Abstract

T. H. Macho defended the claim that politics is a system for organizing attention and for arranging relationships of visibility. One way of attracting and holding the attention of others and maintaining one’s visibility is the instrumentalization of indignation. Another way is to instigate and maintain social stress and unrest. The article explores the concepts of indignation and social stress as introduced by P. Sloterdijk. These concepts are part of a model of political dynamics that describes 1) the relationship between indignation and stress in political super-units and 2) the fact that they are compensated for by means of a specific conception of individual freedom (eleuthería, J.-J. Rousseau) and a liberal social order. The article defends the claim that there is a relationship between Macho’s claim about the organization of attention, Sloterdijk’s analyses of the concept of freedom and the method whereby individuals are immunized against generated social stress, which maintains social cohesion.