156 responses so far ↓

• frances snoot

  Nov 8, 2009 at 2:58 pm

  

  Been reading today on the idea of religion and responsiblity in The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida. Here, this is interesting (Derrida analyzes the philosopher Patocka):

  “Religion assumes access to the responsibility of a free self.”

  That sounds like your gold idea. Here’s more:

  “In the proper sense of the word, religion exists once the secret of the sacred, orgiastic, or demonic mystery has been, if not destroyed, at least integrated, and finally subjected to the sphere of responsibiliity. The subject of responsibility will be the subject that has managed to make orgiastic or demonic mystery subject to itself; and has done that in order to freely subject itself to the wholly and infinite other that sees without being seen. Religion is responsibility or it is nothing at all. Such a passage involves traversing or enduring the test by means of which the ethical conscience will be delivered of the demonic, the mystagogic, and the enthusiastic, of the intitiatory and the esoteric. In the authentic sense of the word, religion comes into being the moment that the experience of responsibility extracts itself from that form of secrecy called demonic mystery.” (pg.2)

  He goes on to expound on your space idea: really interesting that you came up with that.

  “In other words the demonic is originally defined as irresponsibility, or, if one wishes, as nonresponsibility. It belongs to a space in which there has not yet resounded the injunction to respond; a space in which one does not yet hear the call to explain oneself, one’s actions, or one’s thoughts, to respond to the other and answer for oneself before the other.”

  That’s why you asked who the hell are you.

  But I don’t think that one should call to limit the demonic mystery. I think it is blighted to call it demonic or madness. I do believe that to do so is to relegate human to sheep status. The mystery, the esoteric, is what is to me full- freedom and to me the collective is of course the status- religion. Man is attempting to square the circle and there is no need, no onus: it is as it will seem to be. Could we expound and claim a fear men contain for the esoteric and perhaps this mystery as feminine?
• WL

  Nov 8, 2009 at 3:17 pm

  

  @frances

  Stubborn aren’t you

  I have see the face of evil

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJVZ8sf6uBI
• WL

  Nov 8, 2009 at 3:18 pm

  

  TYPO

  @frances

  Stubborn aren’t you

  I have seen the face of evil, SDR alert in vid

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJVZ8sf6uBI
• frances snoot

  Nov 8, 2009 at 4:05 pm

  

  @WL:
  I’m really not stodgy. I think gold is wonderful really. I just don’t like seeing people getting hopeful when the troll is about to sit on the cake. Nicely iced cake and all.

  I thought that space idea of yours quite nice. Like Faulkner’s idea about we all being spiders hanging from the ceiling by our own threads and reality being the words we batt about betweenst the spaces.
• Chris

  Nov 8, 2009 at 4:37 pm

  

  Thanks for the continued coverage of my pathetic retirement fund CalPers (& their Apollo purchases) Its depressing but I need to know it so that I don’t expect to ever get any retirement benefits.
• Simon

  Nov 8, 2009 at 7:38 pm

  

  Thanks Max and Stacey for another great instalment of TAM.

  Thought this headline might give you a giggle…

  Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein says banks do ‘God’s work’

  http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,26323561-462,00.html