Word of the Day
noun
1. Social instability caused by erosion of standards and values.
2. Alienation and purposelessness experienced by a person or a class as a result of a lack of standards, values, or ideals.
posted by brainmarket @ 6:59 PM
Monday, July 24, 2006
noun
1. Social instability caused by erosion of standards and values.
2. Alienation and purposelessness experienced by a person or a class as a result of a lack of standards, values, or ideals.
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6 Comments:
Did a client inspire this post?
Come on, tell us the story.
Ha. No. Although there are plenty who might have. Actually this post was inspired by a recent Scrabble game. And nostalgia. (1992 Poll Tax riots in London.)
This goes well with acedia.
I am fascinated by these two definitions. The word anomie comes from Greek. 'nomos' is law or custom. It's one of the single most important words in the history of Western thought, because the Greek sophists made it the antonym of nature, and we have been struggling ever since to reconcile the apparent conflict between nature on the one hand and 'artificial' human law and custom on the other. The prefix a- means lack of. Thus the definitions here.
What interests me in these definitions is that you can have a society experiencing a lack of nomos and you can have an individual experiencing a lack of nomos. I think that's the way to read this, but I'm not sure, and I'm not sure I understand it if you read it that way. Otherwise, you have an individual feeling alienation because of society's lack of nomos. This makes more sense to me, but probably isn't the correct interpretation. Does an individual suffer from anomie when his society has its standards and values in order and he himself just happens to be out of sync? Or does the individual get the sense of disconnection (i.e. anomie) when there is nothing to connect to in his society?
this word went well with margaritas. as for the morning after, im never letting you play scrabble with my friends again
Read Emile Durkheim who takes this concept to it's somewhat logical conclusion "anomic suicide." Yeah that god ole geselschaft society! w00t!
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