Despair & Utopia (was Re: "Post-Modernism")

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Carrol:
>> If the reasons are related to or rooted in a person's belief system would
>> you be willing to recognize their affirmation as "real reasons"?
>
>No! The "belief system" of someone who says "society is impossible"
>*includes* the belief that society is possible. And I hesitate to believe
>that anyone not brain damaged can hold such an incoherent belief.
>Hence I have to believe that the person who says "society is not
>possible" is in fact lying -- lying in the same way as I would be lying
>if I said in this post that that enjoy reading Stevens more than I
>enjoy reading Pound. The only difference is that my lie is not
>incoherent and hence does not give itself away as does someone
>claiming that society is impossible.
>
>I cannot see why anyone should spend much intellectual energy
>or time in refuting positions which no one in fact holds.

Perhaps, the next time we hear someone say to us, "Society is impossible,"
we should reply, "You are impossible."

Yoshie