Notes On Cybernetics II - Therapeutic Culture and Dataism

Ibn Maghreb

In the previous article, we explored how data sovereignty is instigating a new form of governance, providing the State unprecedented reach into citizens' lives and the issue of metadata.

However, cybernetic governance can only thrive in a world reimagined along the data's outlines. The concept of "data" as an entity to be gathered, classified, and utilized should be feasible first before any additional structures of governance be placed on top of it. Notwithstanding the horrors of the 20th century's materialist ideologies, the vast nationalist, racialist, praetorian, communist, or socialist surveillance networks were inept at discerning their subjects' private thoughts. They lacked the necessary raw data to support and sustain their surveillance infrastructure, making them heavily reliant on an extensive human network of spies, informants, and assets. These were crude instruments relying on the threat of physical violence which very effective of course cannot ever evolve into a sophisticated self-governing entity that provides the State with a constant stream of updated and relevant data.

Presently, there's no longer that inherent hesitation or reluctance to disclose personal and private thoughts publicly. It has become quite the norm to air deeply personal issues in the digital arena, whether to garner sympathy or build a loyal follower base that can be monetized through a steady stream of "content production".

Interestingly, preceding the explosion of social media technologies that promoted unrestrained sharing was the spread of "therapeutic culture."

The "therapeutic culture" denotes the intense psychologization of the 'nafs,' examining everything through the speculative lens of pharmaceutical psychology. To do this one has to eliminate the language of sin, guilt, and transgression and replace it with a pscyho-medical model buttressed by the false hope of pharmaceutical correction as the panacea for coping with "difficult" emotions.

This culture is further characterized by the following:

1. Lived experience is not merely an alternative but is actively extolled as the superior source for moral transformation, surpassing centuries of Islamic moral thought weaving together fiqh, tasawwuf, and tafsir.
2. Any recourse to the comprehensive tapestry of Islamic moral thought deliberately circumvents eschatological themes, concepts revolving around fear, sin, and Divine wrath.
3. Identity surpasses ethical action.

In essence, "therapeutic culture" paved the way for Dataism. It conditioned the populace to indulge their narcissism through the digital landscapes created by digital media platforms. While the Internet allowed everyone to have their library, it also fostered the illusion of celebrity.

Thus, Cybernetics can be seen as a substructure of Dataism. Dataism was only feasible due to the "therapeutic culture." Without "therapeutic culture," business models like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok would be non-viable. "Therapeutic culture" is the Trojan horse that deprives individuals of a sense of moral agency, fostering feelings of despair and impotence. It keeps people trapped by the weight of ceaseless historical abuse and horror, insisting it should be "remembered" but never dealt with and resolved. Some cynically use this as a foundation for political ambition or personal gain (creating tailored monetized content to indulge communities of narcissitic despair)

Therefore, the cybernetic state is feasible only in a society thoroughly imbued with narcissistic traits and tendencies. Big Data's architecture, too, revolves around this culture.

To understand the genealogy of the current cybernetic condition, we must first unravel the underpinning factors that gave rise to the 'therapeutic culture.' This culture emerged from a desire to heal, but in the process, it fashioned a world where every personal ordeal is dissected, diagnosed, and potentially medicated. It has propagated the idea that every human hardship is a psychological aberration to be rectified, not a part of the shared human condition. This relentless "introspection" (a grotesque secularised perversion of the original deeply religious concept) has fanned the flames of the individual's obsession with their "self" inadvertently laying the foundation for Dataism.

Dataism, the offspring of therapeutic culture, derives its potency from the ever-swelling stream of personal information willingly volunteered by individuals. Our world, replete with narcissistic traits, has encouraged a confessional culture where we unabashedly share our lives' intimate details on social platforms. This relentless sharing generates raw data that is the lifeblood of Dataism. Dataism, in turn, assigns value to this data, sorting, categorizing, and analyzing it to create a simulacrum of reality that it can manipulate and control.

This progression from therapeutic culture to Dataism, and ultimately to cybernetics, is not just an abstract, theoretical development; it has tangible, far-reaching implications for our society. As therapeutic culture encourages introspection, it fosters an environment where the self is the primary, if not the sole, focus. Individuals are no longer just members of a society, but isolated entities navigating the world through the lens of their personalized data.

The rise of Dataism has further exacerbated this. It commodifies personal experiences, transforming them into quantifiable units that can be manipulated and traded. Every like, share, or comment we make on digital platforms contributes to the relentless data stream, which in turn feeds the ever-hungry algorithms of Dataism. This system distills our personalities, preferences, and habits into data points, creating a digital avatar that is perceived to be as authentic, if not more so, than our physical selves.

From here, it is but a small leap to cybernetics. As Dataism constructs a digital simulacrum of reality, cybernetics utilizes this new reality to exert control. It deploys the data, curated and analyzed, to nudge individuals and communities towards certain behaviors, beliefs, or consumption patterns. The cybernetic state, therefore, is not just a dystopian fantasy; it is a distinct possibility in a world where data is the currency and control, the ultimate goal.

Cybernetics, the next evolution, is the administrative arm of Dataism. It is the mechanism that collects, processes, and deploys data in ways that can shape and steer society. Cybernetics is not merely a tool of Dataism but is, in fact, the embodiment of Dataism in action. It is the manifestation of the data-driven world that the therapeutic culture's introspective turn and Dataism's commodification of the self have conspired to create.

What then does the system truly fear? Private, conscientious individuals, publicly stoic, careful about the words they express in public, guarding their secrets. This systm detests the dignified Homo Islamicus who understands the sin of not just the unrestrained gaze, but the unrestrained tongue.

Cybernetics, in its essence, is the inevitable outcome of a society that has become so immersed in its own reflection that it has allowed that reflection to govern it.

And God knows best