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Living Off the Grid: Foucault’s Counter-Conduct
If modernity is the left hemisphere’s creation, then pursuits that appeal to the right hemisphere, or require us to give primacy to the right hemisphere, are acts of rebellion against modernity.
Example 1: Prose is the left hemisphere’s flex: the earliest written records are from bureaucrats. Poetry is the right hemisphere’s pursuit. Therefore, the poet is a rebel.
Example 2: Rhythm is the only element of music that is strongest in the left hemisphere. All other aspects of music thrive in the right hemisphere. Therefore, listening to Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” is an act of rebellion.
Example 3: Electricity and motors give us control over everyday activities, greatly increasing our efficiency in our various pursuits (purposes). Control, efficiency, and purpose are values of the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere values process over accomplishment and doesn’t seek control. I suspect “efficiency” is as alien to the right hemisphere as “leisure” and “non-competitive play” are to the left. Therefore, the act of living without electricity on the fringe of society is an act of rebellion:
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