Sophie G
Humanitarian, Project Manager
G27 Help
The Knowledges:
G- Socialis
27- Common Good
Participant No.64
Humanitarian, Project Manager
G27 Help
The Knowledges:
G- Socialis
27- Common Good
Participant No.64
what kind of
HELP
would rF be?
HELP
would rF be?
ENGLISH VERSION:On the Complexity of the Everyday:
The Imperative of Self-Sufficiency – Help as a (Humanistic) Ideal?
Abstract
This article aims to reconstruct interaction practices in a help situation. It examines aspects of help and helping, with a particular focus on the attribution of the need for assistance and the roles associated with it, as well as the negotiation processes involved in a situation dominated by uncertainty. The goal is to conduct a praxeologically oriented analysis—developing meaningful and sociogenetic types—through which the type of the "remontant fury" is reconstructed using empirical material. The fantasies of an ostensibly helped individual describe a cooperative practice in which the actively shaping and ambivalent structuring of help, and the conjunctive knowledge guiding actions, can be reconstructed. This reveals a help practice—the remontant fury—that is deliberately established and legitimized by the moral obligation of the helper's actions.
In this sense, it becomes clear that the remontant fury allows for neither gratitude nor neediness on the part of the helped. The appropriateness and meaningfulness of the help are rooted in the positive intention and do not require further validation from the helped. The remontant fury, as the ever-helping, the used, defines itself entirely through the shifting interactional opportunities. The mode of help interaction of the remontant fury orients itself around the competence disparity between the two parties. A clear dependence of the ostensibly needy on the helper is established through the acceptance—and thereby the takeover—of the problem, which did not exist before the unsolicited help was provided.
The asymmetry created by goodwill-driven, lovingly intended assistance cements the surrender of self-sufficiency and the passivity of the helped. For the type of the remontant fury, help is an omnipresent, genuine part of identity design. The article concludes that every concrete help interaction in the type of the remontant fury inherently contains a de-autonomizing dimension, which simultaneously entails a dependence on those who give and grant help—and thus process (or fail to process) the situation. Help, as a fundamental form of human behavior, diffuses in the remontant fury alongside its opposite, struggle, so that a powerful giver stands opposite the sluggish relinquishment of responsible self-sufficiency by the helped, dominating the situation.
Keywords: Power, Identity, Roles, Intention
Introduction.
She wraps her wings around me; it is a soft chest that I lean against with gentle pressure. Just a moment ago, everything was so heavy; I wanted to try it myself, I had an idea, but something was missing, somehow it didn't work. A soft smile flickers on her round face, as if she had seen me struggle and fail, her dark button eyes full of kindness. This is how she pulled me under her great wing. She must have recognized my difficulty and known that I couldn’t manage it alone.
Theory.
It is beautiful here under the wings—warm, calm, the light is only diffuse. A motherly care radiates from her. I breathe more slowly, my jaw, tense from concentration, relaxes. I have let go. Now, she is there, doing it for me. While I am cocooned in the opaque twilight under her wings, feeling warm and held, she acts. She does not ask what I want to do. She must know.
But how?
Method.
I can't see anything. The wings block my view. The feathers muffle every sound. A small unease awakens in me after I felt so pressed, so relieved from the effort.
How long should I wait?
Will there eventually be something I can still do myself?
Results.
It feels tight. Impatience stirs within me. The initially strong, protective embrace, the diminishing of my responsibility, begins to trouble me. I start to squirm. She murmurs soothingly. I shudder. She says she will have it done soon and that she enjoys doing it for me. I should relax; it's not a big deal that I couldn’t manage this time—next time I should just ask sooner.
Was it done the way I wanted it to be done?
Discussion and Desiderata.
I am a little dazed, too sluggish to resist her protection and takeover. In the end, I didn't have to do it myself; perhaps it would have been too difficult. I yield to her loving dominance. A final doubt flickers.
How will I know how to do it myself next time?
Conclusion.
I don’t know; I have never tried to. And I melt into her soft, expansive body, let myself be wrapped in her wings and affection; no more responsibility.
"Scheißverein!*" she suddenly says. "I'm not putting up with this anymore."
* scheißverein could be translated in fucking shitty club. or you suckers! or bollocks! or i do not want to be part of this horrible society .