Hauntology is a concept within the philosophy of history first introduced by Jacques Derrida in his 1993 work Spectres of Marx and further developed within various critical disciplines in the early 21st century.
It is closely related to Derrida’s deconstruction of Western philosophy’s metaphysics of presence, which argues fundamentally that being is not equivalent to presence. Claiming that there is no temporal point of pure origin but only the time of the always already, deconstruction identifies “haunting [as] the state proper to being as such.”
“Hauntology,” then, describes the resulting state of temporal, historical, and ontological disjunction in which “the priority of being and presence [is replaced by] the figure of the ghost as that which is neither present, nor absent, neither dead nor alive.”
Category: Philosophy
Philosophical commentary on the various states of earthlings, relationships between these earthlings and cookies.
The Lunar Eclipse And Thoughts On Ramtha’s Eclipsophobia
You know, I think it’s quite unsatisfactory that the moon would pick such an early hour in the morning to eclipse. People have jobs, deadlines and other obligations preventing us from staying up all evening. If I could guess, the channeled spirit of “Ramtha” had something to do with this.
It’s about time we begin sending letters to the Moon to protest this outrageousty, surely preventing any further unwelcome lunar eclipse scheduling conflicts. It just so happens that a total solar eclipse will take place on 13-14 November, 2012. Cue up the tofu barbecue, tin foil hats and conspiracy theories: this one hasn’t happened since July 11, 1725. However, much like the sneaky tricks of the Moon, it will only be visible in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Chile.
Start saving up to travel to one of these fabulous destinations, or, start transmitting the Sun staunchly and sternly worded letters demanding expanded coverage for other countries. The choice is yours.
A Website Update Finally? For Whom?
This thing follows me everywhere.
The galvanized technophile clicks publish on his latest composition, which is certain to bring internet stardom, anonymous donations and hopefully free cookies. He sits only illuminated by the blue glow of the monitor, anticipating the onslaught of page views. They trickle like Reaganomics. As time goes on, as it’s known to do, enthusiasm begins to wane. His writings become less out of habit and more out of necessity. Then to begrudgingly avoid neglect.
His creativity machine grinds to a halt like a factory shutdown. He carefully constructs the inevitable apology to his 3 readers. The blogging software goes out of date. Comment spam starts to take over. He has failed at the internet and regrettably joins Facebook.
Personal websites and blogs not entangled by the tentacles of the large social media monsters are declining. If you want to just share links or photos with friends, there are specific social media services for it. Seems a bit redundant to post a link to a photograph on Facebook when you could just post the photo itself. I have observed the interesting balance, and now, tipping point between social media and personal websites over the last few years.