Fatti di norme. Sul riconoscimento ideologico della vergogna

In our society, ideology is no longer just a matter of ‘false consciousness’, an illusory mental construction of reality. Instead, the ideology regards the social structure of the illusion itself. The greater commitment of ideology is not so much shaping minds and distorting personality, rather to create a culture of objects and relationships to consume, transforming the material lack of the Other in terms of emptiness to be filled. It has gone from an ideology as design of the whole society to an ideology of the detail. In order to exist, the contemporary ideology needs to live everyday, it needs a continuous legitimization. Ideology requires ‘recognition’ as own ‘norm’ of existence. Norms and desires (for recognition) thus tend to overlap each other, producing in the relationship a stratum of ‘exteriority’ that affects both individuals and institutions. An exteriority, however, emotionally characterized and located, so ‘finely’ ideological. I would also say ‘factually’ ideological. Here the explanation of the title of the paper: “fatti di norme” (‘facticity of norms). To bear witness to this exteriority of (and into) the ideological recognition – in my opinion – it occurs a peculiar emotion: the ‘shame’, a really antique emotion which is currently experiencing a meaningful sensory and conceptual reformulation. The normed society towards which we are directing disengages shame from the feeling of exposure to the gaze of someone. On the contrary, what we experience is a sense of shame in front of the impersonal work of normativization and ideological recognition.