Wednesday, February 09, 2005

The Art of Living

The aim of life is to resist the materialisation (i.e. entropy) of all relationships - as Michel Foucault said:

"The art of living is to eliminate psychology, to create with oneself and others, individualities, beings, relations, unnameable qualities. If one fails to do that in one's life it isn't worth living."

This is the true meaning of spirit, soul or vitalism (another more secular name for spirituality in the work of M Foucault and G Deleuze which try to fight order/entropy/matter in whatever form, wherever it appears ).

Wherever one is within the order of matter (sociology, economics, psychology etc…) one must insert a viral vitalism, a Derridian “Differance” into the edifice/situation (a relationship, a party, gathering etc..) and let it grow. Slowly almost imperceptibly cracks begin to appear, non-linear associations begin to emerge, criss-crossing the situations with unforeseen individuations, qualities and intensities : letting a bit of life or light within…but the Freudian death-drive always awaits, to ambush the life of Eros….so one must be careful… Thanatos rides so near life that sometimes it is hard to distinguish….