jbln thln 25 jonathan_003>martin: set of referents


ONE
OF YOUR
REFERENCES THAT I
ALREADY HAVE, THEN: "understanding
is not the booby prize."

What | know
is that you are here addressing our younger selves,
as we first knew each other; you are rethinking, if not refuting, something that we, good college Marxists, believed.

We meant to distance ourselves
from an ethic of detached or "idealistic" contemplation, from the notion that the search for comprehension is the greatest goal of life. Supposing that the philosophers had "only" interpreted the world, in various ways, but the point is to change it - we failed to acknowledge what I think we nevertheless already also understood,
which is that interpretation is also a work in the world.

A young Marx asserted also that "man [sic] makes himself."
That we have used language largely at least to unmake ourselves does not mean Marx was wrong, it just means
that self-making was always
a dangerous game.

And a question sparked
by another of your references that I have,
but more vague, etched on my mind not with the acid of nostalgia for our passionate and cynical youth
but in the fading vigor of some passing e-mail of yours, the mention of the name of Julia Kristeva, a lecture she gave
(am I right so far?) that you heard in Jerusalem, something you told me about that lecture that led me to associate the title
[The Book] of Hospitality not with its author's name, Jacques Derrida, but with hers; a thought in any case of the continuing mitzvah of hospitality, taken together (in one thought, as a challenge to imagine simultaneously problems that seem to be situated on vastly incommensurate scales) with your call for "an act of coordinated, communicated, and collective action" at the level of the species (at the level of the species!) & with Bill McKibben's reminder that part of the difficulty we have in recognizing,
let alone acting together, to address the current crisis is that it has largely been produced as a side effect of technologies
"freeing" us to be further apart, less connected, less in communication with one another:
How to restore face-to-face I and you without sacrificing
common human consciousness?

(Lest such "consciousness" might seem merely "moral," remember that if understanding
is a matter of survival and not just the booby prize, ethics, too,
is a matter of life and death.)

Hoe dan ook:
't is altijd wel wat!
Ooit was de wereld voor ons magisch,
geheimzinnig, mysterieus, keihard, verrassend, onbetrouwbaar,
wreed, pijnlijk, onbegrijpelijk, wonderbaarlijk, vanzelfsprekend, traditioneel, onverwacht, teleurstellend, hongerig, dorstig, gebrekkig &
stelden we alles in het werk, naar vermogen, om daar verandering in te brengen
met alle beschikbare middelen vele eeuwen lang
~~~

Toen kwamen de tijden
vol van ontluistering, rationalisme, mechanisatie, verleidelijke verzachtingen, beheersbaarheid, industrialisatie, hersenspoelingen, onderdrukking, medicalisering, nuchterheid, democratische aanpassingen, versnelde commercialisering, overvloed & andere vormen van uitbuiting, discriminatie, huichelarij via Groter Broertjes
& Modieuzer Zusjes met neobroodjes
& nieuwe speeltjes??

Ingewikkeld,
gecompliceerd, hoogstmerkwaardig
intrigerend, ontdekkend, onthullend: ik blijf nieuwsgierig
& myDi is voor mij 'n ideaal
leermedium!
05 mrt 2013 - bewerkt op 06 mrt 2013 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 80 jaar
   
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