(1998, CONTINUED)
HUMAN BEING XXIX
I do, I think, I excel
Wednesday, 04/02/98
My dear Khalid,
Language & Intellectual Labour
Certainly, your comments on the previous lectures were very educative, elucidative and thought provoking; as usual, it was a great pleasure to read them, also, to note how much you have learnt as a result of our previous deliberations.
Anyhow, before we proceed to our understanding of Acting (Act), Thinking (Thought) and Superseding (Superation), in German, of "handeln, denken und hinüberschreiten", let us first punctuate (unterstreichen) the essence a n d existence of the previous two lectures on Labour in the Patria, without, in any way, falling into punctiliousness (pedantische Genauigkeit). We will relate Words to Language, to Intellectual Labour in the Patria.
Words & Language
Let us focus on some problems of intellectual labour, on semantics and connotations in general. No matter, whether we read, speak or write French, Spanish or German; in this case, that what we do, falls in the realm of language; it is not French as such that is particularly constructed on ideology and formal logics, it is not English or Russian, which causes our cognositive problems, it is the intellectual labour product, the current commodity LANGUAGE as such, as it is being developed, revised and reformed on a global scale in the Patria, to serve its specific needs; it is this merchandise, this ware, which we pay for, which we buy at school or university, which suffocates our logical faculties. Using any "historically" developed patriarchal language, we would encounter the very same problems in expressing our acts, thoughts or superations.
For example, the crux of the matter is neither the word nor the letters, which compose the following, "Demokratie", "Democracy", "democracia", but it is the language, which uses this tool, this word, in order to disseminate certain contents, certain ideas, certain ideology. Somebody who is fluent in German, English and Spanish, using these different languages daily, will most times in discussions not even notice which words she or he is using, will look at a film, and would at first not even notice in which language the actors are conversing; thinking transcends the specific words used, including other types of general tools, used in social communication and economic production.
What is relevant, is that what the person thinks when he uses, for example, the words, "Peace", "Paz" and "Frieden"; for him, all of them will express the same "thought contents". Different individuals, using these words, will associate similar connotations, but never their thought contents would be totally identical. Formal logics and ideology, preaching that "everything is possible", attempt to perform exactly this "miracle' in the minds of billions. This is what George Orwell meant by the production of "Newspeak" by "Big Brother".
Idee fixe
Nowadays, in the "Information Age", this has become a serious problem; daily the Establishment complains, that the majority of "human beings" cannot think anymore, that they are literate, cultured and civilized, are even "conscious", but that they have lost their intellectual capacity; of course, we know, that this simply is the result of learning by rote, ultra-specialization, severe manipulation and permanent indoctrination. This means, that Words "think" for billions of "human beings", and that they can only "think" in, with and via Words, by means of linguistic words; they have not coined them, passively they receive their contents; in other words, in everyday "thinking", they just cling to the respective idee fixe. In the law courts, in criminal cases, we can see how this fixation on words and their "official" meanings could send someone who may be totally innocent straight to the gallows; Sacco and Vanzetti, the famous North American political "criminals", had to believe in this democratic verbal "justice".
Certainly, for us, language, gestures, symbols or noises are not identical with thought or thinking; similarly, even analysing patriarchal language, we do not suggest that it is "words" that denote formal logics or ideology. It is the relations within patriarchal languages which form the core of our critique, e.g., the relation between master & slave, between economic exploitation & political domination; the relation between Man & Wo-Man, social discrimination; the dualisms, the space and time barriers, the formal logical grammatical syntax; "Man" in His Story, in History, etc. All these, and much more, constitute Language; it is not just a matter of the alphabet, spelling, semantics, syntax, rhythm and rhyme, commas or interjections! Language is a very complex product of Intellectual Labour; it is a major tool of Exploitation, Domination and Discrimination.
Hammers and Anvils
In patriarchal dissocialization, mutatis mutandis, thinking capacity has been drilled to express itself only across language, across this specific "thinking tool"; certainly, it can be used as such, but this does not mean that it is the only way to be able to think, and that we necessarily have to use only this "thinking tool", which, across the ages, was developed by the masters to give orders to their labour slaves, to their "newspeaking-tools", even portrayed as a small "mercy" towards these "hammers and anvils" enabling them to communicate with each other, to become alphabetized, civilized and "modernized".
Signs, words, sounds, etc. are only accidental in relation to this tool, to language, to the labouring "speaking-tool"; they can be used for other types of communication media or methods, which have nothing to do with patriarchal language; although, in appearance there seem to be similarities, yet in essence a n d existence our "language", our "act a n d think AND excel tool" reflects and reproduces our Science a n d Philosophy AND Transcendy. In other words, our "tool" looks like language, it sounds like language, but it is n o t language, it expresses "I act ...", "I think ..." and "I excel ...", at various levels (act), degrees (thought) and mensions (superation). We do not only express "thoughts" in words, we can express acts, thoughts, mensions, and even spheres, in words, but these expressions are all either identical, different, or triverse.
Examples:
"I am a human being." is a concrete
verbal
expression of an Act, of a Cosmic Thing, as a Unilogical Level.
"We exist as acting a n d thinking beings a n d existences." exists as an intellectual verbal expression of Act a n d Thought, of Ontic Being a n d Existence, as a Diagoric Degree.
" 'You a n d I AND
We' transcends toward Historic Emancipation." supersedes
as a rational verbal expression of Act
a n d Thought AND Excellence, on a Transcendental
Mension.
The above has as a conditio sine qua non,
that "we look, before we leap", that we act, before we speak, that
we think, before we speak, that we excel, before we speak
WORDS, or in LANGUAGE.
This is not labour, not hard work, not Intellectual Labour, it is
not taught in the cradle, neither at school nor at university. This we
simply have to learn in our lives, in historic "reality" itself.
We are now already in the centre of our exposition of
thinking a n d thought, of Intellect a n d
Reason.
Oh! Lonesome Me!
Surely, it is very clear that we do not necessarily "act" dualistically, i.e., separately, with our hands or feet, or that we kiss (act) only with our lips, or we act only as "Oh, Lonesome Me" on a bare and barren world stage. Not even in the Patria, an act is a pure, mechanical, physical, Bruce Lee karate-kick.
Our "Language" has its own connotations, as explained above.
I act, I kick, I kiss, have to do with
me; with me, who is doing the acting, kicking and kissing. This Cosmic
Nicht-Bezug, this Non-Relation, this Act, can be expressed in our
Language, across its tool-kit, words, sounds, etc. More precisely, in the
above example, we use our level tool-kit for this purpose.
Similarly, we can express "I think..."
and "We excel ourselves
...." across our degree and/or mension-language, across
our Trialogical Tool-Kit. Levels, Degrees and Mensions use Words, use our
Language, but the verbal terms, expressions and connotations are
identical, different and triverse, respectively. In this sense,
we are incisively, decisively precise; we do not use the accustomed confused,
chaotic, anarchic type of language. Of course, it will take more than a
lifetime to "perfect" our "tool", but it is worth the "trouble".
In this sense, compared to "Intellectual Labour", Thinking and Thought are not placed divinely above Us. It is I, who thinks; We, who think. Among other things, for example, acting, superseding, etc., We determine our own Lifes, intensively in the Patria, and extensively, beyond the miserable life of a pariah dog within patrian delimitations.
Pearls Before Swine
Furthermore, Thinking is not the Lord, not "The Word of God",
it is not the Platonic Idea, not the Hegelian Absolute Idea, not
our World Spirit; it is not "My Computer", not a "hardware", to be offered
on the "labour market", to be bought and to be sold for "hard cash". Our
Thinking a n d Thought cannot serve the purposes of Accumulation
of Capital, or of Realization of Surplus Value; it has no "right", it is
not "right", it needs no "rights", it cannot be copied, cannot be copyrighted.
Uncle Dagobert & Uncle Sam
Among other "dons", for example, like Thinking and Excelling, Acting is just one of our faculties, and potentially we have zillions of historic spheres. Compared to the so much adored patrian goods, commonly known as "acting", thinking", "believing", "hoping" and "loving", which consume the lion's share of the daily, miserable, earthly existence of six billion, and which reap much more billions of giga-profits for the "chosen few", in a Biblical sense, our cosmic, ontic and transcending "pearls" cannot be so easily thrown before "swine"; when Porgy Pig, Uncle Dagobert and Uncle Sam approximate them, these creatures begin to vomit insults, they get intoxicated with fury; for them, this "crap" is not "cool" enough, these "thoughts" are crazy products, obscure vampirelike stuff for Lucifer, 666-Products of the Anti-Christ, only to be found in the madhouse.
Wine & Swine
Well, it is better so! At least, Jesus Christ, who, in his own words, brought "Fire and the Sword" to this Earth, and who swore on the Truth, on the "Truth That Will Make Us Free", will not dare to drive us into the everlasting, volcanic sea, where eternally there would only be "weeping and gnashing of teeth". He called Wine, Wine! In vino veritas, he even performed nanotechnical miracles, by changing Water into Wine. Hence, he has the divine capacity to identify Wine as Wine, Swine as Swine!
More about Intellect next time.
Good Night!
Sleep Tight!
Don't let the Fleas Bite!
Love,
Franz.