My response to The Blackfriar on the Black Market:
April 19, 2010
My response to The Blackfriar on the Black Market:
As I very often cite, Nietzsche’s “neutral substratum” is again very applicable here. However, instead of the “weak” condemning the “strong” for being what they are, namely “strong,” when they play on the weak’s home field. And instead of Christian and democratic morality in view here, capitalistically democratic commerce is the new substratum, the new univocity of being.
Any rogue entity will fall short of exiting the walls of the legal Citadel, as they catch a glimpse of light from their prison cells. However, isn’t the fortress meant to keep enemies out and not meant to keep citizens entrapped? For the fugitive who has not yet exited remains entrapped by capitalistic legislature, while most of us are merely entangled in the city’s market square.
Perhaps Certeau, as you have mentioned before, does provide, at the very least, a place to look for the infinities that the American penitentiary — simply a maze made by mere man — cannot engulf. That is why I particularly like your solutions at the end, which I do hope you might expand on either by subsequent comment or in future posts.
Only True Difference can break down the empire’s political and economic univocity. Your solution: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). It is sad, of which I am so often guilty, is how we lose what Richard Hayes calls our “social imaginary.” Have you ever noticed how kids, as they learn language, brilliantly create worlds of imagination before they are encrypted with legal coding? Maybe again, Christ’s words have deeper metaphysical significance: “He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-4, although Saint Matthew probably was stressing the lesson of humility). Unfortunately for the Protestants, work ethic and resources replaced love, forgiveness, beauty, and gift, preventing any type of analogical being.
All that is to say, I agree with you, as most always. I would also like to see your thoughts on a local effort to obtain such a body politic. First of all, our imaginary-eyes must be opened, but what next? I hope to see some follow-up on these issues.
