5/18/2026 at 6:44:00 PM
The interesting part is not the intro about a literary conflict inside mid-19th-century Danish literary circles, but the quotes from Kirkegaard that seem to apply to our modern situation, and to social media, which did not and could not exist in 1840s, but the dynamics of which was already visible in the literary society. The crowd of opinion without much substance, with the desire to stand out, but also a desire to deride anything that does not align with their notion of proper. Nothing very new, but amplified by the power of the printed word.> Where earlier generations had to risk everything on decisive choices (good or bad), the reflective age thrives only in appearance – reacting, commenting, and circulating impressions in an endless loop.
> What Kierkegaard sees as missing in the modern age is passion – not mere intensity of feeling, but a single, unifying purpose that gathers and orders a person’s whole life. Without such passion, existence breaks apart into disconnected fragments, each governed by its own narrow concerns. The virtues no longer form a coherent character; they wander separately, untethered from any central commitment. In this condition, even the possibility of true, wholehearted virtue – or even genuine sin – fades away, replaced by a confusion of contradictions, postures, and incompatible “principles.”4 Moral noise only increases, as each fragment insists on its own limited standard of right and wrong, with nothing higher to integrate them. As Kierkegaard remarks, “There is nothing for either the good or the bad to talk about, and yet for that very reason, people gossip all the more.”
> Out of this fragmentation arises something new – the public, a hollow substitute for genuine judgment. Where inward conviction falters, collective opinion steps in to bind the pieces together. But the bond it forges is thin and corrosive. Public opinion, Kierkegaard suggests, functions like an acidic pool: every act and thought which enters it is dissolved into a uniform solution. What emerges is a flat, standardized output where nuance is reduced to metrics and authority is measured by the size of the count. What remains is not genuine collective life, but a mass of unreal individuals “held together as a whole,” yet “never united in any actual situation.”
> For Kierkegaard, the despotism of “the public” represents not democracy’s realization but its grotesque fulfillment: a leveling power that smooths out real differences in the name of equality and replaces personal responsibility with the mere illusion of engagement. Committees, petitions, surveys – these are less tools of participation than props in a play where everyone can feel involved. “Now everyone can have an opinion,” Kierkegaard quips, “but they have to band together numerically in order to have one. Twenty-five signatures make the most frightful stupidity into an opinion.”
> What holds this abstraction together is envy, the “negative unifying principle” of modern life.8 Envy does not look upward; it glances sideways, measuring its own worth by comparison, punishing excellence for the discomfort it causes. Yet even as it resents distinction, it cannot help but crave it. The result is a paradox of modern identity: in seeking to assert ourselves, we demand validation from a phantom audience. “That is the leveling process at its lowest” Kierkegaard warns, “for it always equates itself to the divisor by means of which everyone is reduced to a common denominator.”
by nine_k
5/18/2026 at 11:53:59 PM
I disagree, I found the story to be the interesting part. It's inspiring to me when people have the moral conviction to put themselves out there in a big way at great risk to their personal lives and mental health. And it was gratifying that he succeeded in swaying someone from the dark to the light.History is rife with examples of "what's old is new again." Human nature and our psychological and social issues are basically constant throughout history. Good examples like this are always worth noting but, as you note, it's nothing very new, I'm sure one of the Greeks said something similar.
by jrowen
5/18/2026 at 9:24:29 PM
Oh boy, would he enjoy the modernity.by TooSmugToFail
5/19/2026 at 6:08:49 AM
I agree. A good read overall as well.by snthpy
5/18/2026 at 9:06:44 PM
As more and more of the world becomes less comprehensible, we revert to a childlike understanding of the world, where things are vast and incomprehensible and filled with wonder. When our cargo cult like understanding of it all fails to give us what we want, we find attachment figures, like substitute parents to guide us and shape our understanding, and even our desires. Those attachment figures might be faking it too and often are, but it's better than despair at the incomprehensibility of reality.by narrator
5/18/2026 at 9:47:22 PM
> more of the world becomes less comprehensible, we revert to a childlike understanding of the world, where things are vast and incomprehensible and filled with wonder.When has the world ever been comprehensible? The vast majority of people thought that lighting was gods fighting and where looking to sacrifice some person if they thought it would buy them favor with said gods.
by pixl97
5/19/2026 at 12:04:51 AM
i’m convinced a significant number of that majority just thought it’d be cool as hell if lightning was in fact gods fighting, which i can respect. at that time: what’re they supposed to do with knowledge of lightning and electricity? might as well prefer the better story.by daseiner1