Taking a break from Middle Platonism I have been reading up on De Man, getting some more background to the cult of deconstruction, this form of sceptical nihilism into which a generation of students got initiated.
The explicit motive is to subvert existing power, giving it to supposedly excluded points of view, like those of women supposedly free from the influence of men. It provides intellectual support to the whole modern feminist movement. Another spin off was Edward Said’s “postcolonialism” with its roots in Foucault and Derrida.
I return to my essay Nietzsche and the Postmodernists http://john-jsm.wikidot.com/nietzsche-and-the-postmodernists which I think was entirely on the right track. [1] Its attack on postmodernism has not been bettered. I did not get the audience for it that it deserved. I had to avoid the pitfalls of over confidence. There would be no point in defending “patriarchy” with arguments that have all been deconstructed. I needed to establish the existence of truth from an incontrovertible position and build from there.
My opponents’ argument is not simply Marxist, though it is leftist. When Derrida died some of his obituaries questioned whether he should necessarily be considered a man of the left, citing his interest in Nietzsche. Contemporary academia became interested in Nietzsche via “the new Nietzsche” which is part of the sceptical nihilist movement. Nietzsche himself was subordinated to lot of French writers such as Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, Barthes, Lyotard, Lacan, and Deleuze. But the movement itself could develop in different ways. French cultural nationalism is definitely one possible direction. Benoist takes aspects of the postmodernist tradition for a right wing anti-American agenda. And there is another example where right meets left in the curious case of Dali whose reputation among art critics. has undergone a dramatic upward shift. Revelations about his close friendship and collaboration with Duchamp, one of the darlings of postmodernism, has been one factor in this. It is also worth noting the inspiration he drew from the obscure psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan.
In the west the main thrust of deconstruction and postmodernism has been feminism. Post colonialism has had less impact, except negatively. Among a great number of refreshingly outrageous and amusing opinions Dali has expressed some strong antifeminist thoughts.
[1] I am a very stable genius.
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