Glossary

A series of terms and concepts running through this blog. Some are invented, others borrowed — all of them contested.

A

Années moi-moi. fig. phrase. From Fr. années (“years”) and moi-moi (emphatic repetition of moi, “me”; literally, “me-me years”), in reference to the années folles of the 20th century. A historical era, particular to the 21st century, defined by the centrality of the self as the axis of value, representation, judgment, belonging, and power. In the me-me years, identity exposure replaces connection, external validation displaces interiority, and politics, consumption, and subjectivity revolve around the visibility and performance of the ego.

C

Cognitive sovereignty. fig. phrase. The capacity to safeguard one’s attention and govern the flow of one’s consciousness in an environment saturated with stimuli designed to hijack it. It’s about choosing what to look at, what to think about, what to discard, and when to pause. A concept developed by Juan Ruocco as an active defense of the right not to be swept away.

H

Homo frater. fig. phrase. From Lat. homo (“human”) and frater (“brother”). A relational subject, guided by awareness of interdependence, shared fragility, mutual responsibility, reciprocal care, and a common fate. Instead of displaying itself, it seeks to weave community. It listens and accompanies. It lingers, mediates, and holds. Its practice (in contrast to homo instans) is not the affirmation of the self, but the patient construction of a “we.” In the face of performance mandates, it offers attention; against judgment, mercy and compassion; before urgency, delay; against retreat, a shared horizon.

Homo instans. fig. phrase. From Lat. homo (“human”) and instans (“urgent”, “pressing”). A subject of the absolute present, caught in the instant moral reflex — no duration, no process, no pause. It reacts, shares, comments, judges, cancels, demands, declares. It cannot hesitate or linger. Its relation to the world is shaped by the urgency to signify something in real time.

P

Post-iconia. n. From post- (“after”) and Gr. eikón (“image”). The inability to look at an image attentively. The eye seeks stimulus rather than meaning. The image matters only if it strikes — consistency is irrelevant. A visual counterpart to Mark Fisher’s post-lexia: seeing without reading, gazing without thinking.

This glossary is alive. It grows with each reading, each text, each thought, and each contradiction.

— E.