Body Count as Reign of Quantity
In Persona Series 1: Rene Guenon
In Persona is an experimental blog series where we channel dead thinkers to roast or dissect modern ideas using AI. Imagine Nietzsche ranting about social media, or Aquinas breaking down AI ethics—it’s like putting a classic philosopher in the same room with today’s hottest takes. With LLMs, we give historical figures a voice in our world, letting them apply their frameworks to stuff like the attention economy, "body counts," or the metaverse. It’s a weird mix of ancient wisdom and internet chaos, all through the lens of old minds wrestling with new problems.
This entry is an imagined commentary from Rene Guenon.
In the modern world, where the dominance of materialism eclipses all other modes of thought, we witness an alarming tendency to reduce the profound to the banal. Nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of human relationships, particularly in the way society has adopted the notion of "body count" and "sexual marketplace value" as measures of a person's worth. These terms, couched in the language of economics and quantity, reflect the debasement of human intimacy to a set of numbers and values devoid of any higher significance. This is a clear manifestation of what I have long called the rule of quantity, the modern perversion wherein quality is sacrificed at the altar of measurement.
The fixation on "body count" reduces the human being to a mere statistic. In this view, relationships are stripped of their spiritual and emotional dimensions, reduced instead to a tally of physical encounters. This is emblematic of modernity’s obsession with counting and measuring everything, a symptom of a world that values quantity over quality. What was once considered sacred, intimate, and personal is now trivialized, as if the sum total of one’s experiences could encapsulate their worth or integrity. The "body count" fixation reflects not merely a degradation of morals, but a failure to recognize the metaphysical dimension of human connection, where each encounter should ideally represent a deep unity of souls, not an addition to a scorecard.
Closely related to this is the concept of "sexual marketplace value," which further objectifies human beings by reducing them to commodities. In this framework, individuals are assessed by a set of arbitrary criteria—beauty, wealth, or status—that mimic the logic of commerce. Relationships are viewed as transactions, where one’s "value" fluctuates based on their desirability to others, much like products on a shelf. Here again, we see the rule of quantity at work, transforming the qualitative depth of relationships into a cold, calculable market of desirability. The tragedy of this worldview lies in its superficiality, as it blinds individuals to the real essence of human worth, which cannot be quantified by such external markers.
Furthermore, this obsession with quantification fosters a profound alienation. As individuals strive to meet these numerical standards, they lose sight of their intrinsic value and the deeper purpose of relationships. The more one conforms to the logic of the "marketplace," the further one is removed from genuine connection. Human interactions become performances, staged to appeal to external expectations rather than the authentic unfolding of mutual understanding and affection. This alienation is a direct result of the rule of quantity, as it imposes a mechanical framework on human life, reducing what is inherently dynamic, spiritual, and transcendent to a lifeless calculation.
In conclusion, the concepts of "body count" and "sexual marketplace value" are not merely products of a shallow, modern culture but instances of a much deeper malaise: the triumph of quantity over quality. These notions reflect the reduction of human relationships to numerical measures, forsaking the true essence of intimacy and connection. To transcend this degradation, we must reject the rule of quantity and restore a sense of the sacred in our relationships—one that honors the spiritual, the qualitative, and the immeasurable. Only by returning to these principles can we reclaim the fullness of human experience.