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- From: zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny)
- Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc,rec.arts.books
- Subject: Re: Mikhail on the theory that cruelty is useful
- Message-ID: <1992Dec12.003516.18422@husc3.harvard.edu>
- Date: 12 Dec 92 05:35:15 GMT
- Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Dec12.003516.18422
- References: <1992Dec9.033123.16418@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> <1992Dec9.184010.18331@husc3.harvard.edu> <1992Dec11.125242.16479@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
- Organization: The Phallogocentric Cabal
- Lines: 66
- Nntp-Posting-Host: husc10.harvard.edu
-
- In article <1992Dec11.125242.16479@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
- lbn@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (generic fellow) writes:
-
- Mikhail Zeleny:
- >>>>I told you I was serious, Mike. Suppose you were to tell me what you
- >>>>find immoral about cruelty? For instance, I heartily enjoy the petty
- >>>>torment of those who believe in their right not to be denigrated, and,
- >>>>I suspect, so do you. Unlike neighborly love (on which see Freud),
- >>>>neighborly cruelty is readily found in a copious, undiluted supply.
- >>>>Why not put it to good use by making it into a moral force?
-
- dave liebman:
- >>>freud's credibility is diminished by the fact of his having been a sucker
- >>>of his own cock, and not even a closeted one -- he had it published.
-
- MZ:
- >>A banal metaphor adds no merit to a _non sequitur_.
-
- dl:
- >surely a banal commentary is similarly bereft of value?
-
- Why should I spend more energy on dealing with your flaccid nonsense?
-
- dl:
- >>>and neighborly cruelty is ever _so_ petty, the inevitable product of
- >>>this bourgeois stultification you've mentioned. those who assert that
- >>>cruelty is an essential, substantive aspect of human existence do so,
- >>>of course, to satisfy their plaintive need to legitimize their own
- >>>blunted variant of humanity.
-
- MZ:
- >>Why "of course"? Is your own credibility to be regarded as inherently
- >>superior to the sort you accord to that alleged autofellator Siggy?
-
- dl:
- >in the absence of any slightly more than half-witted remonstrance, i'd
- >probably win by default.
-
- And Bobby Fischer is still the world champion.
-
- dl:
- >>> cruelty need not be immoral. its morality,
- >>>though, will be of the opiate, provincial sort most suited to those who
- >>>will dully climb whatever ladder is placed before them. that banal
- >>>frustration, those pastel fantasies of kicking the neighbor's poodle in
- >>>the ribs, are nothing but dilute. the deployment of such inclinations in
- >>>a moral domain is nothing more than some suburban milquetoast playing
- >>>overly sweaty racquetball at the YMCA. their bodies grow leaner, but
- >>>later that evening are found firmly embedded in their plastic-draped
- >>>couches; as, i suspect, is yours.
-
- MZ:
- >>My leather-covered couch is duly draped with last week's laundry and
- >>this week's reading. You are losing your thread again, dave.
-
- DL:
- >you're so adorable when you get petulant.
-
- Not petulant -- bored.
-
- >snuggles,
- >dave
-
- cordially,
- mikhail zeleny@husc.harvard.edu
- "Le cul des femmes est monotone comme l'esprit des hommes."
-