Forces of Disconnection

This chapter begins by explaining how the “the world has been taken from us” (N, 176). Whereas the death/loss of God was a personal/transcendent force of disorientation, the loss of the world is brought about precisely by immanent forces—the over-inundation of affect information coupled with worsening material conditions, and so on. Using the work of Hannah Arendt, Patricia Clough, and William Connolly, I explicate the forces that have disconnected us from the world and caused our unbelief as well as the implications for the way we understated the world. The negative effect of this constant inundation can easily devolve into a form of existential ressentiment toward “the world” as one understands it. The feeling of resentful disconnection can lead to a feeling of powerlessness and thus create a desire to retreat from the world so as to shield oneself from its negative forces. Seeing the world as becoming is offered as a safeguard against resentment.