5000-12

The various cultural efforts that have made it to the top of the social ladder are sometimes called “game-playing” – that is, if the basic formula of the idea of equality before the law is not found at a lower socio-economic level but is exclusively the result of political and economic opportunism. If, on the other hand, there is a fundamental attribution error of some kind, such as the assumption of a universal Basic Income that cannot be reduced to a specific level of income distribution, then the basic idea of equality before the law will be perceived as a non-arbitrary process. And, to put it in yet another way, the proportion of the population that is exploited or oppressed corresponds to the extent that the basic work of the [post]modern imagination can be conceptualized within the framework of the “modern idea of oppression.”

5000-11

Acquisition is a key concept that it neither by way of a direct appropriation (taking something away from someone without remuneration being involved) but via a subjective stance of exploration. Thus, for example, experience is not a property of the subject but is in no way transferred or passed on utilizing acts. Acquisition is a mode of liberating myself and others, not a means of stimulating my senses or contributing to the overall health of the social body. Thus, the acquisition of knowledge is a means of liberating myself and others, and a surplus is realized for those who contribute towards the health of the collective. The concept is also used as meaning “castration” – that is, if we take something away from someone without having a role to play, we cannot provide them with that gift. The idea is that this choice is not simply a moral one, but that it is an entirely neutral process that determines the direction we will travel.

5000-10

The deep sense of dignity that accompanies material possessions is an essential dimension of the concept of possessions, and likewise, associated with the concept of not having enough – that is, with the idea that we are both hungry and cold. The idea of not having enough is also a claim about the sense of power, that is, about the capacity for growth. Over the years, various ways have been suggested to account for the decline of the mass, but the mass seems to retain its “beneath-bourgeois” dignity. In the mass, the dialectical materialist approach remains accessible, but with subtle twists and unexpected insights. Likewise, the Marxist™ critique of the culture of the mass requires a ridiculous shift of perspective. Historical consciousness is not simply a subjective capacity to understand the passage from one to another culture, but the capacity to objectively experienced culture. It is not enough to note which culture is the source of the other culture, or which culture is the fundament of the other culture. The time of objectively experienced culture is the time of teaching, not the time of “teaching” – the historical sense of culture.