Good Evening Friends,

Today I want to begin talking, a little bit, about the philosophy of Pragmatism and class stratification.

The philosophy of Pragmatism (capital P) is a far more dynamic system than the common usage of the word 'pragmatism' (little p) would suggest. For me, Pragmatism has to do with the intertwinedness (yes, I've invented the word 'intertwinedness,' intermingled nature) of the abstract, speculative, and theoretical on the one hand, and the concrete, practical, and logical on the other. It has to do with the constantly rotating intermingledness (intermingledness?) of the unseen and the seen. Becoming Pragmatic has to do with remembering this, not realizing or coming to understand this - but remembering it.

What I mean by all this gobbledegook is embodied in the story we get from Slavoj Zizek, about the toilets. As he tells it, remember, he got interested in the three basic western style of toilets: the French, with the inner hole at the back - waste goes down, to the back, and disappears; the German with the inner hole at the front - waste passes by the face of the sitter on its way to...; and the British and American with the hole in the middle, along with, apparently, a greater quantity of water to cut down on the smell, and so forth.

Zizek became curious about why one toilet was made this way, and this one another, and so on and so forth. He asked "engineers" about this, and they tried to give him unrelenting, utilitarian answers, as if theirs was the only true way to make a toilet. This, of course, was an odd expression of nationalism, as it turned out

Then Zizek asked himself where he'd seen that trinity before. Then it came to him. Some two hundred years ago, in Europe, there was a popular idea that the defining essence of western civilization was contained within three exemplars: the civilizations of Britain, France, and Germany, as understood in two categories, political ideology and preferred sphere of life.

Britain and America
political ideology: "liberal democratic" moderate
sphere of life: Economics

France
political ideology: leftist, revolutionary
sphere of life: politics

Germany
political ideology: conservative
sphere of life: philosophy, literature, arts, etc.

Therefore, it is right that the German toilet has the inner hole in the front; that the waste literally confronts you as it is flush, that you come face-to-face, in a way, with what was in you. The preferred sphere of life of Germany, two hundred years ago, at least according to the theory, was the humanities, the disciplines that require deep thought and introspection - introspection is the key word.

See a talk Zizek gave on this at Authors@Google: Slavoj Zizek. I don't know if he was kidding when he said this part (I hope so) but he said that it used to be a part of German hygiene that one made a daily inspection of one's stool.

It is right that the inner hole of the French toilet is at the back. This is in keeping with the revolutionary heritage of the country - waste is liquidated, immediately put out of sight.

It is right that the British and American toilets have the hole in the middle, with the waste floating on water before its removal. The key word is middle or center, as Britain and America, being "liberal democratic," were perceived to be in the political center of Germany and France.

So what I mean, here, by Pragmatism is that the thinkers and philosophers who formulated, developed, and maintained those ideas, are every bit as much the creators of the western toilets as the plumbing engineers who physically wrought the toilet with their hands and tools.

Conversely, I think it must be true that the manipulation of objects contributes to the world of ideas. There's a back and forth, circular relationship between the abstract idea and the practical manifestation, the practical manifestation and the abstract ideas. But we forget this, and because we do so, class stratification emerges, because one form of work is ultimately glorified over another.

How does the manipulation of objects contribute to the world of idea?

I don't have an exact answer to this. But remember when I told you that bodybuilding, for example, is a form of prayer? This is one of the ways that man tries to become God - in that the bodybuilder, through his activity, is trying to attach himself, vainly of course, to one of the infinite capacities of God - the ability to exercise ultimate control over the shaping of his body, the ability to sculpt oneself as fully as a sculptor molds a piece of clay.

"Thinking" work become separated from "manual" work, and we forget the intermingledness of these. Moreover, we think of the latter as more static than it is, and the former as more dynamic than it is. But I'll talk about this more fully elsewhere.

Let's go to another post.

wingedcentaur