It's still insane to me that Hoeullebecq was making arguments like this a generation ago and I'm still only hearing them stated—at least this plainly—when I go back and read him
I believe this exhaustion is the fundamental condition of liberalism. Its Rosetta Stone
He hit this point even harder a few years later in The Elementary Particles, where he dramatized this condition as a paralysis that *leads* to the exhaustion
Infinite choice, total freedom, leads paradoxically to the inability to judge, and thus to act, subverting the will
The thing that *clobbered* me about Elementary Particles was how he also correctly diagnosed the two promises of post-War liberal human ascendance—science, and sex—and wrecked the both of them
It's made dramatically clear that something critically human is missing from both
After reading a bunch of right-wing political thought, it became clear to me that paralysis is the fundamental condition of post-war liberalism.
E.g. what causes trans? Sexlessness? Malaise itself? Paralysis.
Was like a bolt of lightning to read fiction that understood this
And the beauty of Houellebecq, the reason he's so celebrated, even though he's an obvious reactionary, is that his insights hit so hard they still resonate with the people predisposed to hate him
He's so truthful—and so funny about it—he beguiles even his enemies
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