[D-G] Re: "Rousseauistic"?

Sylvie Ruelle sylvieruelle at earthlink.net
Wed Feb 23 14:11:58 PST 2005


"maybe the unconscious can be seen as a child and playful and it is 
only beastial and viewed as mean because it is repressed in today's 
world..."
just my i don't know what i am talking about idea too
:)

On Feb 23, 2005, at 2:06 PM, Jeremy Livingston wrote:

> Aaron has very nicely said what had to be said about Nietzsche. (What
> he hated were "the anarchists", nihilistic bomb-heaving utopian
> socialists. Did he hate democracy? What he hated was herd
> collectivism, and the idea of inherent human entitlement -- is that
> our only idea of what democracy can be?)
>
> But I still want to remark about the unconscious in Anti-Oedipus. Yes,
> Deleuze and Guattari are anarchists, after their own fashion. Yes,
> they believe that everything would still get done, and better, in the
> absence of a state. This has nothing to do with their conception of
> the unconscious. Yes, they believe that the unconscious is not
> inherently destructive of all social bonds -- nobody ever believed it
> was.
>
> If you invoke Rousseau, you are suggesting a view of human nature that
> is gentle, kind, naturally giving and altruistic, moderate, temperate,
> given to gambolling through the fields holding hands, etc. I'm not
> exaggerating by much here, am I? But what is "human nature" in A-O &
> MP? The unconscious is not a humanist; the unconscious is a machine, a
> factory, a beast (actually many beasts, whole packs of wolves, whole
> nests of rats); it is animal, cybernetic, sidereal. They talk about
> drugs, mania, perverse sexuality.... No one who positively cites HP
> Lovecraft in the course of developing their understanding of human
> nature could possibly deserve the filthy label of "Rousseauistic".
>
> Throughout the works of Deleuze, the figure of the demon or devil pops
> up from time to time. Usually very innocuously, with deceptive lack of
> ostentation; but always positively. I consider that telling. The
> politics of desire is about unleashing the unconscious: D&G knew
> perfectly well why so many people are afraid of that idea, and
> revelled in their discomfort.
>
> If you want to make 18th century comparisons, D&G have much, much more
> in common with William Blake (whom I don't think either of them ever
> read, more's the pity; especially "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell")
> than they ever did with Rousseau.
>
> Heck, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not going to
> persist in a back-and-forth. Just wanted to offer something to think
> about.
>
> Jeremy
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>
Ms. Sylvie Ruelle
http://home.earthlink.net/~sylvieruelle
rw_artette_lc at yahoo.com




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