Where's the Remote?

The remote-control device for one's TV is a tip of a wider and deeper web of technological mediation, of remoteness.

The standard meaning of "remote" is "at a distance," as in operating at a distance, but also "separated." The latter element might come into view when we consider an individual who is remote---- that is, detached, emotionally far-off, not linking.

What isn't remote these days? More and more innovation, at every level, in every sphere, and ever higher separation, disconnection. The specific reverse of tech's guarantee of connection. The seclusion and loneliness in the culture of modernity is now commonly acknowledged as no less than a public health crisis.

Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) was a theorist of principles who countered the remote with the apparently transcendent worth of an in person relationship to the Other. He recognized individuals as associated to each other, however also as "solitary and lost." With a level of abstraction, nevertheless, that is fundamental to approach, Levinas provided nothing tangible to fight remoteness. He saw closeness to the natural world as having no significance; nature is "dishonest." Levinas also had no real interest in real technological society and its outcomes.

In thesis 28 of The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord understood that "seclusion underpins innovation, and innovation isolates in turn."

Where's the remote? Where isn't remoteness? We are so distanced and separated from the non-remote. A prime example is found in what must be a bastion of intimacy and directness: health. Now it progressively resides in "telemedicine," "telehealth." Norman Cousins' Anatomy of an Illness (1979) alerted of what has occurred.

Cousins cited Dr. Jerome Frank, who spoke of the remote, techno-approach and its shortages. He cited a 1974 British study showing that "the survival of clients with heart problem being dealt with in an intensive-care unit was no greater than the survival rate of comparable clients being dealt with at home. His interpretation was that the psychological stress of being surrounded by emergency situation electronic gizmos ... offsets any theoretical technological gain."

Mentioned in Cousins' book is a short article by Dr. Robert Ryerson in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, where he cautioned versus replacing the human touch with the mediation of devices. "A comprehensive health examination promotes trust---- there is a laying on of hands and a listening mindset. The victim is being touched and understood."

Life need not be remote.

John Zerzan is a local anarchist author whose books consist of Elements of Refusal and Future Primitive. You can listen live to his "AnarchyRadio" at 7 pm Tuesdays on KWVA 88.1 FM or through audio streaming.