Day: September 20, 2007

Cornel West #3

He said it is so rare for him to engage in dialogue, where somebody in the academy has a good tempure. Simon is a white, blues brother.

“What I bring to this dialogue is my baggage.” This is like a blues man in the life of the mind. Blues is catasrophe in the mind. Horrendous.

Wow, Cornel is engaging. The vocal changes. Preacher-esque. Very many references to literature. Kafka.

Little of philosophy of death in philosophy.

COurage to htink for oneself. We would rather evade this, and keep and domesticate the catastrophic. This is how we motivate ourselves in the light of our desires.  

I am having trouble typing, as he is melodioiusly carrying me through his message. But, his message is strong.

He comes from a history of African people who restle with social death, and the psychic death that comes from white fear and hatred, and the real jim Crow death, and spiritual death of nihilism. Blues and Jazz men and women use their craft

Think of the corpses of John Donne, as they wait for us.

He said that Simon is a metathinker, interested in metaphilosophy. What is philosophy. What is the role of philosophy. What is politics?

Failed transcendence. Obsessed with the german idealistic school. Wrestling with a pessimism. There is something positive about the quest, but there will never be closure.

“My brother, Simon.” Interesting refrain he keeps making.

Little about the enslavement of workers. Capitalism is so powerful that workers did not begin to organize until 100 years after Argentina, which is hardly known as being a steller example of social justice.

Cornel is like CHekhov, he does not have a Romantic trace, in him at all.

When dealing with the catastrophic in the everyday life, it is like a tragic comic, a steady ache of the tragic in our lives. Simon begins with a Romantic, and ends with disappointment. Cornel did not start as a ROmantic. From the very beginning, he does not have disappintment, as he never expected anything.

So, does philosophy begin with disappointment? It does if it begins with Romanticism. Think about the disappointment of Beckett, try again and fail again and try better.

Cornel is full of righteous indignation. He is here to help to promote Simon’s new book (which is why this is sponsored or at least has the presence of Verso books).

Get out of one’s narcissistic ego, and then move on. Self love is empowering and liberating. Marvin said Jesus is love. James Baldwin. Morrison and Beloved. None of them is an Americanized love, which is Holleywood, Romantic love. Thus, African American relate to the love of the Hebrews in the Old Testament. This love helps keep America alive, where American terrorism has 400 years of history for American blacks. 9/11 has a long history with Americans of African descent.

The role of what philosophy can contribute. He would join the army to fight the Nazis, but not sure about if he would join the early Americans at the time of the Revolution, as that would be hypocritical for African Americans. He hates imperialism.

He is a deep Democrat, which means he can pull from a number of traditions in order to understand it.

Really engaging, pulling references almost out of a hat, or rather a deep well of experience and education and reading and feeling. Not Romantic, of course. Can’t leave the two parties, as these are the only places to bring change. Find some nooks and crannies to find a home in them.

It is impossible to tell the story of white supremacy without getting crushed.

Keep fighting for deep Democarcy.

He finished. What a past 70 minutes between the two of them.

Time to turn off and stand up.

 

Simon Critchley #2

The lesson in and of philosophy after Kant, which is the painful process of accepting limitation.

It seems this event is for the publication of Simon’s new book by Verso.

Philosophy begins in the failed sense of transcendence. Religious and political disappointment intersect, and, if God is Dead, the issue of nihiliism, which is the breakdown of the order of meaning. This can be active or passive. Active is when the person finds things meaningless, and in turn try to detroy this world and bring a new one into being. Al Quaeda is the highest example of active nihilism. Passive nihilism is more like Nietchze, where there is the withdrawal.

Thus, what might justice be in an unjust world.

Wow, Simon speaks well. Polished. British English. Cultured, Modern. He wants to find more of a third way, one that is meta-ethical. The core of ethics, the existential matrix and core of ethics is a demand. One of good beyond being, the Resurrection, the moral law, etc. It depends on the thinker and the view.

There is a demand that cannot be fulfilled, and it makes me the me that I am by dividing me by myself; a dividual (the divided individual). Really interesting concept, I think. It fits with his concept that he is discussing, especially with the disappointment without dispair, there is a comic ridiculous. A bleak elevation to humor. We need satire more than ever, since we need the sense of the comic to cut through both the right and the left, politically, right now.

He is interested in the politics of resistance–military neoliberalism, neo leninism, neo anarchism.

Military neo-liberalism is a faith. This is similar to President bush right now, as well as British politics, and even current Democratic policies. This shows a melancholy with current politics. This form of politics causes a response of violence. This is politics of fear, like politics of policing, aka Guilianism. The best we can hope for globalized feeling of making the planet better. However, this is violent.

Neo-Leninism is practiced in Al Queda, and jihadist revolutionary Islam. He is very suspicious of this, more in the line of Stalin and Mao. Leninist and neo-Leninists like dictatorships and the political desire for the master. This is very violent. 

Neo-anarchism can be seen in the nature and tactics of resistance against the G8 Summit, for example. When diverse groups form and forge together for a common cause. This is like non-violent warfare, which is his emphasis. Badiou.

Anarchism as politics can be seen even in the US history, such as the writings of Payne and in some of the religious societies, such as Mount Lebanon.

a neoanarchist politics of religion can still allow for a resistance against the state. This is what Marx called true democracy when he referred to some of Hegel’s work.

What he is saying, about the state, immigration, and even the space where people live and have their lives, is very interesting, but as I am hot, sitting on the floor, and very uncomfortable, I am wondering  . . .

Ah, Gramsci and hegemony. Nothing like perking myself up. Makes me recall my classes with Brookfield. Interesting, I had not previous made the connection between Simon and Stephen (Brookfield).

Anarchism has to do with freedom

Ah, a Marcuse reference. And local and glocal.

War is the wrong response to the effects of 9/11. Perhaps the heteronomous other of Levinas is closer to what this is all about.

The three options, and he hopes the third is successful, but the first two will instead ravage the world.

Cornel West and Simon Critchley as liveblogging experience 1

So, here I am again, liveblogging another academic event. This event begins at 8:00, and I arrived at 7:35 to find not a single seat. Thus, I am sitting on the floor in the back of the Theresa Lang Community & Student Center at the New School in New York City. The fire sign above my head states that the room has a capacity of 200 people. Given the fact that there are people sitting in every seat and on the floor in all the aisles and in front of the emergency exits, let’s hope there will not be an emergency situation.

Clapping, so it must be them. Too bad I am in the back on the floor and cannot see them at all.