tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post2475260593725756368..comments2024-03-18T13:34:06.557-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Unrealpolitik: Power is the New TruthGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-7725973317068570042014-01-23T16:09:13.349-08:002014-01-23T16:09:13.349-08:00Thanks Julie! Thanks Julie! USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-59875116335053886812014-01-23T06:27:53.232-08:002014-01-23T06:27:53.232-08:00Bob
I believe the root claim of the deconstructiv...Bob<br /><br />I believe the root claim of the deconstructive project you mention was made by Gilles Deleuze:<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze<br /><br /><i>Deleuze's main philosophical project in the works he wrote prior to his collaborations with Guattari can be baldly summarized as an inversion of the traditional metaphysical relationship between identity and difference. Traditionally, difference is seen as derivative from identity: e.g., to say that "X is different from Y" assumes some X and Y with at least relatively stable identities (as in Plato's forms). To the contrary, Deleuze claims that all identities are effects of difference. Identities are neither logically nor metaphysically prior to difference</i><br /><br />Which is to say, that there *is* a metaphysical claim in deconstruction, i.e. that the primordial ground of being is a process of differentiation. (Think of what happens at the quantum level.) In a way, this amounts to a kind of polytheism.<br /><br />Of course, C.S. Lewis (following Aquinas, I think) pointed out the logical problem of polytheism by noting that all differentiation occurs in a context, and that this context is ultimately God. <br /><br />Deleuze et al hate that idea. They want to avoid God at all costs, so they try to suggest that differentiation ("différance") is somehow primordial. It isn't, but it does let them go on to suggest that differentiation is produced by power, that power relations are arbitrary, oppressive, and so on.Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00987042455512485699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-9598564576847077542014-01-23T06:15:28.625-08:002014-01-23T06:15:28.625-08:00Bob, I had always heard that Obama was a lecturer ...Bob, I had always heard that Obama was a lecturer at Chicago Law School, not a professor. That means he was untenured, adjunct, could not vote in faculty meetings, etc. Sure, he was considered faculty as distinct from "staff," but "faculty" is a general category. <br /><br />I surfed over to the Law School and found a statement for the media. This statement puzzled me. I wonder who wrote it. At one point, it says:<br /><br /><i>Like Obama, each of the Law School's Senior Lecturers has high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching. Several times during his 12 years...</i><br /><br />This is not the prose of someone from the Chicago Law School. "Has careers"? Using a numeral instead of writing out a number below 100? The latter contravenes the Chicago Manual of Style. (Pardon the detail.)<br /><br />I would bet it was written either by a secretary with no higher-up editing, or by an Obama staffer who doesn't know any better, or care.<br /><br />The statement seems to be at pains to suggest that Obama was seriously you guys a professor. This is misleading. Obama was a member of the untenured teaching faculty. This is considered second-class citizen status among faculty.<br /><br />He's ideologue, not an intellectual, and his position (and "Senior" status) was honorific. I doubt he was offered a tenure-track position. To get such an offer, you need to publish your ass off, and the bar is higher for lecturers because they didn't, like faculty on the tenure track, go through peer review processes, third-year review, etc. There was no way he would be tenured with his negligible publishing record.<br /><br />As an academic, as in much else, Obama is a fraud.<br /><br />Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00987042455512485699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-47847299886538188162014-01-22T19:01:17.255-08:002014-01-22T19:01:17.255-08:00"The First Law of Liberal Thermodynamics: The..."The First Law of Liberal Thermodynamics: The Conservation of Failure"<br /><br />Perfect.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-84089312385779520412014-01-22T17:53:46.712-08:002014-01-22T17:53:46.712-08:00The Borg, now there are some honest liberals.
&qu...The Borg, now there are some honest liberals.<br /><br />"We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."<br /> <br />"Your culture will adapt to service ours."<br /><br />"Freedom is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. You must comply."<br /><br />"Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated."<br /><br />"Well we don't care as long as he stays out of our way."<br /><br />Oh wait that last one was from a liberal friend of mine upon hearing I was a "Republican".son of a preacher manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17055448926930885913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-28442525494066516212014-01-22T16:35:21.628-08:002014-01-22T16:35:21.628-08:00Interesting review, ge. Thanks.Interesting review, ge. Thanks.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-40170029683298735262014-01-22T15:22:06.006-08:002014-01-22T15:22:06.006-08:00http://www.cinemadiscourse.com/2013/09/25/on-break...http://www.cinemadiscourse.com/2013/09/25/on-breaking-bad/<br /><br />If you label a guy like this 'postmodern' & so avoid his mind, you'd be missing good stuff ...He like me has delved far enough into a few of the main French "B" names that they become at least worthy elements/tools/arrows in one's quiver, POV's in one's lex. {he's a 'generalist'-- super-erudite & well read-- as opposed to 'specialist' like he sees ruining academia}, and doesn't shun the mythical or sacred a bit.gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-79025325022838896872014-01-22T15:01:18.289-08:002014-01-22T15:01:18.289-08:00Ben, lol. It's good to see you back online :)Ben, lol. It's good to see you back online :)juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87906128727047731952014-01-22T14:53:46.844-08:002014-01-22T14:53:46.844-08:00Julie: the left is kind of like the Borg but more ...Julie: the left is kind of like the Borg but more annoying.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-5580335460378365522014-01-22T14:51:30.086-08:002014-01-22T14:51:30.086-08:00The New Indulgence System: Purchasing White Redemp...The New Indulgence System: Purchasing White Redemption by Giving to the Church of Racial Grievance."<br /><br />Libs definitely know how to give lots of grief. It's their favorite charity and it's tax deductable to boot. <br />They give until it hurts...everyone else, that is.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-91206467437359696182014-01-22T12:39:18.665-08:002014-01-22T12:39:18.665-08:00Further, when leftists refer to people they disdai...Further, when leftists refer to people they disdain as "sheeple," it is not out of a desire to see the mass of humanity embrace freedom and break out of "groupthink," but rather because they believe they do not have enough control over the thoughts of the flock.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-2181145677866294692014-01-22T12:33:15.364-08:002014-01-22T12:33:15.364-08:00One theme that emerges from the book is just how w...<i>One theme that emerges from the book is just how wrong, and even deranged, various liberal luminaries have always been...</i><br /><br />It occurred to me again this afternoon how purely misanthropic leftism truly is. Over and over, in the guise of "helping mankind," they do everything they can think of to rob others of their very humanity.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-58660547813710894192014-01-22T12:01:15.127-08:002014-01-22T12:01:15.127-08:00One way or another, in the beginning is the word, ...One way or another, in the beginning is the word, the question being whether it is with God or with man. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-59345554871533465132014-01-22T11:59:56.854-08:002014-01-22T11:59:56.854-08:00Right. That's why people talk about "fac...Right. That's why people talk about "facts" instead of truth as if they meant the same thing. mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-68112235187328437692014-01-22T11:27:11.457-08:002014-01-22T11:27:11.457-08:00Truth is transcendent, i.e. universal (and beyond)...Truth is transcendent, i.e. universal (and beyond), always true, everywhere.<br /><br />Unless, as Bob noted, reality is a function of language - in which case manipulation of language manipulates reality. So conveniently.<br /><br />Right?<br /><br />Even for the elect.NoMohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01100042056270224683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-88322606328012017452014-01-22T10:56:49.672-08:002014-01-22T10:56:49.672-08:00One reason why they reject human nature is that th...One reason why they reject human nature is that they don't want to be bound by any reality. Thus, homosexual marriage and other impossibilities.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-17934809214404478702014-01-22T10:54:54.504-08:002014-01-22T10:54:54.504-08:00I suppose they'd say that, but it makes no sen...I suppose they'd say that, but it makes no sense, since any truth statement transcends the material.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-41571003046863324172014-01-22T10:31:01.150-08:002014-01-22T10:31:01.150-08:00Won't the atheist claim that absolute truth eq...Won't the atheist claim that absolute truth equals objective truth? That is, truth is the material world. <br /><br />I get confused about the rules of logic. Is that a category error?mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-65772403410603874672014-01-22T10:12:33.221-08:002014-01-22T10:12:33.221-08:00Yes, except for the Elect.Yes, except for the Elect.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-55295083893714940252014-01-22T09:41:15.367-08:002014-01-22T09:41:15.367-08:00My go to question to atheists:
So, the only Absol...My go to question to atheists:<br /><br />So, the only Absolute is that there are no Absolutes?NoMohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01100042056270224683noreply@blogger.com