Competences and impartiality of mediocrities

Abstract

We live at the peak of neoliberal democracy. This age was conceived a long time ago, with Post-modernism as an act of rebellion against Modernism, that is, rationality and science, with a turn towards the inside. That turn, however, proved to be insincere, for a genuine turn towards the inside requires more than just the subjectivity of an individual based upon an external, institutionally organised social security. For its part, genuinely truthful subjectivity requires spiritual strain of all individuals at reaching concord about sociality. On the other hand, there is no spiritual strain and reaching concord without spiritual suffering. Therefore, the problem lies not in arising rationality but in the lack of irrationality that is complementary to it, contained in necessary readiness of any one individual to suffer during the act of reaching concord. Suffering, understood in human terms, is selfindulgence of a human being (Marx). Unless there is no suffering, there is no transformation of an individual into a personality. In that sense, the turn towards the inside proves to be too hard. It seems that the issue of humanity is much easily approached rationally, with permissive mediation of institutions. Yet, if there is not a sufficient number of responsible personalities that have grown out of themselves through indirect spiritual suffering, there comes the demise of democracy and social decadence. In that case, the tendency towards meritocracy, conceived through the design of society by means of institutions, is replaced by impartiality of mediocrities. Neoliberal democracy is thus disclosed as an illusion of democracy – mediocrity democracy, and the sociality construed by it as an illusion of freedom. What are the mechanisms that lead to this state?