Refusing
the enclosures
Can
you find truth in the enclosure of your easy conveniences? The
allegory of the cave
by Plato
prompts us to refuse the enclosures. The cave, indeed, symbolizes
with great relevance our mental universe, i.e. our 'culture', captive
in its 'impassable horizon' according to the expression of Sartre,
the big specialist of our modern enclosures.
Remember
this underground residence in the shape of a cave. Men are put in
chains there since their birth. Solid bonds prevent them from moving
and turning the head and obliging them to look only in front of them.
The only light comes from a fire lit on a height far behind them. A
high road and a small wall pass between fire and cave. On that road
carriers of various objects speak or conceal. Their voices reflect in
echo…
They
are all slaves of the Master of the cave, i.e. of the Speech which
functions in the 'impassable horizon' of the cave. It represents the
most relevant logic of the cave. It is identified with the clear
conscience of the cave. He is a promoter of the consensus in the cave.
He makes the law in the cave. He guarantees the euphorias of the
cave. He holds the secrecies of the cave. He furnishes the imaginary
of the cave. He carries out the lights of the cave. He informs the
magicians of the cave. He orchestrates the polyphonies of the cave.
He dictates the chronicles of the cave. He guarantees the success of
the contests of the cave. He inspires the propagandists of Utopia
of
the cave…
Imagine
that you release one of these prisoners. You
will
need force to do it. You will make him suffer. He will complain. It
is however the price to pay for passing from obscurantism to light.
It is still necessary to imagine this man going down again in the
cave and sit down in its old place. Will he not have the eyes
plugged by darkness while coming abruptly from the full sun? Let us
imagine he enters again in competition with the prisoners who did not
leave their chains, in the state where its sight is still confused
and before its eyes recover. Won't he be an object of ridicule? And
thus that it is not even worth trying to go up there!
The
cave
represents
our
human space with its limits and in its fences. The
illusion of an infinite cave obliterates the chances of going
outside.
You know the story of the fool looking through a wire fencing and wondering why so many people are locked up on the other side. He didn't distinguish between 'in' and 'out'. And of course it's not always easy. Between 'in' and 'out', between prison and liberty, there is a border-line separating two very different spaces. If this line were straight the two separated spaces could be considerd alternatively as 'in' or 'out'. The slightest curvature is enough to set up the important difference.
On each side appears a totally new space with a totally new dynamics.
The
shades
in the cave are
the alibi of 'reality' when there is no more other reality. They
reveal
and hide at the same time. They testify negatively that light exists,
on the condition of seeing beyond. Light
is
not visible immediately because it dazzles. But it is the (momentarily
invisible) reason of the shadows and the reflections.
Thus
the reality of the fiction can be more real than the fictional
reality! Cavern
dwellers are just prisoners of the
virtual 'reality' which occupies the essentials of their time.
'Metro, boulot, dodo' (subway, job, bed) as it sounded in 1968. A
whole pallet of very 'serious' activities. Contests, games,
examinations, promotions, diplomas, medals and so on. Isn't all this
important enough to occupy entirely an enclosed illusion? When you
lack any reference to the 'other' one can you have the slightest
doubt about 'reality'? When the reference to the 'other' dimension is
missing, there remains just the 'same' as an absolute.
As
long as you don't know anything about what is off limits how can you
be sure you know something is true? Verity comes from infinity.
The
prophetic word means
the irruption of the 'Other' one right in the middle of our
existence. The 'Other' comes to explode our enclosures and open them
ad infinitum.
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