Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 19:06:45 +0800


> Hugh,
> > > No gods, No masters, No man.  There is no authority except the
Immortal.
> > Hitler admired Catholicism becaused it enforced its authority.  Telling
> > others there is no authority except the one prescribed sounds
suspiciously
> > like an imitation of the author of  the Ten Commandments.
>
> Your suspicion comes with some authority, no? The Immortal is of every
> person, and singular to that person. The Immortal would give authority to
> what Badiou calls 'opinion'. 'The maxim of opinion is: Love that which you
> have always loved.'
>
> > If B is saying,
> > to each of us choose your own Good,  resist the Good imposed by the
Other,
> > that is a logical statement.  If this leads to being your own authority,
> > subject to you own rules, it would seem  you are playing philosopher.
>
> I think this is exactly what he is doing. Also I think the
> 'subject-of-a-truth-becoming-process' is for those ppls who have
constructed
> subjectivities not on par with the PoMoCo, that is, for conservatives.

As an adjunct to my initial post:
Badiou speaks of the "'freedom of opinion'" being "first and foremost the
freedom to designate Evil" (8).
Something may be regarded as an 'evil', an Ideological State Apparition, or,
perhaps, a 'normative norm', but not an Evil. The "truth-process. to use an
expression of Lacan's - punches a 'hole' in these knowledges" (43), then
creates new knowledges, "the truth forces [new] knowledges" (70).

But for this to happen the truth-becoming-subject must realise this:
"There are as many differences, say, between a Chinese peasant and a young
Norwegian professional as between myself and anybody at all, including
myself. As many, but also, then neither more nor less." (26)

When I said conservatives I meant in the sense Badiou means, as conservation
of subject. Not in the fidelity to a truth-becoming process but to something
previous.
The notion of 'myself as different to myself as a Chinese peasant' I think
is the radical point of departure that allows anyone to play 'philosopher',
or, perhaps, another way to look at it is, for anybody to regard their Self
as Other.

Glen.