Saturday, October 01, 2016

Being different

At the German site Conservative Thoughts I read a quote from Götz Kubitschek, who I had not heard of before. He appears to be a leading intellectual of the New Right in Germany. I have little idea of Kubitschek's worldview but I recognised an intelligent criticism of liberal modernity in the quote. Here is my clunky translation:
Being different is only allowed today as a chosen, not exclusive, not fated, but constructed and constructible being different, that at any time therefore ought to be able to be discarded, replaced or assumed like a pair of glasses, a beard, a fashionable opinion. Whereas every inescapable being different must - as here intrudes the final involvement of the Weltinnenraum - be deconstructed, broken up or, at least, relativised in its seriousness.

What does this mean? It's the basic point I make so often at this site. Liberal modernity holds, as its overriding good, a freedom to self-determine or self-define. Therefore we are only allowed to have a self-constructed, fluid, changeable, discardable identity rather than one which is predetermined or fated. The inescapable forms of identity are held to be oppressive and earmarked for deconstruction (or, as Kubitschek points out, are made less serious by no longer being thought to represent something objectively or inherently good, but only of value from a subjective, relative point of view). Some of the inescapable forms of identity include our membership of an ethny and our biological sex.

Kubitschek asserts that a reason why liberal modernity rejects predetermined differences between people is that these differences bring us to an awareness of the "Weltinnenraum" - a concept popularised by the poet Rilke. The word means literally "world inner space" though I have seen it translated as "outer space within." It seems to refer to the moment that we perceive the interpenetration of the outer world with our own inner one, or an awareness of a transcendent nature through which we have our being. Liberal moderns, according to Kubitschek, are discomfited by this engagement with a larger, non-material aspect of their being and therefore turn from it, to a smaller understanding of the self as being self-constructed.

I'm not sure about the Weltinnenraum aspect of the quote, though it's an interesting thought, but the quote in general is eloquently expressed.

8 comments:

  1. There's a new-ish German Identitaire video out:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcrr3PawJY0

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    1. It's great! Thanks for the tip - perhaps I'll post it soon.

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  2. Very impressive analysis! Also, very courageous of you to translate that type of text, since it is very, very difficult. I am not that good in German, but my kids are 100% fluent in both German and English and this would be hard work for them!

    I may add that it is also very significant that you can even have these conversations in Germany now. If you read what the AfD are saying, and look at how big they are, you have to conclude that there is a massive shift going on regarding what can and cannot be discussed. In Europe, this is happening across the board now, but I am very surprised that Germany has pulled ahead of the UK. I always assumed that Germany, for obvious reasons, would be last, but that does not seem to be the case.

    You may already know this, but another very interesting thing to look at is the upcoming election in Holland. This is in 6 months and Geert Wilders, who I would say is the most outspoken leader of a major party in Europe regarding Islam, can become the next prime minister. The implications of that would be massive! It was not that long ago that he was not even allowed to enter the UK!

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    1. Thanks for the feedback on the translation. I can read everyday German reasonably well, but I'm less confident when German goes technical.

      I also thought Germany would be the last to break the chains, but they are starting to show the way. It's great to see.

      I wasn't aware that Wilders had reached the point of being in contention to be the prime minister. Again, that would be a great step forward. I'll keep my eye out for any stories on this in the lead up to the election there.

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    2. "Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch far-right Freedom Party (PVV), said on Tuesday that he could become the next prime minister of the Netherlands.

      Wilders, speaking at an event during the U.S. Republican Party Convention in Cleveland, said that his party has been gaining ground and has been “the number one party in the opinion polls” for the past year.

      “If this becomes reality in the elections in March next year, I could become the next prime minister,” said Wilders, whose party is currently in the opposition in national parliament."

      http://www.politico.eu/article/geert-wilders-tells-us-hes-set-to-become-next-dutch-prime-minister-pvv-republican/

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  3. Not sure how similar they may be but I wouldn't classify the liberal end game as one of self-definition, or at least not self-defintion alone. It seems to me that autonomy, in the material and immaterial forms is the absolute end of the liberal and the answer to all spectres that haunt the liberal project. Perhaps, I pay too much attention to semantics. Cool anyways!

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  4. Hi Mark, as to the end-game aspect of your post,Stella Morabito wrote a fascinating piece over at Public Discourse, back in May. The article is titled: A de-sexed society is a de-humanised society.

    It puts together all he historical pieces of the social reengineering program and points directly to the end-game.

    Well worth a read: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/05/17041/

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