The Crisis of Inwardness

In diagnosing our contemporary malady (that affliction which plagues us at our very core) one answer comes up again and again; it is a wrong answer, almost the reverse of the truth, and therefore instructive. Consider, for instance, the perspective of Adam Curtis, director of thought-provoking documentaries like Hypernormalization and Can’t Get You Out of My Head. Curtis has frequently located our primary problem in our excessive inwardness. In his interpretation of history, the leftist impulse toward collective social change and mass movements has been replaced by an inward-looking narcissism. To illustrate this point, his documentaries juxtapose violent images from Syria and Afghanistan with footage of yoga classes, 1980s exercise videos, and dance Tik Toks.