There is a new quality of idiocy today. While the old idiot derived knowledge from isolation, the new idiot refuses all understanding of the world. A figure of systematic incompetence, the new idiot is impacting global culture and politics alike, giving rise to surprising, often absurd competences. Yesterday's "fake news" or "post-truths" can be read today as evidence of an ongoing transformation of self-politics in which the idiotic impulse is redefining our experience of the world. Despite talk of global awareness, the isolated self of the many is all the more effective. It brings about a culture of happy singletons strolling towards a black hole that has become their substitute for society.

Zoran Terzic's wide-ranging essay takes up the figure of the idiot and follows its numerous appearances throughout intellectual history in an examination of the "art of the idiotic" that both reflects and transcends the freneticism of the present.

About the Author
Zoran Terzic, PhD, born in Banja Luka, studied visual arts in New York and culture theory in Wuppertal. He lives in Berlin. Michael Turnbull is a translator from German into English of texts related to art such as The Moses Complex.


Reviews
"Arriving in translation from German, Zoran Terzic's Idiocracy: Thinking and Acting in the Age of the Idiot [. . .] identifies 'a new quality of idiocy today' that derives, not from mere ignorance, but from a deliberate refusal to understand things." * Insider Higher Ed *



Book Information
ISBN 9783035803679
Author Zoran Terzic
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Diaphanes AG
Publisher Diaphanes AG
Weight(grams) 266g
Dimensions(mm) 209mm * 137mm * 16mm