Friday, September 21, 2012

Walter Benjamin

Today I encountered Walter Benjamin’s recommendation to write for writers, rather for reading “consumers.” Like the protestant notion of the priesthood of all believers, Benjamin seems to be seeking a reformation in the Geisteswissenschaften, where all intelligent people are transformed into thinkers, perhaps all into writers. The category of the consumer, like the category of the layman, is to be eliminated.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Books in the wrong hands are dangerous

The priestly caste of the fourteenth century was profoundly worried that if the Scriptures fell into the hands of the man on the street, they would be grossly misinterpreted. What “grossly misinterpreted” turned out to mean, of course, was “interpreted in a manner inconsistent with the agenda of the Church.” Today, we are faced with a similar problem. The priestly caste of psychiatrists is very worried that if the textbooks of psychopharmacology fall into the hands of the man on the street, they will be grossly misinterpreted. What “grossly misinterpreted” means, of course, is “interpreted in a manner inconsistent with the agenda of the capitalist ruling class.”

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

otium cum dignitate

At the same time the workplace strips autonomy and dignity from our work, making us merely elements in the productive apparatus, Hollywood and Madison Avenue strip autonomy and dignity from our leisure, making us mere passive spectators of entertainment that makes no demands whatsoever on the intellect. We have neither labor cum dignitate nor otium cum dignitate.