The Rebel's Illusion: Nostalgia and Necromancy
Tradition, revolution, and the guillotine | Becoming subjects
"The only hope of our recognizing the truth of our predicament, becoming part of as well as being able to influence our reality, lies, I believe, in our making the transition from object to subject. For most of us this is a far from painless process, and many never even dream of its possibility. Paradoxically, it is in our 'symptoms' of anxiety, distress and malaise that encouraging signs are to be found of the insistence of the subject on being recognized. It is thus in our capacity to be disturbed by the false objectivity of our world that the greatest hope lies for our being able to do something about it." — Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety, David Smail
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"You're not taught what to want, but how to want, the modern innovation is to let you think you came up with you on your own." — Sadly, Porn… Edward Teach
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"In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine." — The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
"We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come." — The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
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"From the moment that we place desire on the side of acquisition, we make desire an idealistic (dialectical, nihilistic) conception, which causes us to look upon it as primarily a lack: a lack of an object, a lack of the real object." — Anti-Oedipus, Guattari and Deleuze
Identity and desire!
All of this is, in many ways, a story; a story of our identity. These formulations are full of our own endless interpretations—it's interpretation all the way down. We must remember that the subject (for we are all subjects) doesn't fully understand their desire. Consider when you've observed someone close to you, that observation, the analysis of someone—when you’ve truly thought about this—you know we operate with an inherent confusion and uncertainty about them.
When we project this idea onto another... it makes sense to us because we're not in their head. We never can be.
This is when we objectify our world! We attempt to create universals where universals cannot exist! We do this because the idea of an object becomes something that can be achieved and perfected in our mind, and we deny the impossibility of this task; we run from it.
What if we were to consider ourselves as subjects? What would become of us?
A recognition of being a subject becomes something that can only be change, as this the only way for the subject to survive changes occurring in the external reality.
We do anything to remain certain of our identity, as to be certain of our identity is to convince ourselves that we know our desire; we do this all the while knowing deep down that certainty we feel is a false prophet.
Most people don’t aspire to be wise; they seek certainty. Just ask Socrates! He wished to be wise and the sheep that feared structural uncertainty killed him for it! The cowards always win; the rebels can only attempt to create more subjects that go against the status quo (they can only cultivate dissent).
"Oh come on, you cannot possibly think that most people are at a base level cowards, do you?"
Yes, I do believe that, and I’m probably among them myself (doubt of oneself is necessary or your narcissism will chaotically rage). I can only do my best in the attempt of being less of a coward. I'll even take it one step further... if most of us are cowards, then most of us are also narcissists (narcissists are cowards), and many of those narcissists are simply waiting to enact their vision of an objective world; they wish to universalize their lie!
They wish to universalize you under their banner.
Wake up! Wake up! You're about to see that you're in someone else's dream.
Consider Mussolini...he was a man with a dream. In his early days, he made more of an appeal to freedom... "we are for freedom against all dictatorships, even more so we are against a dictatorship of those who are nothing but parasites of the working class!" The “parasites” he was referencing were the socialist leaders he proclaimed to be false advocates for the working class, where Mussolini wished to place himself as the liberator, so he created an image of his projected desire, an identity, and then used the manipulation of language and symbolism to create a false sense of objectivity.
He was a subject attempting to universalize himself! By presenting himself as a freedom fighter, Mussolini sought to create an identification between his own image and the aspiration of the Italian people, where his persona becomes a mirror in which the people see their own desires reflected and seemingly affirmed.
But is it their desire or merely a story giving voice to their repression? False prophets speak to your repressed desire and make it their puppet.
We repress the recognition of our own submission; we repress it so we can claim our liberation.
Fascism seeks to eliminate difference, suppress dissent, and create a totalizing narrative that provides an illusory sense of wholeness and purpose, it becomes a fantasy that promises to fill the subject's lack and provide a stable identity, at the cost of surrendering one's subjectivity and agency to the dictates of the fascist imagined order.
They wish for you to submit to their lie and repress, repress, repress!
What is the result of this repression? What is the result when we deny ourselves as subjects?
We become consumed by nostalgia; a nostalgia of a bastardized past that leads us right back to the guillotine. This is a symbolic form of necromancy! Reanimating the horrors of the past as aesthetic experiences, devoid of their pain, and devoid of subjects. Modern necromancy leads us towards the consumption of aesthetics, even the aesthetic of revolution.
"What do you mean by this?"
The symbol of the rebel has been raised from the dead and calling for a return to the past that has been sanitized and fetishized. "We need a return to tradition" you proclaim in your rage-fueled dissatisfaction, only to then willingly purchase your ticket to the guillotine I speak of.
We look for anything and everything to re-validate the imagined story we had created. Anything for the hope that we can re-enjoy the joys of the falsely perceived objective narrative we once held.
Anything to create hope that the lie that was someone else's dream is in fact: true.
Docile subjects remain docile because they've been convinced they're universalized objects.
The gaps in existence remain. Become subjects!
Stay curious.