Are societies hydraulic pressure and stress machines?

[Terxpahseyton]

The title say it: Are societies hydraulic pressure and stress machines?
That is proposed by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk in a youtube video I watched.

Of course societies operate with pressure and stress, you may say, and this is just cheap hyperbole trying to be interesting.
Well the proposal is also more than that. It is, that social pressure and stress are the only things keeping society together. The only ones. The rest is, hence, just fluff. It may mean something, but it would not motivate people to stick together.
And realize how remarkable it is, that such a thing as mass society is even possible, on an emotional level. And the argument is, that this is only possible, because it is an emotional reaction to stress.

I am not really trying to take sides here. Just interested in other points of views.

 

[Perfection]

When we talk about stress are we talking about eustress and distress or distress specifically? I'd think the former is probably true while the latter is false.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Sloterdijk tends to be really reductive in his analysis of what constitutes society and he is stuck in the paradigm of a 20th century social scientist.. He has more in common with Durkheim than with Heidegger or Rorty. That being said I do actually agree with him that stress and pressure are some of the most pressing (heh) mechanisms operating on the human psyche in the 21st century.

 

[Hygro]

Isn’t this a case of using the environment of the day to describe the human condition? Like how you asked if humans are simply algorithms (very 2017) and how Freud used the language of his time (blowing off steam).

 

[Borachio]

I don't know.

It could be something like reciprocity that holds society together.

Stressing people wouldn't work, I don't think. Just make them more likely to attack each other.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Stressing people wouldn't work, I don't think. Just make them more likely to attack each other.

Isn't that pretty much what is happening these days?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

When we talk about stress are we talking about eustress and distress or distress specifically? I'd think the former is probably true while the latter is false.

That is a really good point and I think sums it all up.

Isn’t this a case of using the environment of the day to describe the human condition? Like how you asked if humans are simply algorithms (very 2017) and how Freud used the language of his time (blowing off steam).

Well... naturally. But only on the formal, not the material level, I dare say. Using the environment of the day to find analogies people get the easiest.
Okay, I guess you are right that this differentiation isn't without overlaps and interaction. But there is one, I insist.

 

[Borachio]

Isn't that pretty much what is happening these days?

It is. But it isn't what's holding societies together.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I don't know.

It could be something like reciprocity that holds society together.

Stressing people wouldn't work, I don't think. Just make them more likely to attack each other.

It also makes people conform, which is a big part of society staying together.

It is. But it isn't what's holding societies together.

Respectfully disagree, actually I think people internalizing their conflicts instead of looking for the root of them is another big factor in holding society together. Civil Wars, Revolutions, Uprisings, Mutiny.. Those happen when people externalize conflicts.

 

[Borachio]

I can see that people internalizing their conflicts may well be a good thing for society at large because it avoids civil wars, as you say.

But my point is that stressing them isn't a good thing in the first place.

There comes a point where people can no longer internalize their conflicts and outright strife is the result.