but there is rarely debate about the finiteness of time. At worse, time means little, often to those whom much is given. For those who had to work or wait for something, time is the father of perspective and both are related to history. In sports, though, time and perspective create Rushmores, crumble legacies, and destroy men — but they also tell us about the culture we are a part of.
The History of Now
James Harden, the Houston Rockets star basketball player, is a player who sits in the middle of our current conscious and mass culture as “the Beard”. Harden is a product of Los Angeles, a city that has created its own narrative and image — so fittingly, he lies beholden, more so than perhaps any other player of his generation, to whether time, activity and purpose will affect whether we put his career among the seeds of the great… or the chaff of others.
Recently Harden has been celebrated for his individual ability to score, at will, in fact at one point in the 2018–19 season he scored 269 points without being assisted on a basket, a remarkable feat if not a unique statistic. He would go on to score 30 points in over 30 consecutive games. Many in the sports world, digital utopias and those of the ‘eternal present’ began lauding James Harden as “the greatest” scorer ever, (neglected is that fact that he plays in an era known for its freedom of movement, more particular for star players) and then someone (I suppose over the age of 40) remembered Oscar, Wilt, Kareem or dare I say even Kobe. People whom others have known simply by their first name and each iconic within their own right.
I consider Oscar (Robertson) to be the greatest guard who has ever played the game of basketball, but if we were to listen to Harden fans, who I consider to be moving closer to Kobe-Stan, a land of fanatics, we would believe big guards who could score, rebound and assist whenever they wanted to like Oscar and to a lesser extent Dennis Johnson and Fat Lever did not exist before he and the iconic and mercurial Russell Westbrook. I don’t blame players like Harden or Westbrook for this thinking — although, in a player’s league, players have a responsibility and stewardship in the proverbial and philosophical gazes, narratives, and truths of the league.
We at this moment live in a society where social media, the common democratic denominator, oftentimes can drive those gazes, narratives, and truths and every event becomes “the greatest” and every personal or social engagement becomes “the best” or “the worst”. This happens to people who live in the “eternal present”, allowing them to believe we are living in “the greatest” time in the history of the world, or so we are told. In the minds of political theorist Alexandre Kojeve and one of his disciples, Francis Fukuyama, who in 1989 wrote the “The End of History and The Last Man” this moment on earth is the greatest because it is the end of the history (Fukuyama recently reneged on this possibility).
The Culture of ME
Kojeve and Fukuyama could be right, but I fear we are not at the end of history because of the human progress they perceived we would make through the culture of capitalism and/or the laws, liberties, freedoms and the egalitarian society they envisioned democracy would deliver. In fact, as much as democracy might encourage individuals to work together, history has shown, capitalism encourages the selfishness that devalues and values beings as objects and assets.
To Kojeve and Fukuyama surprise, we are near the end of history because of two things: the offspring of capitalism; a social lethargy, or lack of desires, which aren’t hedonistic in nature — and because of power’s desire of a more manageable population. The accumulation and distribution of more resources haven’t been better as predicted and technology has failed to bring us together, as much as it has given us the data and resources to separate ourselves, making us shadows of men.
It would appear more so than anything else, the end of history happens when we fail to remember. Memories not only create moments, but they also delineate time and space while allowing individuals to define other individuals as opposed to another defining for all. It would appear the lack of memories not only keeps us in a consistent cultural amnesia, that silences and removes but creates an eternal present and destroys all the above.
This lack of social or individual memory moves society to a space where many have no dreams, nor desires, but instead, mathematical equations of who should be their friends, where they should meet or shop, etc. — which could affect who they date, what they should eat, who they should vote for, and what they should watch on the screen, while Facebook in the person of Mark Zuckerberg, and hip hop, the soundtrack to post-structural capitalism, push the society closer to Kojeve’s precipice. We live in an algorithm-culture built around MEdia and a narcissistic mass culture projected as uniqueness (over the individual) that can only be best described as the “culture of ME”
Numbers as Meaning, Numbers as Heroes
If Marx is right though, James Harden is not just creating history through his activity and purpose -Harden is creating the end of history, through his algorithmic numbers. We can never know Harden’s purpose, whether that is to win an NBA championship, win MVPs or being a scoring leader. We can only observe their activity and then project from it — and Harden’s activity is a game of numbers. Numbers for the individual are authenticity or corroboration to a greater narrative, but to the structures of power, they are a way to tell a story without recognition, feelings, or the memories of individuals. They offer a chosen, deferred feeling.
In the 2018–19 season, Harden is shooting 13 3-point shots a game, averaging 15 points off of them and shooting 12 2-pointers where he averages 12 points, plus an additional 11 free throws where he averages 10 made free throws. Consider a basketball team can only play 5 players at a time, Harden has a 40% usage rate, meaning he has the ball twice as much as any other player. Finally, there is the most telling statistic of how good Harden is though. In a league of just over 450 players, the average Player Efficiency Rating, which tells how well a player really contributes to his team; James Harden, Giannis Antetekounmpos and Anthony Davis play in a league of their own with a PER rating above 30. The average NBA player scores a 15.0 PER (In a career an average of 22.51 guarantees you the Hall of Fame), they double that.
If that’s too much information, forget the numbers — the numbers simply say Harden is a dominant and efficient player with Hall of Fame (HOF) like numbers. In a typical NBA season, Harden would be a runaway Most Value Player candidate. His numbers say he is a historic player, but basketball and society are about more than numbers. Numbers don’t always explain circumstances, nor give us the truth, and the truth is not always what’s most profitable or democratic.
Numbers often times allow us to remove the identity of the many to elevate the few. When we eliminate the many we eliminate memory and truth becomes distorted. In America, we are okay if we perceive status and place have been earned, and we question it when a system has been set up by power, for someone’s success over others. Harden’s numbers say he is great and they are HOF numbers, but what they don’t say is James Harden eliminates his teammates, though his 40% usage rate hints at it. The numbers don’t say his fellow teammates are not allowed to develop to their fullest potential on the court, creating the circumstances that make him either a celebrity or hero.
A society is oftentimes the heroes and celebrities it chooses to elevate. Our election of President Trump for whatever you believe him to be is a referendum on our grief in a society of post-democracy. We have “made” Trump. James Harden’s game in the zeitgeist of our culture points this out to us — we are a society that no longer plays for the team, no matter our professed homage. We play in/for the numbers of self-accolades and sometimes it benefits others, but the numbers now make heroes and celebrities more than our eyes, minds, and beliefs. In a society or culture like this, the numbers become fascist, and they become the masters -whether they are numbers in an account, points on the court, or social media and societal likes, claps, hearts, and kisses, we are a society of bondsmen and the numbers and those who manipulate them are the masters.
His Story and Ours
Man comes together as a society out of fear, and with the suppression of his wants and repression of his desires, there is a comfort and possession within the group. While Francis Fukuyama may have imagined and idealized in his ‘end of the history’ a society that looks a lot like the Golden State Warriors (laissez-faire egalitarianism) or at worse the Denver Nuggets (managed egalitarianism), what neopostmodernity has shown us is, the end of history is closer to the Houston Rockets model than any other. Thus a society where the privileged benefit, while history and honor are for the few, the masses settle for deficit models based on dignity, without knowing or caring what has been taken from them, as they become objects and numbers, never confronting their fears. In this, they don’t focus on perfection, but amassing.
In a player’s league Harden’s individual game, when watching an NBA game, is 15–20 seconds of his fellow teammates bringing opponents over to him, as he decides, the person he wants to guard him. Once Harden has evaluated the mismatch that he wants, a pick is set and much like a capitalist finding an undervalued resource he exploits it. This is brilliant as a basketball player. He continuously switches speeds as he moves his defender from front to back, then side to side and then drives past them to score, a foul, or an assist, because in the rules of this game many are afraid to touch him. Other times he does not drive and steps back or steps to the side and shoots a three-point jump shot, often traveling when doing this. As an individual basketball player, he is a Gramscian technician or Karl Malone playing guard, skilled and an expert in the manipulation of the rules. James Harden is only what society has made him. Still, I hate watching him!
It’s because James Harden and the Houston Rockets are the epitomai of what’s wrong with our society; a few of people of privilege who showed potential in their teenage or college years are allowed to live and to play for numbers as the rest are pushed towards Fordism, to rebound, to cheer, to score occasionally or lead when others have become disheartened by the approach of the chosen few, leaving no history. While the chosen look at themselves as self-constructed masters, creating a world and history. We as watchers cannot be sure if the James Hardens truly are great, the keen can only know the system is built around them. At the same time, it never occurs to them, they (stars) are not the Masters but the tools to larger concepts and debates.
The Process and the Regression of History
Truth be told, Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni’s system under Harden (and possibly Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash) is analogous to societal nihilism, hiding under the disguise of a meritocracy.
For their part, General Manager Daryl Morey and D’Antoni sort through talent, keeping and discarding those that they do/don’t find value in. They flattened the earth and the players as individuals and as a group become less powerful and can be moved along as assets — while management no longer has to think of them as individuals, they simply need to look for objectified types. If a player refuses to accept the culture or his role, he can simply be moved along and replaced. Take, for example, the beautiful-if-not-flawed and unguardable basketball player Carmelo ‘Melo” Anthony: Morey and D’Antoni discarded him and his HOF talent after not being able to figure out how to properly utilize his talent.
These systems and models of judgment become more acceptable for us as Americans if it fits a grander narrative or is a great story, instead of dealing with our democratic ideals or existential principles. D’Antoni’s system, instead of developing all the human talents that it (leadership) has been given stewardship over, decides to develop and rely on the talent of the few, that have been deemed worthy. This is no different than the economic triage we have seen for decades and generations in urban cities. It’s very much the complaints of White Americans, who were in the anger stage of grief during the 2016 election. And in the non-profit sector, this is the equivalent of creating programming for at-risk youth, but harboring the willingness to only develop those who are most likely to succeed. This is “the process”.
We aren’t just watching a basketball game when watching James Harden and this iteration of the Houston Rockets play. We are watching culture. In Harden and the Houston Rockets we are watching a debate about human development, capitalistic culture (hedonistic individual achievement) over democratic culture (group empowerment), and a battle of the culture of ME-dia and Mass over the culture of I-ndividual. We are watching a dialectic about human value and capital, between a totalitarian nuanced version of “the process” that disregards the many and makes them objects versus the egalitarian concept of “human development” that offers the chance for development or develops each subject into individuals.
We as a society should not be surprised to find ourselves here. Since WWII, we have progressively moved to an epoch where numbers do not only operate as records of events, but as identity, divisions of honor, and the nihilism of human worth. The most common phrase from the MBA mind is, “it’s not personal, it’s business”, (translation- now that it’s not profitable to be your friend/associate, let’s cease this relationship) while many inside and outside sports often argue, this is the byproduct of big data and consequences of the information age but is it? Or is much more simple, in capitalism, whether structural or poststructural, we consciously do not want to connect with people because we would have to become and move from generic beings into individuals who commit an action to a purpose, accept autonomy, release ourselves from ambiguity and reignite history. Instead, we find communal activities, where we commune with people, but don’t communicate with people in activities such as; drinking, sporting events, spin classes, and outdoor festivals, choosing only to connect with performers or objects of profit. It is here, within capitalism where information becomes truth, heroes die and celebrities become heroes, all because of our suppression to connect.
Anti-Anti Utopias and Aftermaths
The French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard argued the end of history was the end of the utopian visions. If this were/is true, that would leave us in dystopia or within reality and not even Baudrillard believed we live within reality, but a symbolic and projection of reality. Reality is how one processes the event and its significance. This reality -the end of history — has led us to elegant suppression and democratic repression with a dissimulation to utopias and notions towards dystopias.
Here and now, utopias are more than guides to nowhere, they are projections of power, brands, and movements, like “HOPE” and “MAGA”. History has shown the battles to create utopias has created tangible dystopias, with ethereal and materialistic monuments created for beings within utopias — here is where celebrities live, while histories and heroes are created for individuals in dystopias. In a greater discussion, the French Revolution may not have been the beginning of the end of history, but instead the next stage in the development of the individual, where systems were no longer set up for select individuals but open up to egalitarianism. This intellectual idea, or “nourished value”, is what many saw and heard within the concepts and campaigns of “HOPE” and “MAGA”. These statements promised to different populations recognition, while at the same time they offer a contrast to neopostmodern life and what we observe in the real world — or in James Harden’s game on the court, where it seems only his talent is recognized, a separation of mind and body, idea and reality, a continuous battle of American Pragmatism versus the tenets of Existentialism.
Kojeve, (who lectured the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and political theorist Hannah Arendt at university), like Fukuyama, envisioned a world of Jobs, Zuckerberg, Obama, Morey, D’Antoni and the Culture of ME, but it was Friedrich Nietzche who envisioned man’s dislike for this state of being (universal egalitarianism) and foresaw Bin Laden, Putin, and Trump, men who would be dissatisfied with banality. Yet none of the men above could measure the effects of the two most significant black swan events on neopostmodern life, within the last 80 years, in the tragic realities of Auschwitz and September 11th (of 2001).
These two events would allow us to see how the histories, individuals, events, stories, and could be erased, without memory, systematically, efficiently, through bureaucracy and prejudice from the larger group, as people became numbers and objects whether within a totalitarian or democratic society. We consciously or unconsciously would see the human condition in concentration camps of the mind, economics, status and to some extent space. More specific in 9/11 we began to see how fear could affect the most powerful or those associated with power at any moment in time or space, whether in the monoliths of glass or the structures of rocks through the threat of terror, that same fear and terror we also how it cajoling outliers into an alignment of thinking. In all though, we would see the masses give up rights and freedoms for security in these spaces (Germany, Poland, and the US) while in the longer expanse they would give up autonomy and history.
These two events and the realities that followed them affected the daily lives and security of billions - from access to crime, to dress, and comfort, to name a few. They also brought us to a more basic understanding of the human condition that tells us that neither the bondsmen’s conscious or the master conscious despite their pleas and soliloquies are looking for perfection or efficiency within this world. The true focus and goal for both is recognition (honor/dignity), whether momentarily or historically. The march of individuals and talents that are wasted to achieve recognition does not matter to either conscious.
The Closing of Utopia, Celebrities as Heroes of the Last Man
In the world after 9/11, bondsmen dreamed of utopias that they would never act upon and masters no longer dreamed but managed — and both became relegated to these positions out of fear. In the case of the masses, they sat in movie theaters and dreamed of superheroes that would not die like the common heroes of yesteryear. In their homes, they settle for celebrities (athletes, movie stars, businessmen) with endorsements, whom they already knew to be compromised -at least by traditional American standards — who could not morally challenge them. We as a society have become uncomfortable with the individual. The individual is a relic of time passed, that only haunts us in Westerns and election years. In our lives and jobs, we are much more likely to say that he/she “won’t get with the program”. We term he/she as the a**hole. Once, though, we viewed them differently. In modernity, the individual was the man who was projected larger than life, in a world of black and white. He was a man we could all strive to be because he had character. We termed him a hero.
In postmodernity, after 1945, this began to change — we moved towards the deconstruction of myths and narratives and collectively and progressively we decided we and anyone could all be heroes. Perhaps it was the pressure and fear of McCarthyism suffered by the parents of Baby Boomers or the triumphs of Jackie Robinson, King or Kennedy witness by Baby Boomers, but an intrinsic religion built on morality began to make us question the morality of our society. In this new Nietzschean no man’s land, we no longer accepted the tales of others or “all good guys wear white”, nor did we discover new heroes, instead we found celebrities –shadows on cave walls.
The shadows and the flickering and flashing lights became reality because ideas, values, and morality could be redefined. We were not held accountable to the ideas of past modernity. We as a culture could choose our own gods, (i.e. celebrities) who in turn we could reshape into our own image and replace. These images became identities of marketing and we became a mass identity of iPhones and tattoos, as opposed to individuals that become heroes, we became shaped by Nike ads, Jay-Z endorsements, rap albums, and social media posts. There is no rebellion or freedom in clones, hence James Harden is only what we made him, not what he made himself — where, despite appearances, there are no differences between the bondsman and perceived master.
This is neopostmodernity — where the novel, the ultimate symbol of the individual, the ambassador to history and culture, has little significance compared to the iPhone (the projection of ME) or any other black mirror of our time. It is within these screens that neopostmodern history lies written, and undiscovered ideas sit dormant, with IP addresses as identity. These screens have created the society of the “last man” that Fukuyama spoke of, just with a more arbitrary, more ductile, more secure, but satisfied enough population to be happy… like the Houston Rockets players.
I can’t tell you if James Harden will win a championship this year — though likely not — with this iteration of players and systematic model. It would require stories to be written or displayed about other people, not his story. What I can tell you is “the end of history” has led us here: to the utopian Culture of ME, where everything and everyone is an object. There are no heroes, just celebrity D503 or JH13 chosen to play the part of the hero and to be a pseudo-master that defines history, for the few.
