Societal

sociétal

Worked through in 12 videos · 22 passages.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani approaches the societal through Michel Clouscard, setting it against the social. He points out that Clouscard does not condemn the societal as such, a word that appeared after 68, but its use as a barrier against social advances1. The liberation of mores could crown social gains. Used as a screen against class struggle, it costs capital nothing2. He sums up this displacement with the formula "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll" substituted for "liberty, equality, fraternity". Libertarian liberal capitalism is thus permissive at the societal level and repressive at the social level3. By "societalizing" problems, it divides the dominated: women against men, young against old, colour, religion. In this way it brings civil war among the poor4 5. He distinguishes societal ideas from "societalism", which occupies the whole field6. In the yellow vests he sees a return of the social against the societal, which he considers more archaic. In Rousseau, with Wolmar, he sees an evolution of mores in the social sense.

Summary produced automatically from 23 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Talks · 7 Feb 2025Michel Clouscard and the betrayal of May 68

28:59The new consumption invests the societal sphere (the playful, the libidinal, the marginal): capitalism is permissive at the societal level and remains repressive at the social level.
54:48The societal demands of 68 did not complement the social demands: they prevented them, acting as a displacement or a subterfuge.

Cycle 12 · 24 Jun 2024For a “fresh and joyful” apocalypse?

44:28Libertarian liberalism is repressive at the social level and permissive at the societal level.
1:20:29Since May '68, social demands have been eclipsed by the societal.
1:48:38One does not fight societal ideas, but societalism, which occupies the whole terrain and avoids posing the social problem as a balance of power.

Cycle 10 · 22 Sept 2021#10.1 The eternal irony of the community

1:00:19Capitalism societalizes problems in order to divide the dominated and prevent a critical mass.
1:05:41Power shifts discontent toward color, sex, age, religion: ontology.

Cycle 10 · 20 Sept 2021Presentation of the 2021-2022 workshops and association membership

8:54The societal approach is invading debates at the expense of the social, the historical and the political; some reduce the political to the societal.

Series · 14 Jul 2021Everything is allowed, nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68 and the capitalism of seduction

19:34The social is displaced by the societal, which pits women against men, young against old, and carries civil war into the ranks of the poor.

Series · 14 Jul 2021Everything's allowed, but nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68, French theory and capitalism

19:33The evacuation of the social by the societal turns women against men and the young against the old: this carries civil war into the ranks of the poor.

Talks · 13 Feb 2019Hegel and the yellow vests (part 1)

20:14The yellow vests movement is presented as the return of the social against the societal, the societal being more archaic than the social.
53:03Reign of communities and societal chatter, which extends the gaze of public force over the private domain.
1:34:05In Hegel, intersubjectivity: a contingent relation that presupposes the individual, which individualism absolutizes against the social.

Series · 6 Jan 2015W for Wolmar

10:00Wolmar embodies an evolution of mores in the social sense, as opposed to the societal '68 that fragments into naturalistic identities instead of unifying in a social sense.

Series · 26 Sept 2014#4 Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: on the thought of M. Clouscard

7:40The societal was invented so as no longer to speak of the social; it is still used to execute the social.
38:31Class struggle gives way to societal struggles: everyone against everyone, the region against the nation.

Series · 7 Jul 2012Radio Galère: Michel Clouscard (2)

32:47The societal is only a problem when it is instrumentalized against the social; sex, drugs and rock'n'roll replaces liberty, equality, fraternity.
35:54If it crowned social gains, Clouscard would have nothing against it; he denounces what is given without it costing capital anything.

Series · 6 Jul 2012Radio Galère: Michel Clouscard (1)

18:27Cosmetic measures that screen off class struggle, unlike reforms in mores tied to the workers' movement.
30:39Rousseau and Clouscard appear reactionary on the societal level because they are revolutionary on the social level.

Series · 29 Jan 2012Everything is allowed but nothing is possible: Michel Clouscard (2)

15:56The liberation of mores was supposed to complement social liberation. Used as a fig leaf, it costs capital nothing.
20:27Clouscard does not condemn the societal but its use as a barrier to social advances; the word appears after 68.