He who must apply a “corrective” must study accurately and profoundly the weak side of the Establishment, and then vigorously and one-sidedly present the opposite. Precisely in this consists the corrective, and in this too the resignation of him who has to apply it. The corrective will in a sense be sacrificed to the established order. If this is true, a presumably clever pate can reprove the corrective for being one-sided. Ye gods! Nothing is easier for him who applies the corrective than to supply the other side; but then it ceases to be the corrective and becomes the established order. — Soren Kierkegaard
The Liberal Corrective
November 19, 2004 by at 7:31 pm
I used to think that Conservatives and Liberals were like Coke and Pepsi. That Conservatives were action oriented and that Liberals were process oriented. And that we needed both kinds of people. But, I increasingly think that “the process”, while itself neccesary for just action, is often simply a tool of narcissism.
AN IDEA FOR A NOVEL I’LL NEVER WRITE:
A young man in prison, somebody’s Bitch, rises to become supreme potentate of the world. Under his inspiration a cult arises which has as its sacrament the act of imprisoning oneself and others. People would wear little cages around their necks and no one would be satisfied until all the earth had been conformed to a prison and we were all inmates.
As soon as there was more than one person in the world there was the question about how we should organize ourselves. As Leonard Cohen said, “the homocidal bitchin’ that goes on in every kitchen to determine who will serve and who will eat.”