Systems of dissociation

Constructed is the word that makes this an accusation rather than an observation. The systems are built to isolate and divide, and three things are named as the targets: people's basic needs, each other and the ability to collaborate. The third is the one easiest to miss and the most consequential, since separating people from their needs and from each other can be survived while separating them from the capacity to work together removes the remedy. Dissociation in the framework runs at three scales, separation of individuals from the dependency relationships that make up society, separation of a self in the case of refracted or amputated cores and separation of conscious, self or will from each other, and these systems operate at the first. Marsh's account of what makes them work is that the isolation is disguised as independence, which is impossible in reality but can be simulated by using currency to abstract dependency and endosocialism to deny the labour of the negative image. So a person cut off from everyone still receives what a society provides while believing they owe nothing for it. Her observation about where blame is directed completes the picture, since when people look for the source of the obvious flaws in these systems they are always pointed at those not behaving as taxpayers, and society seldom looks past the propaganda to the real leeches.

Durkheim's anomie describes normlessness accompanying rapid social change, and Marx's alienation names separation from the product of labour, from the process, from others and from oneself, which is close in structure to Marsh's three scales. Robert Putnam documented declining associational life, and there is a substantial literature on loneliness as a public health problem. Guy Standing's precariat describes conditions that make collective organization difficult. What Marsh adds is the intent, since alienation and anomie are consequences of how a society is organized and systems of dissociation are constructed for the purpose, which is a stronger claim requiring the beneficiary to be identified.