Delueze Study:

Not all of them, the 4D buildings are a precursor, and
They show motive. The character of the man shows an inclusiveness, outside of which perimeters can not be constructed as linearly, as that implies, motives aside.

How is modern philosophy unfounded? It had a founder, therefore it is founded.

Now you are saying that Fuller’s “family was prosperous, affording him a Harvard education” - that contradicts what you formerly said: “Fuller grew up in an abject poverty”.

Fuller was born 1895 - so he was already an adult during the Great Depression you mentioned.

Metaphors overrides Sloterdijk’s bubbles, so the references to poverty, and growing up, need not to do so linearly. The Great Depression shocked him, and in a timeless sense, the poverty permitted him even more so, if he was not raised in poverty. People used to poverty can cope with it, those unexpectedly thrown into it, feel it much more dramatically. He was still very young at the time, trying to raise a young family. The metaphors encompasses both men in both dimensions.

Yes, some say it was Descartes, but I would really start with Kant as reactive to Hume.

But I understand Your doubt, and I raised the foundation in reference to the thought, that, modern philosophy was genealogically finished.

You raised the foundation in relation to the thought that modern philosophy was genealogically finished? I don’t understand what you are trying to tell me.

Please see my annoyances topic.

Ultimate,

They ref goes back to The notion which was raised in the page before this, which Deleuze raised, that modernity is anti-genealogical. He took this up from Nietzche’s Critique of genealogy of morals.
The modern philosophy ends before Nietzche, and most consider him an interloper between modern and postmodern philosophy, per Heidegger. Modern philosophy is supposedly un-founded by this lack of genealogical process, which has come about
. Postmodernism suffers for lack of this unflinching, meaning it once had foundation ,significance, but the signifiers are all chaotic, lost the central signifier to unify genealogical significance. Soldjernic also wrote a critique of it.

I understand Your frustration, Ultimate, but some of the word salad we are finding ourselves are not merely a splash of color here and there, of sights, but actually of sounds. This is the critique Habermas makes of the whole affair, categorically. The foundation is there, but can not be seen.

The idea behind the rhizome was, as I already said, to have a symbol for the anti-genealogy. No ancestors, no origin, no parents, no past, no descendants, no children, no future, no hierarchy - but a mesh (network) of consumers (also drug consumers, of course, because Deleuze and Guattari themselves were professing drug consumers). Deleuze and Guattari had the obsession that the original sin was ancestry, descent, origin, just genealogy. So they said consequently that their rhizome was an anti-genealogy.

That’s my sense of it -that is with a twist different than mine.

Satyr, that you?

Deleuze and Guattari took that up from Friedrich Nietszche’s books, for example Morgenröte (1881), [i]Zur Genealogie der Moral /i, but they probably took that also up from Max Stirner’s book Der Einzelne und sein Eigentum (1844), because (to me) Deleuze’s and Guattari’s anti-genealogical philosophy is more like Stirner’s than Nietzsche’s philosophy. By the way: Max Stirner (actually: Johann Kaspar Schmidt) published his book Der Einzelne und sein Eigentum when Nietzsche was born (1844).

“Where Fichte had lectured: »Act like nobody!«, Stirner replicated: »Do what you can do alone on the world: Enjoy yourself!«” - My translation of: Peter Sloterdijk, Die schrecklichen Kinder der Neuzeit, 2014, S. 461.

There are strains of sickness unto death here. He must have read Kierkegaard, to be able to make the transition from mere vanity to illness due to ressentiment and cynicism.

I referenced it, and found numerous links. Perhaps the combo Stirner and Nietzche would leave at least
emotional entanglements such that, would mask the ideologically opaque state of affairs.

Reading this, Arminius, especially the last part:

“So they said consequently that their rhizome was an anti-genealogy.”

:I now realize that the genealogical was the arborescent approach that D & G opposed to the rhizomatic.

Yes. The invisible underground mesh (network) against the visibly sprouting, striving upward tree. The roots of trees are not networked like rootstocks (rhizomes) of mushrooms, and mushrooms do not have such a long stems like trees have, and do not have branches, twigs, leaves like trees have.

As I enter into this immersion into Buchanan’s reader guide to The Anti-Oedipus, I find myself immediately conflicted -not about Buchanan but D & G’s approach to social justice. And no doubt, this comes out of a conflict I find my own process in: that constant vacillation between the abstract and the concrete, the theoretical and the practical.

(And in my defense, I can’t help but feel that Buchanan works in a similar place since as he begins to dip us into the more abstract aspects of D & G’s theory (that is by starting with the concrete issues of the environment D & G were working in: mainly the May 68 rebellion in France (he actually refers to thinkers that are working in the more concrete and practical realm such as Naomi Klein.)

And no doubt this conflict will haunt this present immersion in the book.

I would start by saying that I am perfectly sympathetic with D & G’s agenda: to focus more on a revolution of sensibility than on reform: that is reform being a matter of obtaining the power to institute those policies that will facilitate it. And this recognition could not be more prescient than in America today. There is just so much about its embrace of Capitalism (and I, living in Nebraska, get a daily front seat to this slow motion train wreck (that can’t simply be legislated away. For instance, if one were to buy into about 80% of the TV ads we see today (as well as some of the content of the shows we are watching in between (one might come to believe that they were living in some kind of golden age thanks to producer/consumer Capitalism. And it is the true believers who live in the paranoid/fascist center of having to protect this golden age that others are a threat to. Hence, for instance, Trump’s popularity: the very expression of America’s fascist potential, it being a comparatively adolescent country that embraces the adolescent notion that unless we are number 1, the world will fall apart. We’re basically facing the same thing that every other Western industrialized nation has had to face: that of stepping down from above other countries and taking our place among them. And only a change in sensibility, that which the poetic approach (as compared to the scientific (is most qualified to do, can save us from it.

This is why, for instance, while I am philosophically aligned with Bernie Sanders, I think Hillary is the better/more practical nominee. I just don’t think America has the sensibility for Bernie. And let’s say Bernie did become president. All I see is an Orwellian staged event in which the Weimar Republic is repeated via corporate influence on government and the obstructionist tactics of a Republican legislature. And without a change in sensibility (as D & G advocate (too many Americans will be too willing to buy into the narrative of that staged event. Hence the import of poets and philosophy which leans towards the poetic side of the no man’s land between science and literature.

At the same time (from a practical/pragmatic perspective (we have to be careful of theoretical overkill –that which acts as antidote to theoretical laziness. For instance, much of what D & G are concerned with is the question Wilhelm Reich asked: what is it about people that seem to seek their own oppression? And theory can come up with some really impressive answers such as Sartre’s Bad Faith: the desire of being-for-itself to have the fullness of Being that being-in-itself has. But we have to ask if that is what people are really experiencing when they submit to power. And while we can agree that submission is about more than interest, we have to give some credibility to the answer offered by Malcolm X: the house slave whom the slave owner gave certain privileges so that anytime any of the slaves got uppity and wanted to do something about their situation, the house slave was right there telling them: oh no! you don’t want to do that; ain’t nothing you’re gonna find out there that is better than what you have here.

Now before I go further into this particular rhizome, from a traverse (Deleuze loved that word (reading of Mr. Buchanan’s book, I have to show a little love and appreciation for his willingness to establish connections (a kind of continuum if you will (between the sometimes immersive abstraction of Deleuze (w/ and w/out Guatarri (and the concrete and contemporary: sometimes to the point of pop culture. And I can’t help but see the influence of Zizek in it. Philosophy (or even theory (is useless to me unless I can apply it to the personal and anecdotal.

That said:

“Theory, Deleuze insists, “is exactly like a toolbox. It has nothing to do with the signifier…. A theory has to be used, it has to work. And not just for itself.”

Once again: I find myself drawn to French theory while being equally drawn to the Anglo-American form of exposition. And in the above quote, I see the connection within myself (and my process (the hybrid and fusion (between Deleuze and Rorty’s approach to American Pragmatism. I mean I get it: Deleuze basically dismisses Rorty’s bourgeoisie liberalism in What is Philosophy: dinner and conversation at the Rorty’s. And I’m not sure what Rorty had to say about Deleuze.

Still, I see that hybrid and fusion in my own process.

And what I would say, in Rorty’s defense, is that such an immersion in abstraction as that of Deleuze’s is basically a bourgeoisie luxury. One only need look at our philosophical history to see that. The abstract considerations have tended to be the domain of white Anglo-Saxon males who have a generational advantage. Women and minorities, up until now, have been busy with the more concrete political/social issue of achieving equality.

Now make no mistake about it: I love Deleuze; the guy has changed my life. And he, himself (in the A to Z interview (claimed that friendship is a matter of knowing the other’s madness: which is as much a matter of knowing the other’s faults. And, in that spirit, I would argue that there was a bit of hypocrisy and self contradiction in his dismissal of Rorty.

“And what I would say, in Rorty’s defense, is that such an immersion in abstraction as that of Deleuze’s is basically a bourgeoisie luxury. One only need look at our philosophical history to see that. The abstract considerations have tended to be the domain of white Anglo-Saxon males who have a generational advantage. Women and minorities, up until now, have been busy with the more concrete political/social issue of achieving equality.

Now make no mistake about it: I love Deleuze; the guy has changed my life. And he, himself (in the A to Z interview (claimed that friendship is a matter of knowing the other’s madness: which is as much a matter of knowing the other’s faults. And, in that spirit, I would argue that there was a bit of hypocrisy and self contradiction in his dismissal of Rorty.”

“Bernardo Bertolucci’s highly stylized film about May ’68, The Dreamers (2003), is a vivid illustration of the narrow, exclusively Parisian image of the events that has to be overturned is we are to see things in their proper historical light” –Buchanan’s reader guide, pg. 13

As luck would have it (like Deleuze was my guardian angel or something aiding my present immersion (the movie happened to be on one of my movie channels last night, forcing me to forego watching The Big Chill from the beginning to catch it about halfway in. But it was enough to see the significance of it in terms of this exploration.

I would first note how it confirmed the bourgeoisie nature of theory and the radical. The sister and brother were clearly able to engage in the radical experiments they did because they had the luxury of doing so. And this factor haunted their engagement in the protest towards the end. It was as if they engaged in the act of protest merely for the sake of protest. Michael Pitt’s American character gave us the distance that allowed us to see that contradiction while also providing an expression of American intrigue with French culture. We can really see this in Pitt’s grilling of the character Theo as concerned his embrace of Maoism.

What we have to put in mind here is that Bertolucci is Italian and, therefore, an outsider to French culture and see in this the possibility that what we are dealing with are outsider perspectives and the disconnect between how outsiders (Americans as well (see French culture and how French culture sees itself. Hence Professor Buchanan’s desire to overturn the perspective.

At the same time, I couldn’t help but note a similar sense of sensibility between Isabelle and the female character at the end of Sartre’s Nausea: that flippant nihilism that alienates the male character in its combination of the power of beauty and desire exploiting the power of radicalism for the sake of radicalism. Nor can I help but connect this with the Kafka chick (please excuse the misogyny of the term “chick”: one who throws herself (in a dreamlike way (at the main character and drifts away just as quickly. But, once again, we could be dealing with an outsider’s perspective of French women.

That said, I’ve basically been sketching around unfamiliar territory here: exploring. I really hope, before this immersion is over, to zero in on this particular part of the book and tinker, tweak, and tighten things up.

Having reread Buchanan’s take on the movie Jaws with a new recognition of how he did it in terms of an illegitimate synthesis of connection, and now seeing how much of a departure I engaged in as concerns my perhaps clumsy attempt at the same thing, I would like to indulge in the illusion of redemption by re-attempting an approach to the three passive syntheses as Buchanan summarizes them on page 54:

  1. the connective synthesis which mobilizes the Libido as withdrawal energy

  2. the disjunctive synthesis which mobilizes the Numen [the spirit or divine spirit presiding over a thing or place] as detachment energy

and 3. the conjunctive synthesis which mobilizes Voluptas [Pleasure or bliss, or consummation as it is also described] as residual energy

First of all (and perhaps to my disadvantage: I still can’t help but read Hegel’s dialectic into it as described (and revised from the philosophy 101 triad of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis (in my audio book: that process of breaking a given phenomenon down to its individual components, articulating on them, then putting them back together in new and novel ways.

But, at the risk of meandering into yet an even clumsier hermeneutic, I can’t help but read Lacan’s concept of Jouissance into this (that articulated on by Zizek. In fact, one could easily read into this the process involved in sex. There would first be the connective process of two individuals getting to know each other, of connecting the various aspects of the other that leads to the desire to have sex with them. And maybe this is my personal preference; but I can’t help but feel that the disjunctive synthesis is starting to enter into the process since my tastes tend to adhere to Robert Herrick’s Delight in Disorder. As compared to the sleek and perfected offerings of Playboy (expressions of Capitalistic values (I find that the other stimulates more exchanges of energy when there is a complex interaction of perfection and imperfection involving both physical and mental properties. As Deleuze says: until they know your madness, they cannot be your friend.

Disjunction is the full expression of Jouissance. As Lacan points out: when it comes to pleasure, we experience it at a conscious level while experiencing discomfort at subconscious level. And if you think about it, sex is a process of trying to reach a threshold that will take you out of a place you are really enjoying at the time. (And to possibly to apply this to D & G, he does go on to point out that hysteria is the reverse of this process in that the hysteric experiences discomfort at a conscious level while experiencing pleasure at a subconscious level. I mean why else would we repeat behaviors that give us discomfort if we didn’t, at some deeper level, get pleasure from it?) Disjunction, as I understand it, suggests that kind of push/pull relationship (Jouissance (we tend to experience with reality.

Conjunction, of course, can be associated with sexual climax: Consummation as Buchanan puts it. But let’s not think of this as the utopian synthesis that Hegel would. Let’s, rather, think of it in terms of awkward pillow talk: two people caught up in the mutual desire to come up with words (some semiotic (that will represent or stand up to the previous experience.

As my mixed luck would have it, I find myself (in the last 2 days of this immersion (faced with one of the most relatable parts of Professor Buchanan’s book: that which starts on pg. 124 and goes into an application of D & G’s principles (their four theses (to issues presented by Tom Frank’s book What’s the Matter with Kansas. And I say ‘relatable’ because, being a progressive in the Midwest who has watched most of his friends grow into staunch republicans, I have had a front row seat to what is being addressed in this particular section. And because of this, a great deal of my own process has been expended on figuring out why this has happened: likely one of the main sources of my attraction to “that Goddamn Frenchman” (I mean it: damn the French and their weird obscure philosophies anyway (with and without Guatarri. So I could easily spend a whole immersion on the subject.

But for this one, I’ll focus on this proposal to the question that we’re all asking here: what it is about people that seem to seek their own oppression:

“It might seem appropriate, then, to revive the Marxist concept of ‘false consciousness’ to explain to explain the turn to the right in the US. Without actually using this notion himself, Frank’s account of the political metamorphosis of Kansas from a left-leaning, pro-worker, state to a right-wing and anti-worker state, in the space of only a few generations is clearly underpinned by the conviction that the people of Kansas ‘know not what they do’.”

There would certainly seem to be a certain amount of false consciousness involved in it given the mythologies that the true believers (in Capitalism that is (tend to offer as confirmation of their position: the rugged individual that overcomes all obstacles to achieve greatness –a popular motif, BTW, among the supposed Hollywood liberal elite (which as we all know are owned by corporations. But I (in the Deleuezian spirit (would complicate the issue by referring to Buchanan’s quote of Zizek, ‘the unknown known’, and traverse the concept of Jouissance (that push/pull relationship we tend to have with reality (that Zizek goes deeply into in The Plague of Fantasies.

While there is clearly a sense of obliviousness involved in it, I can’t help but feel there is a kind of denial at work as well. It’s as if they know perfectly well that their self indulgent policies have negative effects on others (as well as themselves (that their arguments are weak in the context of discourse that assumes a purpose of working out some compromise that works for everyone. They’re like the old joke: diplomacy is the art of telling the other to go to hell and making it seem like they’ll enjoy the trip. And it is this ‘unknown known’ that results in the hysteria that characterizes their tactics such as that of the Tea Party, tactics that tend to ride on shifting criteria. For example: back when Hillary Clinton was trying to put together a one payer healthcare system under her husband’s presidency, we not only got arguments like ‘who the hell made her president?’, we also got the argument that there was no way a ‘government run’ enterprise could stand up to what the market could do. Now shift a few years later when we were talking about the public option presented by Kerry during his campaign for president. Then the whole argument shifted to a recognition that there was no way that profit seeking healthcare providers could stand up to the public option. In other words, the whole system would ‘collapse’ into a government run operation.

Once again, as Professor Buchanan points out, Capitalism is no longer just an option; it is the only option. And I would propose that what we are dealing with, as concerns Capitalism, is something like a drug or alcohol addiction (a kind of modern day Land of the Lotos Eaters (and the denial (via hysteria (we see expressed in our present social environment. I would only ask that it be considered along with the other theories and models presented as concerns the question we are all trying to answer.