Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 20:04:49 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re:  Heidegger in Germany




Whatever. In any event, Heidegger was mistaken from the start in thinking
in a being-centered fashion and not in developing nonviolence. The message
that rings loud and clear, from those times and from these, is that
violence has an independent and primary function and issue, and port of
our "becoming who we are" is in our taking up the nonviolence we already
are, rather than systematically ignoring it. In Heidegger's case, this is
a bit more reprehensible, on a scholoary level or on the level of thought,
becuase the data were and are there, are here. All the time. Everwhere.
Nonviolence speaks, always, and everywhere, as the gravity of being. That
gravity is not simply to be mechanized into the loop of guilt as a
secondary phenomenon. The issue of violence in relation to political power
is crucial and was never adequately addressed in Heidegger's thought. I
know that if I don't bring nonviolence up, no one will. In the proximity
of Heidegger's sort of "being", there was genocide. Of many kinds. There
is genocide to this day, and often very much in the very close proximity
of where "being" not only is remembered, but accomplishes itself in
ongoing baroque develpments of absolute assuredness. The "being" of which
Heidegger spoke clearly was meant to point to religions dasein, "who is
sinner, who is saint", "the bridge" and so forth. Such religious Dasein
turned away Jews in the US, burned them in Germany, was silent across
Europe, fomented antisemitic hatred throughout the world, and more
recentlly ignored genocides in Rwanda and quite likely in Iraa. Such
"Dasein" sent troops to Vietnam for years, playing the role of savior. And
throughout, we are spaking not of a forgetting of being, but of a
remembering through and through. We are sold, again and again, in the
utterly false conclusion that all violence of this century is attributable
to taking people as things. But the greatest violence is founded on taking
people as people, and commiting violence to them on that basis. Who is
sinner? Who is saint? I don't know. I do know that I genuinely do not want
to think the world, "being", being with others, existence, truth, reality,
in such terms, in the main. And those are the terms to which Heidegger
points, in every way possible, at all times, from the preliminary
questions of being to the dwelling in the fourfold. He is and remains my
beloved teacher, but I honestly can't believe you people can't make it
through these questions. I think it is because you are so busy "alingning"
yourself to remain "open to being". Well how about getting a little more
open to nonviolence for a change?

TMB


On Thu, 28 Jan 1999, Michael Eldred wrote:

> Cologne, 28 January 1999
> 
> h.vantuijl-AT-kub.nl schrieb:
> > Michael,
> >  
> > I paraphrased:
> > > Leadership is necessary in times like these.
> >  
> > You paraphrase:
> > > Rather leadership is itself a "character mask"
> > > demanded by the current seinsgeschichtliche configuration of the being of
> >  beings
> > > itself.
> >  
> > Does Heidegger really mean that much to you, that we
> > should use _exactly_ the same words as you do? 
> 
> Of course not, Henk. It is a matter of the general sense, and in my view your 
> paraphrase distorts the sense of the passage cited.
> 
> > It is
> > a discussion between Rafael and me. 
> 
> But I hope, not a private one. I thought the rules of the game are that anyone 
> can chip in just about anywhere without causing upset.
> 
> > Rafael believes
> > that this passage is a criticism of Hitler. I
> > paraphrased it _roughly_ to give him an _impression_
> > of my view. If I had been more explicit I would have
> > referred to parallels with Plato's _Statesman_. Not
> > to race and discrimination.
> 
> But in both cases you have represented Heidegger as himself propagating pretty 
> unsavoury ideas (racism and the leadership of Fuehrern, resp.) when in fact he 
> is pointing out -- from a distance -- a necessity or correspondence demanded by 
> a certain metaphysical constellation of beings as a whole.
> 
> In view of the widespread tendency to bedevil Heidegger, it is at least 
> important to take care not to put words into his mouth thus creating the 
> impression that he was racist or totalitarian in his thinking. This is merely a 
> requirement of good, fair scholarship.
> 
> Michael
> _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-  artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
> _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art  _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
> http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ artefact-AT-t-online.de-_-_ 
> _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-_
> 
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 




     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---