From: GEVANS613-AT-aol.com
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 13:05:06 EST
Subject: heidegger-AT-lists Heidegger the intellectual mentor of the left



--part1_8d.1483dfde.29ae79d2_boundary
Content-Language: en

Michael quoth recently:
A certain linguistic commentator reached the following judgement upon the
past two thousand years of exquisite (and, 'inexquisite') thinking, thus:


Jud (previously)
Heidegger's sympathies of course lay with the transcendental mysteries of the
loathsome Plato.

Michael:
Well, it seems to this non-linguist, that in my reading, Heidegger seemed
mostly critical of the 'father of metaphysics' we all know as Plato (what
rote many plays about hard stuff); that such a Plato, given the opportunity
to display and reveal being nonetheless eclipsed such revelation in the
(mathematical) Idea... although, of course, as Heidegger admitted many times,
this is an interpretation of the tradition as it has been handed-written-down
within the critical tradition of western philosophy; Heidegger's history of
being as a history of metaphysics is as little a matter of "sympathies"
(i.e., the implied vulgar partisanship in the quote above) as can be imagined
by this small mind.

Jud:
There is a repeated emphasis upon the so-called 'inception' of the Greek
heritage and it is obvious that he sees the occurrence that is a beginning;=20a
first part or stage of subsequent events =E2=80=93 those ongoing events being the
establishment of National Socialism, in which he sees the German people as
the torchbearers of the Greek flame with the Fuehrer's Berlin as the new
Athens (or perhaps Rome.)  He was a right-wing trannie and so was Plato  -
and there we have it.
Heidegger didn't write any 'History of Being' for there is no such thing as
'Being' he wrote a lot of gimcrackery about nonsense. If he had no sympathy
with the Greek metaphysicians why is he constantly pointing to them and their
society as worthy of study and emulation?
Heidegger would have given you short shrift with your individualistic
opinions, for he contended that mundane judgments and talk are trivial; they
remain unmindful to our inscrutable historicity and are imbued by spurious
compliance, even when they assume the pretence of rugged individualism.
Section 74 of Being and Time arrogates to the Germans a responsibility to
acknowledge that they consist of a horde or citizenry (Volk) with a specific
historical birthright that they must appropriate. Through 'communication' and
'struggle' (Kampf), and by authentically selecting a 'hero', our 'generation'
may forge a common 'destiny' from its heritage.

Michael:
His "sympathies" (if we can employ this term -- of course, no longer meant in
the manner of the quote above) and 'empathy' lay only with the occluded and
forgotten being eclipsed in the epochs of its (non)-reign in history (not
history as historiography and chronologies, etc); and bringing to light what
Heidegger called the 'unsaid', the 'unthought' in the interlocutor's saying
and thought.

Jud:
The claim that 'being' was 'forgotten' is a myth perpetrated by Heidegger in
order to enhance and magnify the achievement of his so-called 're-discovery'
of the Greek 'applesauce.' The churches, who borrowed the Greek absurdity in
bucketfuls, shoved it down people's throats for centuries until comparatively
recently, when with the exception of USA, they left the churches empty and
the prating priest's mouths stopped with dust.

Michael:
On light, both Plato and Heidegger share and display the metaphysical
tradition's emphasis on visibility, invisibility and presence/absence. It is
arguable whether Heidegger's 'clearing', 'light(e(n))ing', 'unconcealment',
etc, are (merely) metaphors, and, here, I do not wish to argue the case.

Jud:
>From a Heideggerian propaganda point of view the 'clearing' has more
resonance with the Germanic Forrest dweller myths and with his brown-shirted
fascist pals.  When he uses the term one can almost smell the sweet odour of
the pine needles and hear the ringing tones of Seigfreid's hunting-horn
reverberating through the woodland glades. Enough to stiffen the resolve of
any young ex-Freiburgian conscript as he herded the Polish untermench
slave-labourers into the waiting cattle trucks?

Michael:
 But it is interesting to consider the twin suns of Plato in a (necessarily
low-wattage) Heideggerian light. The one sun is the origin of the light that
makes visible things visible, that casts them in their visibility and shadow
(the Cave), that throws them into relief, and, that is the source of the
light and warmth and energy necessary for the beings that arise of themselves
and show themselves as the what that they are and can be, the realm of
'physis', and of 'genesis'. Then there is the second sun that is known as the
Good; this Good is the source of enlightenment, that is the source of the
intelligibility of the intelligible things, the Ideas (of things). Sometimes
I think that Heidegger fuses these two together into the same sun, such that
physis and logos are the same? Moreover, I wonder whether, not content with
this operation, Heidegger also aims to reveal, to see, not merely what is
revealed and made visible/intelligible by the light from the sun, but the
very light itself! And such light qua light, i.e., as if independent of the
visibles and intelligibles revealed by the light.

Jud:
For Heidegger there was only one sun  and that shone out of Hitler's arse.
Heidegger:
"Let not propositions and 'ideas' be the rules of your Being. The Fuehrer
alone is the present and future German reality and its law."

Michael:
Now we all know how light can both reveal and blind, and blind especially
when one looks directly into the light or its source itself. To 'see' just
the light-as-light. What does that mean? Any thoughts, dear comrades? 
Thoughts out of season from a ne'er dweller...

Jud:
The only light emanating from Heidegger and his Nazi pals was the roving
light from the searchlight towers in the death camps Michael =E2=80=93 you are living
in a dream world.  I find your naivety utterly bewildering =E2=80=93 but it=20may
explain many things concerning German history.

Jud Evans.











--part1_8d.1483dfde.29ae79d2_boundary

HTML VERSION: