Sublime

It is not incidental historically that both Lacan and James, in their very different ways, and from very different cultures and personal histories, are speaking up for what we have learned to call individualism (or more benignly, idiosyncracy, or eccentricity).

Its imperative is “Live with this Idea and no other,” whereas the contemporary imperative, let me repeat, is: “Live without any Ideas.”

As long as social difference or any other form of differentiation is present to channel mimetic desire, its conflictual dimension remains contained.

And this dialectic breaks down not because its constitutive figures disappear but because they gradually become separated or detached.

all of us are generalists inside. We were not born to do one thing only. It’s merely the economy that – for its own greedy ends – pushes us to sacrifice ourselves to one discipline alone, rendering us (in Marx’s words) ‘one-sided and dependent’ and ‘depressed spiritually and physically to the condition of a machine.’ It was in the Manuscripts of 18

It often appears as confusion. Slipping from one concept to another, keeps the mind busy with its endless stories of a ‘me’ and the ‘other’.

univers. Accepter l'idéologie du changement continuel c'est accepter que la vie d'un homme soit strictement réduite à son existence individuelle, et que les générations passées et futures n'aient plus aucune importance à ses yeux.

But what should be done with this freedom, with this new chance to wander? You need to find out what you’re capable of as regards a creative, intense true life.