We’re beings toward death, we are featherless, two-legged, linguistically conscious creatures born between urine and feces who’s body will one day be the culinary delight of terrestrial worms. That’s us. We’re beings toward death.
At the same time, we have desire, why we are organisms in space and time, and so it’s desire in the face of death. And then of course you’ve got dogmatism, various attempts to hold on to certainty, various forms of idolatry. And you’ve got dialogue in the face of dogmatism. Then, of course, structurally and institutionally, you’ve got domination. And you have democracy, you have attempts of people trying to render accountable elites: kings, queens, corporate elites, politicians. Trying to make these elites accountable to everyday people.
At the same time, we have desire, why we are organisms in space and time, and so it’s desire in the face of death. And then of course you’ve got dogmatism, various attempts to hold on to certainty, various forms of idolatry. And you’ve got dialogue in the face of dogmatism. Then, of course, structurally and institutionally, you’ve got domination. And you have democracy, you have attempts of people trying to render accountable elites: kings, queens, corporate elites, politicians. Trying to make these elites accountable to everyday people.
So philosophy itself becomes a critical disposition of wrestling with desire in the face of death, wrestling with dialogue in the face of dogmatism, and wrestling with democracy - trying to keep alive very fragile democratic experiments - in the face of structures of domination: patriarchy, white supremacy, imperial power, state power - all those concentrated forms of power that are not accountable to people who are effected by it...
America is a very fragile democratic experiment predicated on the dispossession of the lands of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African peoples and the subjugation of women, the marginalization of gays and lesbians. It has great potential, but this notion that somehow we had it all or that we’ll ever have it all has got to go, you’ve got to push it to the side, and once you’ve pushed it to the side it tends to evacuate the language of disappointment and the language of failure, and you say, ok how much have we done? How did we do it? Can we do more?
America is a very fragile democratic experiment predicated on the dispossession of the lands of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African peoples and the subjugation of women, the marginalization of gays and lesbians. It has great potential, but this notion that somehow we had it all or that we’ll ever have it all has got to go, you’ve got to push it to the side, and once you’ve pushed it to the side it tends to evacuate the language of disappointment and the language of failure, and you say, ok how much have we done? How did we do it? Can we do more?
Cornel West
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