The Disappearance of Rituals

1. The Erosion of Rituals: A Loss of Symbolic Meaning and Community

Rituals are symbolic acts. They represent, and pass on, the values and orders on which a community is based.

Symbolic anchors. Rituals once served as vital symbolic anchors, transforming the world into a habitable, reliable place and time into a structured home. They fostered community not through explicit communication, but through shared symbolic perception, allowing individuals to recognize permanence and stability in a contingent world. This symbolic force, exemplified by the Greek symbolon (a sign of recognition and wholeness), brought people together and solidified collective identity.

Symbol-poor world. Today, we inhabit a "symbol-poor" world where data and information lack symbolic power, preventing recognition and diminishing the experience of duration. The loss of these meaning-founding images and metaphors leads to a proliferation of contingency and a sense of being "de-housed" in time. Without rituals, life lacks stabilizing resting points, becoming an erratic stream of point-like presences that rush off without hold.

Community without communication. The modern era is characterized by "communication without community," a stark contrast to rituals that forged community without explicit communication. This shift reflects a deeper societal atomization, where the collective experience of meaning and belonging is replaced by individualistic, fleeting interactions. The widespread rejection of rituals as "empty conformity" signals a revolt against form itself, further isolating individuals and eroding the very fabric of shared existence.

2. The Compulsion of Production: Destabilizing Life and Erasing Duration

The contemporary compulsion to produce robs things of their endurance [Haltbarkeit]: it intentionally erodes duration in order to increase production, to force more consumption.

Eroding durability. The relentless compulsion of production actively undermines the endurance of things, intentionally eroding their durability to fuel consumption. This constant drive for the new prevents lingering and transforms objects from stable "things" (in Hannah Arendt's sense) into disposable commodities. A smartphone, for instance, with its ever-changing content and planned obsolescence, exemplifies this non-thing status, fostering restlessness rather than stability.

Destabilizing life. This compulsion extends beyond objects, destabilizing life itself by attacking what is enduring within it. While life expectancy may increase, the quality of life's duration diminishes, as everything becomes subject to a cycle of use-up and replacement. This mindset treats the world as something to be consumed rather than used or cherished, leading to a relentless cycle of disappearance that leaves life unprotected and transient.

Infinite consumption. The compulsion of production also colonizes emotions and values, turning them into new fields for infinite consumption. Emotions, being more fleeting than things, do not stabilize life but rather strengthen narcissistic self-relationships. Values like justice or sustainability are commodified, consumed as marks of distinction that appreciate the ego's self-worth, further detaching individuals from community and deepening collective narcissism.

3. Authenticity's Narcissism: Undermining Public Life and Genuine Connection

Contrary to Taylor’s assumptions, however, authenticity is in fact the enemy of community. The narcissism of authenticity undermines community.

Cult of the self. The modern cult of authenticity, while often framed as a moral imperative for self-realization, paradoxically atomizes society by shifting identity formation entirely to the individual. This neoliberal form of production encourages voluntary self-exploitation under the guise of freedom, turning the entire person into a highly efficient site of self-production. The constant occupation with one's own psychology and the drive to "play to the gallery" on social media exemplify this narcissistic self-absorption.

Erosion of public space. Authenticity erodes public space, transforming it from a theatrical stage for roles and ritual gestures into a market for self-exhibition. The demand for intimacy and exposure, where the private is constantly revealed, lends society a pornographic character. This contrasts sharply with 18th-century public life, where theatrical presentation, manners, and ritualized interactions created a scenic distance essential for social relations and the "playacting" capacity of humans.

Brutalization of society. The narcissistic cult of authenticity, by discarding "semblance of beauty" and ritual gestures as inauthentic, contributes to the brutalization of society. It prioritizes raw, spontaneous emotion over formed behavior, leading to a culture of affect where politeness and manners decay. This formless morality, devoid of external forms, fosters an animosity to form itself, making society increasingly impolite despite its moralizing tendencies.

4. The Disappearance of Closure: An Endless, Unfinished Existence

For something to die, life must find its own closure. If life is deprived of any possibility of closure, it will end in non-time.

Loss of completion. Modern society, driven by the neoliberal imperative of optimization and performance, has lost the capacity for closure, rendering life a purely additive and provisional process. Nothing is final or conclusive; everything remains incomplete, from lifelong learning to personal achievements. This inability to complete is deeply linked to narcissism, where the subject finds intensity in ongoing performance rather than in finished work, which would exist independently of the self.

De-siting the world. This excessive opening and removal of boundaries is evident in globalization and digitalization, which "de-site" the world, turning it into a boundless market or an "off-site" internet. Traditional "sites" – places of dwelling and rootedness – are abolished, replaced by incessant circulation of capital, commodities, and information. This contrasts with ritually closed places, like Péter Nádas's village centered around an ancient pear tree, which offer stability, deep unity, and a sense of belonging through collective consciousness and ritual silence.

Erosion of autonomous time. The abolition of rituals also removes "autonomous time," the discontinuous, structured phases of life like childhood, youth, and old age. Without rites of passage, individuals "slip through" life, aging without growing old, or remaining infantile consumers. Thresholds, which once articulated space and time with rhythm and meaning, are erased, replaced by accelerated, seamless communication and production. This loss of the "magic of the threshold" leaves only a "hell of the same," devoid of otherness and transformative experiences.

5. Profanation of Life: When Rest Becomes Work's Shadow

If rest becomes a form of recovery from work, as is the case today, it loses its specific ontological value.

Sacred rest. In ancient traditions, rest, particularly the Sabbath, was not mere idleness but an essential, sacred part of creation, bringing completion and demanding silence. This contemplative rest, characterized by deep listening and receptivity, united people and intensified life. It represented an independent, higher form of existence, fundamentally distinct from profane work, and was crucial for the vitality of religious life and community.

Work's totalization. Today's compulsion of production has totalized work, subordinating all areas of life, including rest, to its dictates. Rest is degraded into "leisure" or "recreational time," serving only as recovery for further work, thereby losing its ontological value and becoming a derivative of production. This total profanation of life eliminates sacred silence, replacing it with communicative noise and a constant pressure to perform, even during supposed downtime, leading to phenomena like "leisure sickness."

Capitalism's anti-religion. Capitalism, often mistakenly called a religion, is fundamentally antithetical to true religion.

• It lacks the binding force (religare) to create community, as money individualizes.
• It despises contemplative rest, as capital must always work and move.
• It erases the distinction between sacred and profane by totalizing the profane, making everything comparable and equal.
• It lacks narrativity, reducing time to mere labor time, devoid of meaning, unlike religious narratives that provide orientation and tension.

6. From Play to Production: The Decline of Sovereignty and Ritual Combat

The compulsion of production destroys sovereignty as a form of life. Sovereignty gives way to a new kind of subordination which, however, masquerades as freedom.

Sovereignty's demise. The compulsion of production has destroyed sovereignty, which is defined as freedom from necessity, purpose, and utility, and is intrinsically linked to "strong play." In a society dominated by work, only "weak play" (recreation) is tolerated, serving the logic of production. The neoliberal subject, while appearing free, is an "absolute slave" who voluntarily exploits itself, lacking the sovereign spirit that risks life for glory or honor.

Ritual combat vs. modern war. Archaic warfare, exemplified by dueling or the "Great Sacrifice" ritual, was a form of "strong play" governed by strict rules, symmetry, and reciprocity. It was a ritual combat where honor, not destruction, was at stake, and the opponent was recognized as an equal (iustus hostis). Modern wars, by contrast, are "battles of production," driven by technological means and economic logic, where soldiers are "labouring slaves" afraid of death, and the enemy is degraded into a criminal to be eliminated.

Drone warfare's asymmetry. Drone warfare represents the pinnacle of this shift, embodying total asymmetry and the mechanical production of death. The invisible attacker, operating through data and algorithms, transforms the opponent into a mere "data set" or "criminal," eliminating any face-to-face confrontation, drama, or fate. Killing becomes a data-driven operation, a "work" performed in shifts, where "scorecards" confirm kills, reflecting a society where everything, even death, is subjected to the form of production and performance.

7. The Dataist Turn: Replacing Myth and Thought with Calculation

The human being now has to comply with data. No longer the producer of knowledge, the human being cedes its sovereignty to data.

From myth to data. The transfer of knowledge has shifted from the playful, agonistic riddle-solving of archaic cultures and early Greek philosophy to the mechanical calculation of dataism. Ancient philosophers, like Heraclitus, engaged in "ritual games of riddle-solving" that vivified myth and embodied cosmic strife. Even Plato's dialogues, despite his move towards truth, retained theatrical and agonistic elements, reflecting a playful approach to knowledge.

Enlightenment's end. The Enlightenment, with Kant's "Copernican revolution," established the human subject as the autonomous producer of knowledge, centered around its own a priori forms. However, dataism silently supersedes this, demanding that humans comply with data rather than produce knowledge. This marks the end of Enlightenment humanism, as humans are reduced to calculable variables, and knowledge is mechanically generated by algorithms that operate beyond human understanding.

Erosion of thinking. Dataism's imperative of transparency, a "compulsion of production," transforms everything into visible data, leading to a "knowledge for domination" that manipulates the human psyche. This algorithmic, additive process eliminates the narrative space of thinking, which cannot be accelerated like calculation. Thinking, once characterized by play and Eros, becomes alienated from its essence, degenerating into mere "steps of a calculation," naked and pornographic, devoid of the "wings" that give it creative power.

8. Seduction's Demise: The Rise of Pornographic Transparency

Porn, finally, marks the end of seduction. Here, the other is effaced altogether. Pornographic pleasure is narcissistic.

Seduction as ritual. Seduction, as described by Kierkegaard, is a game, a ritual duel characterized by playful power and scenic distance, where the sexual act is subordinate. It thrives on "extimacy" – the exteriority and fantasy of the other – and the negativity of the secret. This contrasts with the intimacy of love, which marks the end of play and the beginning of psychology, and with porn, which effaces the other entirely.

Pornographic transparency. Pornography signifies the triumph of transparency and unambiguousness, where secrets, riddles, and ambiguities are uncomfortable. It represents the loss of any capacity for illusion, semblance, or drama. Even reading can acquire a pornographic form, seeking a progressive unveiling of "truth as a sexual organ," unlike poems that play with fuzzy edges and resist the production of singular meaning. Political correctness, with its rigorous linguistic hygiene, further condemns ambiguity, stifling erotic language and seduction.

Overproduction of sex. The compulsion of production extends to sexuality, turning it into a performance where everything is presented, made visible, and exposed. In porn, even ejaculation is "produced," making the sexual act mechanical and the body a "sexual machine." This "overproduction" of sex, rather than moral repression, ultimately kills off sexuality and eroticism, leading to a "post-sexual age" where the excessive visibility of "carography" (meat) leaves sex devoid of allure, a pathology of "too much" rather than "too little."

9. The Crisis of Resonance: Narcissism and the Atomization of Society

Without resonance we are thrown back on to ourselves, isolated. Increasing narcissism works against the experience of resonance.

Loss of resonance. Rituals once fostered a community of "resonance," creating accord and a common rhythm through vertical (to gods/cosmos), horizontal (social), and diagonal (to things) relationships. This resonance, distinct from self-echoes, inherently involved the dimension of the other. Its disappearance leaves individuals isolated, thrown back onto themselves, and contributes to depression. Digital communication, filled with "echo chambers" and superficial "likes," only strengthens self-echoes rather than providing genuine resonance.

Disembodied connections. Rituals are embodied, bodily performances that solidify community values and create a "communal body" with shared bodily knowledge and memory. Digitalization, by its disembodying influence, weakens these common ties, fostering disembodied communication. Collective feelings, which consolidate community (e.g., objective mourning in a ritual), are replaced by fleeting affects and emotions of isolated individuals, predominantly expressed through affect-based digital media like Twitter, where immediate affect supplants time-intensive reason in politics.

Exploitation of freedom. The neoliberal regime, while invoking empathy, paradoxically isolates individuals by encouraging self-production. This "communication without community" is accelerated and additive, lacking the narrative depth of rituals. Neoliberal psycho-politics exploits freedom itself, using emotional management to influence and direct people more effectively than rational management. This constant self-production for attention leads to a crisis of community, transforming it into an "atrophied," commodified, and consumerized entity devoid of symbolic binding power.

Last updated: October 29, 2025