Modified Oct. 12th, 2009 and Jan. 3rd, 2010.
I don't trumpet Hegel in all aspects of his philosophy because, quite frankly, I don't like all aspects of his philosophy. To begin with, Hegel philosophized too much from 'the neck up' for my liking taking his philosophy into the clouds where even the most intelligent academics had great difficulty following him.
This is why I like to view Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy-Psychology as a multi-combination of Hegelian-Nietzschean-Freudian-Adlerian-Gestalt-and other influential forces...
It is important that writers don't get caught up in 'over-idealizing' their favorite philosophers and/or in 'over-trashing' their most 'disagreed with' philosophers -- lumping ideas together that shouldn't be lumped together, stereotyping philosophers positively or negatively in a way that oversimplifies, over-idealizes, and/or over-vilifies the philosopher and his or her work that is being focused on.
I too can be guilty of this practice -- it is is easier to oversimplify, over-idealize, and/or over-vilify a philosopher than it is to take the extra time required to more seriously investigate the intricacies of a complicated philosopher's work -- and analyze it properly.
Without spending a lifetime studying one and only one philosopher -- and never coming back down to earth and the pragmatic common sense and problem-solving skills (conflict-resolving skills) needed in day-to-day living.
Nor should any of us hold on irrationally and unconditionally to ideas that have become outdated and archaic just because they belong to our favorite philosopher (or psychologist) or alternatively use our least favorite philosopher as our own 'private whipping post' so that we can let all of our individual frustrations and 'transferences' loose on this particular philosopher until we have effectively 'beaten a dead horse' way past the point of needing to keep on doing this.
Close the issue -- and move on.
Life evolves. We need to evolve with it.
We should all understand that, for example, Psychoanalysis isn't being practiced exactly the same way today as it was 100 or 115 years ago, although some of the most 'anal-retentive' -- 'I can't let go of Freud' -- analysts might still be trying to hang on to their own 'dead or dying Freudian horse'. Maybe there is something to the fact that 'analyst' starts with 'anal' as in 'anal-retentive' with no 'common sense flexibility' to move away from a network of ideas that just, plain and simple, aren't working in 2010 that were created between 1897 and 1905. (See my take on the 'Freudian Traumacy-Seduction-Fantasy Controversy'.)
Similarly, not all 'Hegelian thinkers' or 'post-Hegelian thinkers' think exactly today the same way that Hegel thought in 1807. I, for one, certainly don't -- and don't like to be stereotyped as a 'clone of Hegel'.
Indeed, no two thinkers ever think or feel exactly alike. When a group of thinkers are claiming that they think exactly like their leader -- and follow that leader 100 per cent to the alter and/to the grave -- they are quite likely lying of faking 'group unity' for the sake of 'social perception' and not wanting to appear that they are presenting ideas that are coming from a 'dialectically divided house'.
Sometimes there is real unity but my experience tells me that this is more the exception than the rule.
Indeed, even labeling yourself as a 'Hegelian philosopher' can become a conceptual and historical trap; better to label yourself as a 'post-Hegelian' philosopher and give yourself some freedom to move with certain particular Hegelian ideas staying on the table but other Hegelian ideas being thrown off the table. To be sure, this post-Hegelian philosopher doesn't want to get locked inside a 'Hegelian jail cell'.
My friends -- and/or philosophical adversaries -- over at 'The Anti-Communitarian: Living Outside The Dialectic' blog site make this particular paper that I am writing here -- and the type of distinctions I am making here -- absolutely necessary.
What divides us defines us.
Let us start with these easy distinctions here.
1. DGB Philosophy is not Classic Hegelian Philosophy (with any over-riding ideas of 'Absolute Knowledge', 'Collectivism', or 'Nationalistic Extremism'.
My brand of 'post-Hegelian' philosophy might be elongated and called: 'DGB Post-Hegelian, Multi-Dialectic-Democratic, Humanistic-Existential Evolutionary Theory or Philosophy'.
2. DGB Philosophy is not Communitarianism in any sense of the word as I have read it being described and/or defined.
3. DGB Philosophy is not Anti-Communitarianism in any sense of the way that it attacks Hegelian Dialectic Theory and/or stereotypes Communitarianism as being 'collectively and 'nationalistically' extreme and against individualism and individual civil rights.
Here are some examples of how the Anti-Communitarians have 'conflated' different Hegelian concepts together in a way that doesn't make sense in 2009 -- and probably doesn't even make any sense going back to 1807 whether we are talking about what Hegel had in mind or whether we are talking about the rather 'unique' interpretation of what the Anti-Communitarians think Hegel had in mind.
Incidentally, I have to thank the Anti-Communitarians for introducing me to the word 'conflation' which can be defined in the following manner:
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Conflation occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, become confused until there seems to be only a single identity — the differences appear to become lost. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflation
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Here are some Anti-Communitarian examples of conflation:
1. 'The Dialectic' does not equal -- nor will a million or a billion or a trillion dialects ever equal -- 'Absolute Knowledge'. Most Post-Hegelians, I believe, have more or less thrown out Hegel's concept of 'Absolute Knowledge' as should be the case. The concept is archaic and about as relevant as Plato's 'Theory of The Caves' and 'The Forms'.
2. 'The Dialectic' does not equal in any manner the idea of 'Collectivism' or 'Nationalism' except in a possible 'dialectic process' of negotiating collectivism and nationalism against their opposite concepts -- for example, either 'individualism' or 'internationalism'.
3. 'The Dialectic' does not equal in any manner any sort of 'behind the scenes conspiracy theory and/or puppetmaster show' except to the extent that someone or some group is trying to manipulate and pathologize the sincerity, the integrity, and the existential immediacy of the dialectic either as a 'power playoff' and/or as a process of intended 'win-win compromise negotiation'.
4. 'The Dialectic' does not equal in any manner any definition of 'Communitarianism' unless the definition of 'Communitarianism' is so 'fluidly mobile and changing' that it in fact has no definition.
Let me spend the duration of this essay to once again clarify some of my main differences of opinion with Hegel, and once these differences of opinion are clarified, address the main complaints that are leveled against Hegel by the 'Anti-Communitarians' who seem to confuse and conflate Hegel's dialectic theory with his 'Nationalism/Collectivism' stance relative to political philosophy when the two are totally different and should not be treated as being the same or necessarily linked at all.
My main counter-argument against the Anti-Communitarians is that there are literally millions upon millions of 'dialectic conflicts and/or conflict resolutions' that are being worked on each and every day by different individuals and different groups of individuals so to steretype and blackball each and every type of dialectic process as being exactly the same in that each and every one of them is 'contrived', 'pre-ordained', 'manipulated', 'orchestrated by powerful players behind the scenes to a pre-engineered conclusion' -- the result of some 'massive idealistic and/or narcissistic world-wide conspiracy theory' is stretching things just a little bit past the point of 'normal believability'.
I am not saying that conspiracy theories can't or don't happen -- I am just saying that they don't happen all the time and it is important to make some critical distinctions here between different types of dialectic conflict processes and confict resolutions as opposed to lumping each and every dialectic process into one gigantic 'Sucker Bag' where we all -- meaning all of us not in the 'elite controlling circle' -- play the role of 'pawns on a chessboard' being 'sacrificed for the good of the more powerful pieces' and for the good of the 'elite few' that are the actual controlling players in this chess game.
If nothing else, we need to distinguish between 'real dialectic conflict processes' where the outcome of the conflict is highly volatile, humanistic-existential, narcissitically one-sided or two-sided, based on the principle of a 'will-to power' or the 'will to negotiate to a more homeostatically stable, win-win solution' -- and unpredictable during the whole process; vs. the type of 'contrived, manipulated, collusion-based, dog and pony show, smoke and mirrors, dialectic conflict that the Anti-Communitarians are obsessing about and against.
Anyways -- let us start with 2009 DGB Post-Hegelian Philosophy vs. 'Classic and/or Archaic' 1807 'Phenomenology of Spirit'-based Hegelian Philosophy.
Firstly, I do not like Hegel's heavy-duty abstractionism although, to confess, I can go off the abstractionism deep end just as many other serious philosophy writers can and do -- much depends on the degree of the philosophical sophistication of the reader we are writing to and/or whether, as a writer, our main purpose is to delve into the most complicated technicalities and convolutions of whatever the issue is we are writing about -- or whether we just want to cover and utilize or modify the main pragmatic implications and/or applications of the philosophical idea that is under discussion. In general, the more abstract a philosopher-writer is, the more likely he or she is of being misunderstood and/or being interpreted in many entirely different ways, and the more likely he or she is going to 'confuse and conflate' things by associating and linking things and/or processes together that are different and should not be treated as being the same or similar. This problem applies equally to Hegel's 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' (1807)and also to my philosophical adversaries over there at the 'Anti-Communitarian Club' who still seem to be caught in a 'Hegelian Time and Abstraction Warp'.
Secondly, I do not like Hegel's 'nationalist-collectivist political stance' which seems to suppress and marginalize individual civil rights and seems to in effect be 'Anti-Hegelian' in my 'idealistic dialectic-democratic interpretation and/or modification of Hegel' -- or put another way, Hegel's nationalistist-collectivist political stance seems to be an internal contradiction in the way I would personally like to see Hegelian Philosophy interpreted and applied. This is going to take some explaining.
We have to distinguish first and foremost between two types of dialectics:
1. An 'Imperialistic-Narcissistic-Darwinian-Survival-of-the-Fittest-Winner-Takes-All-Will-to-Power' Dialectic; and
2. A 'Civil-Egalitarian-Will-to-Negotiate-and-Compromise' Dialectic.
The first is 'unilaterally assertive, aggressive, and authoritarian'. 'Might is right.' This is what I call the 'Power-War-Dialectic'.
The second is 'empathic, socially sensitive, compromising, conciliatory and consensus-striving'. This is what I call the 'Democratic-Fairness-Dialectic'. There are numerous different types of democratic-dialectics (some of which are more democratic than others) such as: a) 'Negotiating to Consensus'; b) 'Public Voting'; c) 'Parliament or Senate Representative Voting'; d) 'Autocratic Representation'; e) 'Autocratic Unrepresentation'; f) 'Representative Negotiating to Consensus'...
The rest of these 'Dialectic Transactions' are best described as 'half-dialectics' in that they need a 'dialectic dance partner' coming from a similar or different type of transaction.
3. The Altruistic-Nurturing' Dialectic can be like a 'nurturing parent, friend, or lover' dialectic or a 'community-church-and-or-government based agency' dialectic.
Now there are a whole host of other 'variations on a theme' relative to the first two dialectics (mainly the first one), some of which include:
4. A 'Market-Place' Dialectic where, for example, you are trying to sell me a house and I want to buy one, and you are trying to get your best price possible and I am trying to get my best price possible and if we can find that 'magic price' somewhere in the middle that we can both agree on, then we have a 'marketplace deal' -- a 'marketplace dialectic conflict resolution';
5. A 'Rebellious-Deconstructive' Dialectic where one side of a dialectic conflict ('The Anti-Establishment Underdog') is rhetorically -- or elsewise -- poking holes and sabotaging the 'Establishment Dialectic Law/Rule') that is under 'deconstructive attack';
6. A 'Covert, Sneaky Rebellious' Dialectic where a particular person or party says one thing and does another;
7. A 'Fraudulent, Manipulative type of dialectic' that pretends to be the second type but is actually the first type. This is the 'Dog-and-Pony-Show-Smoke-and-Mirrors Type of Dialectic' -- the type that tells you 'that you have won a million dollars with the intent of getting into your most private identification information particulars and your bank account information in order to steal your identity and as much money as they can get from you.
8. A 'Dissociative' Type of Dialectic where the diallectic transaction or potential dialectic transaction breaks down into an impasse with one side or both sides not willing to negotiate any further...and the two remaining detached, separated, alienated, schizoid from each other...
9. A 'Submissive-Masochistic-Approval-Seeking' Dialectic where one side will 'cave easily' from what he or she wants in a negotiation out of fear of intimidation, threat, or loss of approval/acceptance...
10. A 'Seductive-Manipulative' Dialectic where one side uses attractiveness, intellect, beauty, seductiveness, narcissistic vanity...to get what he or she wants in the dialectic transaction.
These are the main types of dialectic transactions that are designed to get goods, services, need-fulfillment, power, revenge, approval, sex, drugs, alchohol, money, cigarettes, love, and/or any of the other 101 things that people want and/or obsessively and addictively crave...
Now ideally, or idealistically, what people tend to want in a 'democratic-dialectic society' is an 'equally or homeostatically balanced' dialectic transaction/relationship where both people or parties get what they want out of the transaction/relationship -- and everybody goes home happy.
When all of the other 'mainly darker, more narcissistic, sides' of human motivation enter the picture however, then we get all of the other narcissistic dialectic possibilities -- and realities -- briefly mentioned above.
This is just a starting-point of later discussion. Adam Smith even had a strong idea of the nature of the 'market place dialectic' from which he wrote his masterpiece 'The Wealth of Nations'.
And Kant, Schelling, and Hegel came along shortly afterwards.
Hegel's philosophy of 'alienation' was extremely important -- almost as important as his philosophy of the dialectic. Hegel most certainly created the 'creative mix' in this regard from which 'Existentialism' was shortly thereafter born through the combined intellect of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche...and others...
It is important for critics of Hegelian Philosophy to realize that all Hegelian theorists and philosophers are not the same, and in this regard, it is important, indeed imperative, to understand that not all of the Hegelian Philosohy that is being theorized and applied today is the same as the 'Classic -- some might say 'Archaic' -- Hegelian Philosophy' that Hegel was writing about and applying some 205 years.
DGB Philosophy in particular has made some significant adjustments and modifications to Classic Hegelian Philosophy which is why I call DGB Philosophy a 'Post-Hegelian-Humanistic-Existential-Democratic-Dialectic' Philosophy.
Any brand of 'Collectivist' or 'National' or 'Communitarian' Philosophy where individual civil rights are seriously suppressed and/or marginalized is not a 'democratic-dialectic' philosophy that is paying any serious attention to the 'founding fathers' of The United States of America (Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson...) and/or their French and English Enlightenment brethrin (Locke, Smith, Hume, Diderot, Voltaire, Montesque, etc.)
Indeed, from at least this one perspective it would seem that Hegel was self-contradictory in that a 'collectivist' philosophy is an 'extremist-polar' philosophy that needs to be homeostatically balanced against 'the anti-thesis' of a more 'liberatarian' philosophy that takes individual and property rights to the opposite extreme. Such seems to be the mission of those sites dedicated to the pursuit of 'Anti-Communitarianism'.
The funny thing is that I agree -- or at least partly agree -- with many of the things the Anti-Communitarians seem to value and argue for and against (at least in my interpretation of what they are saying) -- it is just that I shake my head every time that they take these massive negative generalizations and then villify Hegel as 'the ultimate architect of everthing that is bad in the world today -- the ultimate bad philosopher behind a hundred thousand manipulating and contriving politicians today who supposedly all have the same ultimate goal which is the ultimate 'Hegelian goal' of 'Communitarianism'. Or so this is what they keep seeming to argue.
You read Ms. Niki Raapana yourself as she gets revved up on one of her passionate 'anti-Hegelian' speeches...and tell me if she isn't taking a whole host of what might be considered very real, legitimate problems in the political and social world today -- and then 'hanging Hegel in effagy as if he is the Anti-Christ'...
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Niki Raapana writes:
“Hegel’s dialectic is the tool which manipulates us into a frenzied circular pattern of thought and action. Every time we fight for or defend against an ideology we are playing a necessary role in Marx and Engels’ grand design to advance humanity into a dictatorship of the proletariat. The synthetic Hegelian solution to all these conflicts can’t be introduced unless we all take a side that will advance the agenda. The Marxist’s global agenda is moving along at breakneck speed. The only way to stop land grabs, privacy invasions, expanded domestic police powers, insane wars against inanimate objects (and transient verbs), covert actions, and outright assaults on individual liberty, is to step outside the dialectic. Only then can we be released from the limitations of controlled and guided thought.”
For the past few weeks I have been battling with the this “frenzied circular pattern.” It has felt irrational, neurotic and wasteful to preoccupy myself with the signatures behind the frame of our current society and its various social wars of memes and ideology. I have mostly felt a sense of deja vu standing at the gateway of our world’s next “transformation”; that I had been here before, that this very experiment in the world’s labratory had been conducted many times over.
What it is or isn’t leading to is something I believe all of us should have concern about, as it calls into question all of our deepest beliefs and doubts about society; whether this is the next step on our evolutionary crusade or if this whole Frankenstein manipulation of our culture by the “elite” behind the scenes is compatible with our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I would argue that all these matters should be discarded from our existence if we have no objection to the next “paradigm shift”; but if we do have objection, as I am certain most of us would if we had access to all the information we would need in order to decide for ourselves who should be setting the agenda for our lives, then now is the time to educate ourselves and recognize the many ways our lives are being systemically controlled for a purpose not consistent with our individual or collective desire.
Google...Living Outside The Dialectic...or....
http://nikiraapana.blogspot.com/
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THE ANTI COMMUNITARIAN MANIFESTO
by Niki F. Raapana and Nordica M. Friedrich
Free online edition since 2003
NEW on April 1, 2008: ABSTRACT of the Anti Communitarian Manifesto. Comments welcome.
HARDCOPY: The first ACL Books' edition of the Manifesto is available now for $20 USD. 5 x 8 inch spiral bound, 140 pages, includes additional materials, references and commentary while leaving the original online thesis intact. Email for ordering details or go to the 2020 book order page and replace the word 2020 with Manifesto.
PART ONE:
What is the Hegelian Dialectic?
December 25, 2002
Poll : What prompted you to search for the Hegelian dialectic?
Introduction : Why study Hegel?
1. The origins of deductive and inductive reasoning
2. Webster's definition of the Hegelian dialectic
3. How the Hegelian dialectic changed the formula for deductive reasoning
4. Why it is almost impossible for a layman to understand the Hegelian dialectic
5. The communitarian purpose for the Hegelian dialectic
6. How we interpret the history of the Hegelian dialectic
7. The Anti Communitarian League's conclusion
8. Four examples of the power of the semantics in the dialectic
9. Four different impressions of the modern Hegelian dialectic theory
Poll : What prompted you to search for the Hegelian dialectic?
I'm writing a high school paper
I'm writing a college paper
I'm a high school teacher
I'm a college professor
I'm on a school review board
I work for a news publication
I just keep hearing the term
I was sent here
None of the above
free polls from Pollhost.com
---divider---
Introduction : Why study Hegel?
"... the State 'has the supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State... for the right of the world spirit is above all special priveleges.'"
-- Author/historian William Shirer, quoting Hegel in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1959)
Hegel
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..."
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a 19th century German philosopher and theologist who wrote the Science of Logic in 1812. For many historians, Hegel is "perhaps the greatest of the German idealist philosophers."
In 1847 the London Communist League (Marx and Engels, pictured left) used Hegel's theory of the dialectic to back up their economic theory of communism. Now, in the 21st century, Hegelian-Marxist thinking affects our entire social and political structure.
The Hegelian dialectic is the framework for guiding our thoughts and actions into conflicts that lead us to a predetermined solution. If we do not understand how the Hegelian dialectic shapes our perceptions of the world, then we do not know how we are helping to implement the vision for the future.
Hegel's dialectic is the tool which manipulates us into a frenzied circular pattern of thought and action. Every time we fight for or defend against an ideology we are playing a necessary role in Marx and Engels' grand design to advance humanity into a dictatorship of the proletariat. The synthetic Hegelian solution to all these conflicts can't be introduced unless we all take a side that will advance the agenda. The Marxist's global agenda is moving along at breakneck speed. The only way to stop land grabs, privacy invasions, expanded domestic police powers, insane wars against inanimate objects (and transient verbs), covert actions, and outright assaults on individual liberty, is to step outside the dialectic. Only then can we be released from the limitations of controlled and guided thought.
When we understand what motivated Hegel, we can see his influence on all of our destinies. Then we become real players in the very real game that has been going on for at least 224 years. Hegelian conflicts steer every political arena on the planet, from the United Nations to the major American political parties, all the way down to local school boards and community councils. Dialogues and consensus-building are primary tools of the dialectic, and terror and intimidation are also acceptable formats for obtaining the goal.
The ultimate Third Way agenda is world government. Once we get what's really going on, we can cut the strings and move our lives in original directions outside the confines of the dialectical madness. Focusing on Hegel's and Engel's ultimate agenda, and avoiding getting caught up in their impenetrable theories of social evolution, gives us the opportunity to think and act our way toward freedom, justice, and genuine liberty for all.
Today the dialectic is active in every political issue that encourages taking sides. We can see it in environmentalists instigating conflicts against private property owners, in democrats against republicans, in greens against libertarians, in communists against socialists, in neo-cons against traditional conservatives, in community activists against individuals, in pro-choice versus pro-life, in Christians against Muslims, in isolationists versus interventionists, in peace activists against war hawks.
No matter what the issue, the invisible dialectic aims to control both the conflict and the resolution of differences, and leads everyone involved into a new cycle of conflicts. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore.
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DGB Editorial Critique vs. Anti-Communitarianism (cont'd)
Three Different Types of Dialectics: A Critique of Living Outside The Dialectic; and The Global Money Scam and The Hegelian Dialectic
The 'Hegelian Dialectic' is not the 'evil monster' as the two essays above would suggest...there are numerous different ways of both interpreting and evaluating 'different types' of Hegelian Dialectics -- no two of which is ever going to be exactly the same. To stereotype 'all dialectics' as being the same is another example of 'Anti-Communitarianist Conflationism'. (I just invented a new word -- 'conflationism'.)
As the first writer (he doesn't give his name) has aptly stated at the top of his website, we have to 'question every precept' -- not negatively stereotype a given precept, set it up like a 'house of cards, straw, or sand -- and then delight in deconstructively knocking down what we built unstably in the first theory. You want to talk about 'preordained conspiracy theory' seem to be making a lifelong mission of 'building the dialectic up weakly and stereotyping all dialectics as being the same so that they can spend the rest of their gleeful energy knocking it down again.
This is not to say that 'preordained dialectics' can't and don't happen -- they do happen but these are 'manipulative, pathological' dialectics and not all dialectics are manipulative, pathological dialectics; most dialectics -- meaning conflict situations -- are totally 'existentially immediate and real' -- with existentially unpredictable and real outcomes on human behavior, relationships, history and evolution.
Let me give you a rather 'emotionally explosive' example from my own life. My sister and her husband had bought an 'investment' townhouse with the pre-established agreement that my son, brother, and I would move in and share the rental cost of the townhouse. My son was still in high school and prone to making impulsive self-centered (narcissistic) decisions that did not include those people around him who were also affected by the outcome of his impulsive decisions. Anyway, he found a girlfriend who started 'staying over' at the townhouse more and more often until she had effectively 'moved in'. Furthermore, the two of them went out and bought a dog -- not just any dog but a cross between a rottweiler, a boxer, and a doberman. It was just a pup but it was untrained and obviously going to get significantly bigger.
My sister and her husband eventually found out about these two 'additions' to the townhouse living situation, were notably upset about these two additions, and arranged a meeting in which a 'decision' was going to be made about what to do about the situation. Before we got to the day of the meeting, it became apparent that a 'decision' had already been made by my sister and her husband about what was going to be done: Mike's girlfriend and the dog were going to have to find a new place to live. This is what you can call a 'pre-ordained dialectic outcome'.
Now, in this regard, I am no different than my friend and/or philosophical adversary, Niki Raapana over at the 'Anti-Communitarian' site -- I don't like 'pre-ordained dialectics anymore than she does. Only, unlike her, I don't try to say that 'every dialectic and every dialectic outcome in the world is preordained by some puppetmaster behind the scenes'. I don't take kindly to being a 'puppet' anymore than Ms. Raapana does. Thus, getting back to my example here, something happened between the intended 'pre-ordained outcome' of the dialectic meeting at the townhouse -- and the actual meeting as it started to evolve. Simmering in the back of my head was the fact that I do not like to be 'excluded' or 'marginalized' from any decision that involves my life -- and in this case, my son's. Also, there was the fact that, over the period of a month or two, I had started to become very attached to the dog.
As the meeting started to take place, and as my sister laid out her 'pre-ordained decsion relative to my son's girlfriend and their dog leaving, an 'emotional volcano' was starting to well up inside myself. To repeat, I don't like 'pre-ordained, unilateral, behind the scenes decisions masked in a pseudo-democratic meeting' any more than Niki Raapana and the rest of the Anti-Communitarians do.
So I told my sister, 'That's fine, I will be leaving too.' The 'dialectic' at this moment had completely lost its 'pre-ordained characteristic' and instead had become very 'existentially real -- with real consequences, and real relationships at stake'. The 'pre-ordained factor' had just 'flown the coup'.
My sister immediately accused me of 'trying to control the meeting' -- that I was being a 'control freak' (as if she wasn't) and raw human emotions of anger and ethical outrage blew into the townhouse living room -- again, eliminating any semblance of 'pre-ordained determinism and predictability'.
The meeting finally came back to order, I suggested that my son and his girlfriend pay an extra $200 a month to cover extra townhouse utility and rental expenses. The dog -- 'Sammy' -- I can't remember what the final townhouse decision was on the dog. She stayed but her life was tragic and brief which still to this day leaves a hole in my heart. The entire story reads like a Sarah Palin family soap opera but the story was, and still is, very 'existentially real'. There was nothing pre-ordained about what happened that day -- or afterwards.
'Seek first to understand, then to be understood.' A very wise person said that (Steven Covey, 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People').
Don't paint Hegel's 'Dialectic Theory of Evolution' with an all encompassing black brush. It is not Hegel's Dialectic Theory of Evolution that is the problem with his 205 year old philosophy; rather it is other parts of his philosophy such as his unbridled abstractionism, his unrealistic idealism, and his Fichte-like 'German Nationalism and Collectivism' that did not steer Germany in a very good direction at all (like Fascism, Herdism, Anti-Semiticism, Nazism, and two brutal world wars...)
Thus, we have a combination of two problems today regarding the interpretation, extrapolation, and application of Hegel's 205 year old philosophy: 1. those who try conservatively and 'anal-retentively' to hold onto Hegel's philosophy as it exactly was 205 years ago; and 2. those critics of Hegel (read the 'Anti-Communitarians') who are still trying to criticize 'Classic-Archaic' Hegelian Philosophy even though it is 205 years outdated and most, or at least some, current day Post-Hegelian Philosophers (read, yours truly) who have read Classic Hegelian Theory know its inherent 'weaknesses' as well, or better, than its detractors and critics do -- and have made contemporary, compensatory adjustments while Hegel's contempory critics keep hammering away at crticisms that are getting extremely boring, they have been repeated so often.
If you are going to criticize Hegel, get with the current program all ye critics of Hegel! Don't keep repeating what is 205 years old! Most serious philosophers who have read Hegel, have also read enough of Marx, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida, etc. to know what the 'classic Hegelian criticisms' are -- we don't need to keep reading yesterday's newspapers over and over and over again.
Let me repeat -- hopefully, for the last time. Hegel's brutal, unbridled abstractionism is well documented in the philosophical literature. If I want a lesson in brutal, unbridled abstractionism, I have two choices: 1. I can pick up Hegel's classic philosophical treatise: 'The Phenomenology of Mind (Spirit)' (1804). Or I can try reading an anti-Communitarian essay and see very quickly that the strongest proponents of Anti-Communitarianism seem to have learned very well from Hegel in this one regard -- everything written about in terms of 'single universals' such as one type of 'universal dialectic' that is 'pre-ordained' in terms of some underlying 'global conspiracy theory' when, in reality, there are literally millions of actual and potential 'dialectic conflicts and conflict resolutions' -- every last which one which is uniquely different from the one preceding it and the one following it depending on the issue, the context, the participants, the mood, the creativity and/or non-creativity in the problem-solving/conflict-resolving, who's trying to negotiate to a fair and just outcome vs. who is trying to intimidate and/or steamroll over top of his or her adversar's 'anti-thesis' and opposite wishes...
Regarding Hegel's 'Political Collectivism, Herdism, Nationalism' -- the Anti-Communitarians are preaching to the choir here. No argument, plain and simple. Most intelligent, independent-minded philosophers know the dangers of 'Extreme Collectivism, Nationalism, Group Herdism'...Just read Nietzsche's 'pre-Nazi' criticisms of Collectivist, Herdist, Nationalistic Germany...One can almost say that Nietzsche was warning pre-Nazi Germany of the dangers and the slippery slope of evolving Nazism.
I view Nazi Germany as an excellent albeit 'pathological' example of what I would call a 'cultural transference-reversal'. Napoleon invaded 'pre-Germany' and steamrolled over top of it because 'pre-Germany' was not united -- it was simply a collection of smaller 'regional states'. So after Napoleon was finally defeated, 'pre-Germany' became 'Nationalistic' and united into Germany with visions of what Napoleon had done to them still 'crashing around in their collective minds'. The 'compensatory, cultural transference' became to 'grow stronger as a country -- and as a united army' -- so that this type of national catastrophy -- and 'national humiliation' -- would never happen again. So German Nationalism, Collectivism, and Herdism was born. And the beginning of the evolution of Nazi Germany.
But not only did Germany grow their army, improve their national strength and power for purposes of self-defence. They also took something much more ominous and pathological from Napoleon. The idea of 'world dominance, German superiority, German arrogance, ethnic cleansing' -- and the idea of a 'Napoleon-like, pre-emptive strike towards world domination'. Nazi Germany had now reached it zenith of 'National Socio- and Psycho-Pathology'. 'Collectivism and Herdism' -- as initiated by Fichte and Hegel in a culture and a nation that was ready to hear what Fichte and Hegel had to say in this regard -- even though the direction of movment was rhetorically counter-argued over and over again by Nietzsche, a philosopher who was much more accurately attuned and intuitive to the place in Hell that this Socio-psycho-pathological was ultimately going to take Nationalistic Germany -- would ultimately rule the day, and at least three generations of Germans. Nationalism would take Germany to the top of the world cliff, the zenith of national military power with its potential for world power and destruction as it also looked over the threatening precipace of potential national self-destruction. Just like Napoleon before them. This is what I call a 'cultural or national transference re-creation and repetition complex and compulsion brought on by identification with the National Aggressor and Victimizer(Napoleon). What goes around comes around. The tragedy of negative transference both individual and collective. What starts out as an individual or national 'childhood traumacy and tragedy' (pre-Germany being brutally victimized by Napoleon's army) becomes deeply remembered as such, indeed, internalized into the national psyche of Germany -- and then 'replayed' generations later with Nazi Germany -- and Hitler -- playing the role of Napoleon, the world conquerer, who is ultimately defeated and destroyed by a stronger army (or coalition of armies) outsmarting him and overpowering him. Again, this is what I call 'National Transference Reversal'.
Such is the potential danger of Nationalism, Collectivism, Herdism...Group Think...gone mad...
There is no greater proponents of individualism -- in balance with the individualism of other individuals -- than this man, this philosopher, right here.
So let me get the message out there to all my readers and to the 'Anti-Communitarian' philosophical camp: Don't paint DGB Post-Hegelian Philosophy with the all-encompassing black paintbrush of 'Nationalism, Collectivism, Herdism, Group Think -- and 'Communitarianism' in this pathological sense.
Hegelian philosophy 205 years ago is not DGB Post-Hegelian philosophy today. Recognize the difference.
Even to you Ms. Rapaani, I quote Votaire (Toleration and Other Essays, 1755):
I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death, your right to say it.
Criticize Hegel's 'nationalism' if you wish, his 'collectivism', and/or his own particular brand of 'communitarianism'....in the way that the 'Anti-Communitarians' have stereotyped '(Pathological) Communitarianism'.
However, there is an 'infinite potential for different types of 'Communitarianism' -- some healthier, some more pathological than others. And the same goes for a negatively stereotyped definition of 'the dialectic'.
Indeed, I will distinguish between three different types of dialectics:
1. The 'Narcissistic Power Dialectic': Winner takes all. (Until the 'marginalized' and the 'suppressed' start to compensate for their losing strategy, re-build themselves from the shadows, re-generate themselves, slowly re-gaining power until they can topple the dominant, the oppressive, and the suppressive. This is 'Anaxamander's Dialectic', this is Marx's Dialectic -- Power in the hands of The Proletariat (which has never happened...It certainly never happened under Mao Tse Tung, or Lenin, or Stalin. These were 'narcissistic Capitalist leaders trying to disguise themselves as 'humanistic socialists'. They weren't. Like in America -- all the money was collected, passed around, and used at the top.). Marx was a combination of humanist and narcissistic pit bull. The 'narcissistic pitbull' side of his character -- and his philosophy -- was pathological.
2. The 'Egalitarian-Democratic-Dialectic': A type of dialectic where two so-motivated individuals or groups of individuals are actually looking for a 'win-win solution, resolution, and/or compromise' knowing that 'two opposite polarities need each other and need to come together in dialectic unity, wholism, and harmony (at least for a short while, if not a long while, until dialectic disharmony resurrects itself and demands a new negotiation towards a 'different dialectic harmony'...This is 'Heraclitus' Dialectic', 'Lao Tse's Dialectic (yin meets yang in harmonious dialectic balance) Nietzsche's Dialectic (The Birth of Tragedy), Freud (The homeostatic balance of 'id' and 'superego'.), Jung (the homeostatic balance of 'personna' and 'shadow'), Cannon (The Wisdom -- and the Homeostatic Balance -- of The Body), Perls and Gestalt Therapy (the balance of 'topdog' and 'underdog'), Derrida (the balanced of the 'dominant' and the 'suppressed' through the philosophy of 'deconstruction)...
3. 'The Collusive, Manipulative, Dog and Pony, Smoke and Mirrors' Dialectic: This is the type of dialectic that you and your friend Niki describe as if it is the only type of dialectic that operates in the world....Yes, this is a 'pathological type of dialectic' but don't blame it on Hegel unless you want to blame it on his pathological Nationalism, his pathological Collectivism, his pathological brand of Communitarianism...But don't paint all types of 'the dialectic' with the same black paintbrush. Indeed, personally, I would argue that 'Nationalism', 'Collectivism', and 'No-Individual-Civil Rights' Communitarianism is 'anti-dialectic' in the 'egalitarian-democratic-homeostatic balance' sense. Rather it belongs to either and/or both brands of the other two -- pathological -- dialectics listed above.
In contrast, 'Healthy Communitarianism' demands a healthy homeostatic balance between individual civil rights and community rights. In this respect, it is my individual right to 'swing my right arm as often and as far as I want, as long as I don't swing it into your face'...Healthy Communitarianism does not contradict the values of individualism as laid out by America's founding fathers: Tom Paine, Jefferson...nor the French Enlightenment philosophers such as Diderot, Voltaire, Montesque, Adam Smith, John Locke...and others...
But everything depends on the 'type' of dialectic we are talking about...
The type of collusive, behind the scenes, dog and pony show, smoke and mirrors show that you are writing about is only one type of dialectic -- and obviously a pathological one that has nothing to do with 'Ideal, Transparent, Win-Win Democracy'.
We must remember that no two Hegelian thinkers are exactly alike, any more than two Republican, Democrat, Liberal, and/or Conservative thinkers are exactly light.
And Hegelian thinking as it was theorized and applied some 205 years ago by Hegel is not the way that all 'post-Hegelian' thinkers and theorists are using the Hegelian Dialectic today.
Every Hegelian, post-Hegelian, and anti-Hegelian thinker has to be understood and evaluated in his or her own particular individual right and uniqueness -- including the two writers I have critiqued above...
dgb, July 1st-3rd, 2009.
David Gordon Bain,
Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
Are Still In Process...
Democracy Goes Beyond Narcissism...
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