- 21 Mar 2012 04:13
#13921526
The fact that something is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of a previous practice or text does not necessarily mean that it is useless or valueless. Many of our greatest cultural achievements have been based on misunderstandings of the past. Indeed, if Lacan is to be taken seriously, then even our own sense of an integral identity is based on a misrecognition of our own reflection in the mirror as infants during the 'mirror phase' of our psychosocial development. Mistakes and misunderstandings are an essental part of human progress. You also seem to be fixated on the truth value of beliefs - if you were truly postmodern in your thinking, Qatz, you would recognise that the truth value of a belief is irrelevant to its usefulness.
But the author goes further by suggesting that it's semiotic, yes... but it's also stupidity.
The first burials were under the floor of the family dwelling with horrendous consequences.
The author suggests that MIS-interpretations of previous generations' texts is what caused religion and ideology. The subtext is that religion is based on misunderstandings of written texts. That leads to a notion that Religion is stupidity-based - simulacra and social reproduction. And if this is so, perhaps society and civilization are stupidity-based as well.
The fact that something is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of a previous practice or text does not necessarily mean that it is useless or valueless. Many of our greatest cultural achievements have been based on misunderstandings of the past. Indeed, if Lacan is to be taken seriously, then even our own sense of an integral identity is based on a misrecognition of our own reflection in the mirror as infants during the 'mirror phase' of our psychosocial development. Mistakes and misunderstandings are an essental part of human progress. You also seem to be fixated on the truth value of beliefs - if you were truly postmodern in your thinking, Qatz, you would recognise that the truth value of a belief is irrelevant to its usefulness.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Marx (Groucho)