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Monday, February 08, 2010

Philosophy of the Present, and it's uselessness

I was in the middle of reading Badiou's discourse in the Badiou-Zizek's Philsophy in the Present, an ebook I picked up on random after hearing of Zizek's interesting views on society from the angry ol' man. Badiou had just finished outlining his three rules of incommensurable entities; or something like that, when I heard shouting in the house nearby.
A typical fight between husband and wife, I thought. Something I've grown cold listening to every night. But tonight (may be it being a Saturday night?) the husband was home drunk. Soon the wife started shrieking, and seconds later, she burst into loud wailing. The banging of their front door reverbrated through the corridor we share, and angry footsteps walked past my door, leaving behind silence, interrupted by sobs.
The footsteps walked back to the door,and the shouting resumed. Longer, this time, with the woman shouting louder and angrier, but sadly from behind my closed door I could hear the brokenness and defeat in her voice.
A baby had also started crying in the background, and both parents began to take their frustration on the child. The argument stopped and someone turned up the TV volume. Laughter and joke cracking erupts around the corridor, and the baby's wails have turned into confused laughter and sobs at the same time.
Sitting on my bed, I fought with thoughts of going outside and glaring at the man. Another good friend had warned me that I was no wrestler, and the very thoughts of chivalry were dissolved in a good dose of fear. It was when Badiou suddenly lost all relevance in life.

(Non-pseudophilo geeks pl skip this)
Well I could bring out the incommensurable relationship of the continuity of a normal family life with the exception, namely today's fight, which breaks the rule of the general set-up. The incommensurable relationship where one makes a decision between two points of view (well, i can't assure you there were points of view; The wordless-yet-loud argument between husband and wife which does not get resolved. But what really is the relevance of this brilliant way of looking at things? Finding the characteristics of the universal doesn't make sense in a time like this!

Ok, I'm finished with the pseudophilo bs... I've had my fun :)

I couldn't understand what had happened but I don't think what happened there was right. But I cannot pin-point who's at fault. I cannot say what is to be done to make the situation okay. I cannot from my place even try to make this wrong situation right. Hence, I just witnessed something bad happen, and couldn't do anything about it.
The world in itself is full of 'bad' things happening on large and small scales. Most of the time, we can't get our head around it, let alone solve it. Why is it so hard? simply because we are a part of the problem we're trying to solve (making it a mystery, according to RZ) Don't you think the hope for us could only lie outside us?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Opulently I assent to but I dream the post should prepare more info then it has.

sam said...

Less info in my writings is the main reason why I'm not in academics at the moment. Is it laziness or?...