/lit/ - Literature

>>23060665
>>23060665
Theil-the straussian moment
>The Hegelian Alexandre Kojéve believed that the end of history would be
marked by the definitive abandonment of all the hard questions. Humanity
itself would disappear, but there would no longer be any conflict:
If Man becomes an animal again, his acts, his loves, and his play must also
become purely “natural” again. Hence it would have to be admitted that after
the end of History, men would construct their edifices and works of art as
birds build their nests and spiders spin their webs. . . . “The definitive annihilation
of Man properly so-called” also means the definitive disappearance of
human Discourse (Logos) in the strict sense. Animals of the species Homo
sapiens would react by conditioned reflexes to vocal signals or sign “language,”
and thus their so-called “discourses” would be like what is supposed to be
the “language” of bees. What would disappear, then, is not only Philosophy
or the search for discursive Wisdom, but also that Wisdom itself.
Schmitt echoes these sentiments, albeit with rather different conclusions. In
such a unified world, “what remains is neither politics nor state, but culture,
civilization, economics, morality, law, art, entertainment, etc.”** The world of
“entertainment” represents the culmination of the shift away from politics.
A representation of reality might appear to replace reality: instead of violent
wars, there could be violent video games; instead of heroic feats, there could
be thrilling amusement park rides; instead of serious thought, there could be
“intrigues of all sorts,” as in a soap opera. It is a world where people spend
their lives amusing themselves to death.