2,000 years ago Cicero warned us against the idea that other people are functionally prey from whom we extract the profit. Unfortunately, his arguments have been forgotten and we inhabit a society that insists that the exploitation of others is not only acceptable but necessary and admirable. As Deleuze and Guattari and others have demonstrated, this logic leads to an idea of the self that is entirely devoid of human sympathy. We think we are exploiting others but we are in fact re-conceptualizing ourselves as extraction/consumption machines that have no other values or functions. Within this context, caring for others as valuable and even beautiful is an act of resistance.
Books mentioned:
Cicero De Officiis Book 3 50-57
Deleuze and Guattari A Thousand Plateaus - Plateau 6
Delueze and Guattari Anti-Oedipus
Koran Al-Mutaffifin and Al-Isra (amongst many other passages)
Deluzism by Ian Buchanan particularly the last chapter.
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