ICONOCLAST, n. A breaker of idols, the worshipers whereof are imperfectly gratified by the performance, and most strenuously protest that he unbuildeth but doth not reedify, that he pulleth down but pileth not up. For the poor things would have other idols in place of those he thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth. But the iconoclast saith: "Ye shall have none at all, for ye need them not; and if the rebuilder fooleth round hereabout, behold I will depress the head of him and sit thereon till he squawk it."
-- Ambrose Bierce

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Humanism & Tenacity

Humanism

As a positive afirmation, humanism, contains the hypocrisy noted by Lenin's wife: "You love mankind but hate men!" Max Stirner may not have been the first (but was certainly the loudest) to whisper "Man is a spook". As the object of "greater good", Man, for Aristotle, is the state. Obviously, the call to worship humanity (like any other categorical imperative – a moral legislation deifying named categories just like the gods of Homer's day) eliminates any personal aesthetic involvement (aka "choice"), thereby cancelling any notion of affinity group beyond spatial proximity or a conspiratorial sacrifice.

The contradiction in "The Brotherhood of Man" should by now be obvious: Testosterone Rules. That is, rulership is tenaciously testaceous – a mere shell-game: "a fraudulent scheme for defrauding or deceiving people".

But suppose humanism was rephrased into the negative. It would read simply thus: "Don't be an asshole!" That, of course, must be a personal journey which can rarely be traveled alone. Another lesson from the ouroboros, demonstrating the obscene interest in one's own backside?

(And you thought I was going to use the "Dick" metaphor as a rule for measured men!)

Tenacity

Isn't every dictionary just an encyclopedic collection of conceded aphorisms? If western logic enframes our discourse, then, under the influence of any other logic (say, poetic, pataphoric or schizophrenic) every a priori truth is "really" just an a priori opinion at worst (every intellectual argument is over semantics; every theory is a specialised dictionary), a heuristic guide at best. Heurism is the illustration of a turning point, the acknowledgment of possibility, the generation of a question. Coherence within a tautology and consensus are only justifications for intransigence. Where is the voice of optimism toward transience? Every tautology outside of pure mathematics contains or generates hidden assumptions we may not even hold to. Purity is the fiction as well as fixation of the calculus. Pure mathematics is a spook. Pure theory is nonsense let loose from imperative dictionaries and books of grammar. Real meaning is likewise, therefore, phantasmagorical.

Another word for iconoclasty, a synonym found in no thesaurus, 'Pataphysics is the way out of constrained logic. "It's all absurd" does not well line up with "all is false, fiction and futile", that misapprehension of Jarry & Artaud by Albert Camus. The latter equation suggests the children should stop misbehaving as it is all pointless: to travel a neutral road, one goes nowhere. While not imperious on any point, that is precisely antonymical to any optimistic advice or encouragement. We must remember that deep down, or when all is said and done, all grace (the absurd fluke) is free, whether feted, fetid, fated or fantastic. Logic is the ligature around sets of nimble absurdities to create obstinate normality. What this sentiment hides is the alternative exposition that normality is merely the chance co-occurrence of commonalities. The terrain is the same either way. One expression promotes tenacious sedentism, the other transgression, which can be none other than 'running after possibilities'.

[note in plainspeakIMPERATIVE: The imperial bequest "commanding, forceful and demanding the obedience and respect of others"

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