If one does not know what one is talking about, one should keep asking questions loudly until they're satisfied those who think they know what they’re talking about also don’t, Socrates springs to mind, for if he did anything he conveyed so well how so called experts know absolutely nothing on what they expertly claim to know. The elaborated quote of Wittengenstein by Zizek comically notes how “whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent”. Immediately the stupid question arises”.
It seems to me that the mind and our conception of reality are in a categorically opposed relationship an antagonistic death roll of adversaries’ fighting along the poorly paved road of knowledege with would be genius’ and total numbskulls jostling down it alike. Perhaps the mind tries to shape our knowledge in a self-protective way and when we come into contact with the reality of known facts against the contents of our thoughts that later of which we once held above question our perceptions of how life is can come crumble down before our very eyes in an instant ideology gives way and we are proved wrong time and time again whether we care to admit or not.
But who should we believe in regards to serious social problems like racism do we trust a know it all expert that has studied everything there is to know from a whole shelf of books at library or someone who has experienced and been subjected to racism every single day of their lives, I know who I would choose. It has been already stated in modern life that it is impossible to say anything about the unspeakable e.g racism, so why must we add that we don’t speak about it, does the classical Kantian paradox of not knowing what we will never know mean we can’t even seek to describe it even for a purely aesthetic value.
I would argue that the status quo’s true aim is to disassociate, distort and divorce us from our own perceptive knowing, by denying our development and learning of common place knowledge. From childhood we are incased in a position that generates an inferiority complex our real life experiences counting for nought in the face of clinically sanitised educated analysis. But one need only think of someone who thinks they have done the right thing throughout their whole life, until that horrible point were their subjective view transfers to an objective one from the other and their decisions gazed upon in a way that conveys that the exact opposite of what they thought is true is actually the case. Despite this we seem to gladly slam the door closed to greater knowledge and objective understanding because society denies the subjective experiences a place of importance, as a place to grow and nurture the sense of oneself that offers a competing view to entrenched beliefs guarded by the status quo, maybe this is the stance we collectively take toward children that generates the social situation we currently face of lack of inability to live ones life and give it meaning. Camus once said that suicide is not something work contemplating because the sheer meaninglessness of life opens the door to true meaning that we can code into the programme that is our own life. I don't deny this view but argue that is increasingly becoming harder and harder to materialises and stay strong to the meaning and ideals we place as the foundational basis of life in this neo-liberal world.
In a roundabout way the hegemonic monopoly on information relies upon our position of unknowing like a child, and when we actually come close to knowing things, before we do so in unwavering entirety it is the lingering doubt that the Mother or society capitalises on and uses as leverage to control us before we can know for ourselves. When we are confronted and face to face with an interlocutor we engage in an egotistical battle of competition were excess of knowledge is sought to the shame the other, that is until both fall heavily toward the ground of idiocy.
My fleeting thoughts on the new disguise of racism look specifically at the role of neo-liberals and their role in the ballet of life. In my experience it seems the supposed cool chums of society unwittingly champion the Game of Thronesesqe calvary charge toward the new frontier of bigotry. They are doing this by making the matter of racist prejudice unspeakable in a way that degrades real progress on the issue. Racism is never addressed directly a cunning ploy to try and make it a non-issue to swept it up under the rug. Indeed what a wonderful world it would be if we could all repress the social belief of racism and deny it as a societal ideological myth instilled in us involuntarily, maybe we could all carry on with our racist lives while denying the privilege to others in society.
Is it strange to think there are some many racists in the Southern states of the USA were racism is outwardly promoted as the thing to do whilst in New York and other states multiculturalism is promoted but possibly underneath this pseudo acceptance racism bubble’s violently under the surface till the day a liberal snaps and the rooster finally comes home to roost in a big way possibly dwarfing the scale of the atrocities carried out in Alabama. A scary thought by denying the existence and place for racism in society we cut ourselves off from trying to neutralise the problem by making it an openly laughed at thing what a world it would be if this conversation was to occur in Missippi;
“You know what my friend Joe said the darnest thing the other day he said he was a racist”
“well what you know Joe aint that the funniest thing I heard all day, would you believe it people still tryna be racist!”
“and it gets better, I picked him up last night and we went out for tea but he insisted we drive in his
Japanese car to his favorite Indian restaurant where we ordered imported Dutch beers with our meals”
“being racist those were the days you got laugh at people stuck in the past like that”
“Sure does bring a smile to my face”
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