Monday 3 January 2011

Bataille, Freud, Nietzsche, Marx

Bataille's trope of seeking after annihilation -- in Freud, the "death instinct" -- is used in a specifically political way, in Bataille, at least much of the time. This is Bataille's link to Freud and Marx, not just Nietzsche.

In fact, the point of embracing annihilation in Bataille is because it is NOT a one way street. Rather, the pattern is dialectical: whatever does not kill me, makes me stronger. Why? Because one comes to grips with Superego and makes it comply with values that come out of a left wing sensibility, rather than remaining in conformity to conventional conservative values. The new society emerges out of the womb of the old.

Bataille and Nietzsche's agendas both have political auras, even if the core of their writing is philosophical and literary. Nietzsche's agenda can be judged to be somewhat rightward (but not, by any means, to the degree that most of his contemporary followers would imagine). Bataille's agenda is radically leftward.

Both want to use what Freudians term "primary process" thinking in order to lend vitality to their political projects.

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Cultural barriers to objectivity