Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 20:48:52 EST
Subject: Lyotard's religion


Hugh et al,

I thought I had qualified my statement enough to indicate that when I referred
to Lyotard’s religion, I was slightly ironic, but apparently, I was not being
clear enough.  Let me now state here that I have no intention to promulgate
Lyotardism as the latest faith to place alongside others such as Christianity,
Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Scientology, etc.  I do not regard it as the newest
product offering from Religion Incorporated.

I simply wanted to state that something real is at stake in Lyotard’s
conception of the postmodern and it is not merely the cute, the frivolous or
the trendy.

When both sides of the political spectrum accuse contemporary philosophy of
nihilism, perhaps something important is occurring there.  The right wants to
return us to traditional family values and the left wants to return us to more
militant Marxian ones, but both sides are actually engaged in a politics of
nostalgia, mourning our loss in the face of the new.

What does Lyotard mean when he says: “Let us wage a war on totality; let us be
witnesses to the unpresentable; let us activate the differences and save the
honor of the name.” 

How do we practice that today?