Previously in Postcards:
“As Deleuze and Guattari point out in What is Philosophy: philosophy abhors debate. Walks away from it if it can. As they point out: it has better things to do.
This is because philosophy is more like poetry than popular doxa gives it credit for. It is a personal vision (a process (that doesn’t care if it is wrong or right (except to itself ( and can’t afford the distraction of listening to its critics.”
“Philosophers who debate tend to talk past one another. Deleuze makes this point in What is Philosophy, when he discusses why they must run away when someone wants to debate. Debating over a point is not productive (as anyone who has ever been in a debate will attest). Debates are more about affirming your own position, than productively engaging with someone else’s.”
“Debate is not a disease.”
“But what Deleuze is saying there is that philosophers always talk past one another, and that they never meet.”
This, gentlemen, is one of those instances where theory meets with reality –especially for us in that we’re talking about something we encounter a great deal on these boards: the distinction between debate and discourse.
To give an example from a recent experience of mine (the one that inspired the OP: I was posting a series of postcards regarding the utilitarian approach to ethics (which I saw as taking a rather bourgeoisie top-down approach to a clearly benign agenda (and the bottom up approaches (which I had gotten from the Harvard Review of Philosophy (of Rawls and Nussbaum. I was immediately assailed by someone who started their post with (and I am paraphrasing here:
“The notion that utilitarianism was Bourgeoisie is bunk.”
Now I would note here the use of the term “bunk” which, like such terms as “nonsense” and others I can’t recall right now, are terms that are the cornerstone of the debate (even if it isn’t exactly a disease (and have no place in a discourse. And while this person’s post might have carried some legitimate points concerning Utilitarianism, it wouldn’t have mattered to me since they had pretty lost me at the use of the term “bunk” which suggested to me that this person was more interested in a pissing contest than they were a discourse or even what Jasper’s referred to as: communication in the spirit of loving debate.
And, as I’ve experienced a thousand times before, when I told this individual to basically go fuck themselves, I was countered with the same strategy that seems popular among TlBs (Troll-like Behaviors: that of appealing to popular doxa: the appeal to socially programmed responses to socially programmed cues about what constitutes intellectual inquiry (that which D & G undermine in What is Philosophy (and the assumption that my rejection of their enticement to engage in a pissing contest was a clear indication of a lack of faith in my own process. The notion was that in order for me to truly fulfill the potential of my process, I was somehow obligated to engage in what was clearly a futile attempt to convince this individual of my point of view (a debate (and put up with their snide little remarks in the process.
(Unfortunately, I’m not that subtle and suggested (after apologizing for calling them a prick (that they worry about their process and let others worry about theirs. This got me kicked off the board(
Later that night at work, I engaged in my usual self d.construction of wondering if I wasn’t a bit of a hypocrite in that, I myself, in the postcard for that day, had attacked the libertarians with:
“For instance, a libertarian will argue that they would prefer to be born into a world in which they will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor -that is out of some sentimental nostalgia for the good-old days of Adam Smith’s Capitalism where everyone engages in their talent and the free exchange of their labor (which, BTW, no longer exists and is every bit as saccharine and sappy as the Christian longing for the days of the Walton’s. Goodnight John-boy.”
I mean it seemed as mean spirited as my assailant’s approach. And I’m quite sure they would have used it had they of caught it: once again: the TlB appeal to socially programmed responses to socially programmed cues (much as we see in the constant references to my use of the one-way parenthesis while also responding to the content of what I’m saying. It didn’t take long for me to see through the weakness of such an argument in that there was a big difference between what I was doing and what my assailant was doing.
I was doing pretty much what every writer does: attacking a position they despise. It had nothing to do with the individuals that hold that position. And it involved a certain third person perspective detachment. And I will continue to express my contempt for the Libertarians in any clever and witty way it takes to rally the troops. I have no problem which preaching to the choir since trying to change the mind of the other-side is ultimately futile. Why waste the time? But what I will not do is go on a Libertarian board and heckle them, not because I’m afraid they’ll prove me wrong, but because it would be a wasteful use of my energy and resources and thereby a disruption (that which cuts off the flow of energy (in my process.
And that is the very big difference between what I did and what my assailant was doing which pretty much amounted to heckling. Everyone has a right to their perspective. But this comes with the understanding that everyone equally has a right to not have the perspective of the other crammed down their throat. For instance, Fox News has every right to engage in the nonsense they do. But I equally have the right to not watch it if it offends me. However, my assailant walked into my space with the explicit agenda of dominating my process. They made it personal. And that is, as far I’m concerned, fascistic in nature.
Anyway, stayed tuned for scenes from the next episode of Postcards in which I will hopefully (that is if undistracted by you guys: love ya, man! (elaborate on points made here and finish up with my points concerning Nussbaum’s Capability Theory and its common ground with Efficiency.