Sad things
Just a list:
Paul's email falls on at least one set of mostly deaf ears. For now anyway.
I'm sickened that someone might even be worrying that the heaven of the Heavenly Father might need guards. When we can talk about God without martial imagery, perhaps we will have punctured the darkness. Do give it a try.
I have begun an answer to Cary's post "Onward" on my blog. I hope more folks have something to say on the subject.
In all honesty, it's hard to take "Poop!" and "Poop? yes." as other than very rude. Do help me with this, please.
5 Comments:
Cameron-
All I can say about "Poop" being "very rude" is - give me a fucking break. Impertinent, sure. But it was joke, dude, and obviously so. Ironically deflating. I really don't feel like I need to explain or defend that one.
That said, I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I appreciate you responding to my post.
Actually, one more thing. It's possible I'm wrong, but I really don't think Mikey is actually worried about Heaven needing guards. I think, again, it was a joke, or a topical fiction. We haven't heard from Mikey in a long time, and I think you can maybe give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, rather than talking about being "sickened" by him. Lighten up, and trust your friends.
On poop:
I am not actually taking it as insulting. I can handle dismissive responses in general. When that's all you get in response, though, it's genuinely deflating eventually.
For Mikey:
I didn't mean to be so abrupt. You're right. I'm sorry, Mikey. But I reserve the right to have strong feelings on this subject. Sometimes even jokes mean something, I think.
I understand where you were going with that Cam. Hijacking religion for a dubious cause is sickening to me as well.
The song is no joke. That line is real, but I doubt anyone believes it. It's just a more creative way of saying we're better then the army and the navy.
And again, no joke, I do hope the two Marines I know personally who died in Iraq (one who is our peer and went to Flintridge Prep), and the one Marine I know really well who died of cancer (another peer who went to Flintridge) are not on the job in Heaven.
Cameron-
Other than the poop part, I really did mean the rest of my comment to be taken honestly. I spent about a week thinking about your response (initial thought: this is a much better thought-out response to what was essentially a pretty careless rehashing of Structuralist/pseudo-crypto-whatever-Marxist platitudes), and I did start to sketch the mental contours of a counter-response. However, for me writing is a long and, frankly, rather painful process; for a variety of reasons, I just didn't have the mental fortitude to embark on such process right then. I'd wager you didn't expect me to post another thesis or anything in the comments section, but really any kind of thorough and correct counter-response would have to be fairly lengthy. And like I said, just didn't have the wherewithal to attempt something like an involved (for blogspace) disquisition on the nature of language and society.
As for poop, I definitely did not mean it as anything dismissive. Knowing that I couldn't write a proper rejoinder, I only wanted to give a little verbal acknowledgement of Cary's playful irony. And not to get too pedantic here - I imagine you (and everyone else) are well aware of what I'm about to say - but I do think the element of play is important for "serious" thought. For instance, cf. like all of The Gay Science, as well as Theodor Adorno: "Philosophy is the most serious of things, but then again it is not all that serious." (Kind of an odd statement coming from a guy so resolutely unfunny as he, but whatever. Also please to be noting that I can't in good conscience really claim to have any kind of interpretive handle on Adorno. But, again, whatever.)
Did I just quote from Negative Dialectics? Ugh. Even a comment about how I couldn't write a more involved comment has spun out of control.
But so anyway, that was the intent of "poop? yes": an affirmation of friendly playfulness, certainly not a negation of the value of the response.
Professor Postone is now flying cross country to kick my ass over grievous misappropriation of critical theory.
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