The Philosophy Of Bernard Stiegler

English: Image by David Barison/Daniel Ross 2004, from the film The Ister (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I spent a couple of days with a French philosopher, Bernard Stiegler, at the UMn. 3 weeks ago & his analysis of social media is brilliant. He actually tied Newtown & Boston & previous mass killings to the prevalence of social media distorting the process of individuation in our young worldwide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Stiegler

IOW the presence of too many guns in our society is due more to the confusion caused by social media & subsequent lack of cohesive personalities.

This guy goes way back to Plato’s concern about writing leading to the loss of memory that he  believed would lead to problems for the world in the future. IOW when we externalize our memories with symbols we lose inner direction used in the individuation process.

The second day I listened to him in a small graduate  seminar. He had to stop @ noon in order to get ready to fly back to Paris to address 1000 CEOs the next day.  He is seen as having the greatest insights into the cultural crisis we face.

Stiegler could talk about ideas more precisely in ESL better than most of us can in our native English. It was an amazing experience to listen to him & be able to ask a few questions.

Bottom line is I think a case can be made for the NRA’s position about people killing people & not guns.  The problem arises though that if we have the kind of society that creates psychopaths wholesale can we have the gun culture that makes access to certain kinds of weapons too easy?