Dialectical_Specialist

No paywall here — https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o5VUUoCZuq4QFYR1rf2cBx1H6J5mAsA3hbI-RIogKX4/edit?usp=sharing

The United States is transforming from a two-party political system into one comprising establishment Republicans, establishment Democrats, alt-right populists, and democratic socialists. In confronting all those who will try to derail him, New York’s mayor-elect will need to keep this big picture in mind.

Zupančič's work is beyond interesting, and the general sentiment sounds nice...but this could really be utter psychobabble potentially. Wanted to post for others' thoughts either way

Non-Paywalled — https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R-hL0Igt-b3Sj24YRlsPpGS7Eu8Bo1cuDRvTCsPso-g/edit?usp=sharing

Trump does business like war, and war like business.

Do we need new words to indicate positive peace vs negative peace?

"Kafka himself pointed out how the ultimate secret of the Law is that it does not exist—another case of what Lacan called the inexistence of the big Other. This inexistence, of course, does not simply reduce the Law to an empty imaginary chimera; it rather makes it into an impossible Real, a void which nonetheless functions, exerts influence, causes effects, curves the symbolic space."
–Slavoj Žižek

The system works, but not because of a hidden logic. It works because of the void. The endless deferral, the lack of a final answer, is the engine of the system. The lack of a final guarantee is what keeps the subjects frantically trying to find one. The void causes anxiety, paranoia, obsession, and submission. It shapes our behavior. We obey the law not because we understand its origin, but because we are terrified of the senseless, arbitrary power that its absence implies.

Just as a massive object like a black hole curves spacetime, the void of the Real (the inexistence of the Big Other) warps the entire symbolic universe around it. All our laws, beliefs, and social structures are bent and distorted by the fact that they have no authentic foundation. We are constantly trying to cover over this hole with meaning, but the hole's gravitational pull is what determines the shape of our efforts.

We are all, in a sense, living our lives in relation to a "Big Other" that we assume exists, not realizing that its power over us stems from its very inexistence.

Jacques Lacan is a notoriously obscure thinker. This video focuses on his attempt to bring philosophy (specifically, German Idealism) into psychoanalysis.

What truly died on the cross?

No registration version — https://archive.ph/y5iBd

in itself, to itself, of itself, for itself

Archive.today — https://archive.ph/2iU9r

DAVID LYNCH IS DEAD, BUT HIS ETHICS IS MORE ALIVE THAN EVER

I am McLovin it