Tuesday, October 04, 2005
(9:28 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Tuesday Hatred: Dereliction of Duty
This is going to be a kind of hatred-cum-confessional, insofar as I am confessing on behalf of the entire Internet that we all suck. In fact, the Internet is dead, at least as a venue for scholarly discussion.I am posting this Tuesday Hatred early, in fact, in an effort, doomed to failure, to get it "out of my system." But "it" is "my system." I will continue to be a failure as a scholarly blogger. My tone will not be measured. I will repeat what people say, giving the impression that I disagree when in reality I'm just trying to work my way around to their thought by my own route ("thinking out loud" -- greasing the old mental "valve," right?). And I will beg everyone to please take my word for it, and try to shout people down, and generally just shit and smear it on the walls of every comment thread in every blog in this land. Because I am schizophrenic. I am mentally ill. It's a very serious thing, and I shouldn't be joking about it, but I can't help it. One of my many faults.
I really am willing to be convinced. You might not notice this on a day-to-day basis, but I am completely depraved. Totally lost. I have no moral compass, no intellectual convictions. I am clay in your hands -- but be gentle with me, Mr. Potter. I've read a lot of Slovenians, but I'm not in the kiln yet. There's still time! Still time to mold me! Still time to show me the error of my ways! But as I said: Be gentle. I am a fragile soul, prone to lash out senselessly at those whose love gets a little too rough. I am proud; I don't want to be joining a "party line" (though I'm sure I've been variously painted as a Zizekian, a Derridean, a child-molesting seminarian, etc.). It's going to be hard for me to learn good moral values through commenting -- but not impossible. I just need someone to teach me.
I hate making the wrong move in chess. I hate when working with noxious chemicals makes my allergies flair up. I hate "glass and surface" cleaner and the resulting film on our bathroom mirror. I hate washing the tub first, without thinking about the fact that that's where I also need to dump the mop water. I hate mildew that won't go away. I hate white tile. I hate our white, porous sink.
