Blind:
All this motherfucking pollution,
Effluvium:
All wants, desires; E Pluribus Unon.
2014년 3월 27일 목요일
2014년 3월 25일 화요일
2014년 3월 23일 일요일
An Old Man and his Old Dog
As we came to a stop in front of Embassy Row, enjoying a shallow respite before crossing the Han, I glanced over to my left and saw them. They were about to walk over the crosswalk, but wavered as if they were waiting for something, or someone. Despondently, resigned to being alone for yet another day, they took off as only an Old Man and Old Dog can do. Slowly. The Old Man took the lead early and never relinquished it. Behind, gingerly the Old Dog struggled valiantly to keep up, pushing his creaky limbs harder than he had in years through the leg holes in his brand new red pleated, nylon jacket. Looking ahead, towards something, the Old Man's eyes sat staidly, sunk within sockets entombed by two coke bottle lenses. As we began to lurch forward, I craned my neck to watch the Old Man and Old Dog fade from view. They were continuing fore; slowly, shakily, but surely.
2014년 3월 20일 목요일
Lewis Mumford
In society man faces himself and realizes himself; and in a free society...each citizen has an oppurtunity to plumb all his potentialities: the specialized fragments are re-united in the whole man.
사회에서는 인간 자체가 타인이랑 생활하면서 자기 자신을 마주볼 수도 있고 자기 자신을 인식할 수도 있다. 개방사회 (free society)는 시민들에게 각자 본인의 가능성을 그들의 한계까지 시도할 수 있는 기회를 제공한다. 그러므로 개방사회에 이제까지 전문화된 혼재되어있는 개인 각자는 시간이 지남에따라 완전한 하나의 인간으로 재성장할 수 있는것이다.
사회에서는 인간 자체가 타인이랑 생활하면서 자기 자신을 마주볼 수도 있고 자기 자신을 인식할 수도 있다. 개방사회 (free society)는 시민들에게 각자 본인의 가능성을 그들의 한계까지 시도할 수 있는 기회를 제공한다. 그러므로 개방사회에 이제까지 전문화된 혼재되어있는 개인 각자는 시간이 지남에따라 완전한 하나의 인간으로 재성장할 수 있는것이다.
2014년 3월 18일 화요일
You Know You're Homeless When...
A faint ruffling ~phew phlew~ stirs your senses in the early morning only to become aware of a damp coldness rockhard against your left cheek. An intoxicatingly unpleasant odor then...you open your eyes. A pigeon, greasy from the city slime and less one leg, approaches your face.
2014년 3월 17일 월요일
Landmine in the Present
This is not Fallujah. Nor is this anywhere in the Middle East or any other high-conflict, war-torn area. This is the epicenter of our future world, today. Of course I am speaking of Northeast Asia. Granted, tensions among these neighboring countries are not as low as they should be; but then again no one has knives at one anothers throats. Aside from the unsavory mix of memories regarding past war-time atrocities that tend to receive the most lip-service today, there is also the sloppy bowl of spaghetti politics that currently exist wherein conflicting ideologies and future objectives are disjointedly tied up amongst themselves and set at a low boil. Then there is the whole North Korean issue, but that is more of a red herring - in my honest opinion - than anything else at this particular moment. That said, what if there existed an invisible landmine, buried by no-one following WWII and forgotten by everyone?
Yesterday was a beautiful day; on paper. Blue skies with a high of 18 degrees, Spring finally peaked out from behind the changing room curtain, much to her chagrin. You see, the atmosphere was saturated with poison smog laden with ultra-fine and fine dust. However, that was not enough to stop people from breaking out of their winter caves to enjoy the nominally great weather enmasse. Only a few or so individuals could be seen wearing any mask let alone the very specific mask that I was wearing that prevents one from inhaling the fine and ultrafine particulate matter. Maybe this is because no one watches the news. Or because the news seems to downplay the deadly seriousness of this ish. Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that unless you live up on the 18th floor and can see the extent of the stagnant effluvium stretching out for kilometers and kilometers around, nothing really looks amiss from ground level other than the fact that things are a bit hazy when you look out into the distance.
Looking ahead...who does that anymore? Live in the moment, man. YOLO. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. And other pea brained, dimwitted, cowboy-ish American sentiment parroted around the world seem to explain why this is so. But let's think forward a bit, shall we? As all the Kurzweilian Village Technolidiots are apt to do, let's suppose the course we are on is unalterable. Populations will continue to grow, albeit at lower rates due to the lowered birth rate in this part of the world. Still the base population will be massive with several densely populated megalopitan areas. Consumption growth will follow at either an equal, slower or faster rate depending on the trajectory of per capita GDP. The crude, polluting factories of today that share much of the blame in terms of creating and accelerating the production of domestic and regional pollution will no doubt be substituted in favor of hi-tech factories that spew forth less pollution quantitatively, but will instead add a richer diversity of heavy metals to the atmosphere.
One need look no further than Suwon City, home to massive Samsung Electronics semi-conductor plants to get an indication of our future. It's not so much the direct pollution from such factories that is such an issue, although to be sure it can be at times,¹ but the sum total of related externalities from the conglomeration of staff and workers required to run such operations and their own externalities such as energy consumption and transportation emissions, that when scaled up to meet the future trajectory of Chinese growth and global demand should give everyone reason for pause. To be sure the endemic energy shortages that South Korea experiences every summer and 30~40% of the toxic smog plaguing Seoul as of late have their origins in the insane cooling demands of the factories and citizenry as well as the clogged arteries of Seouls transport system and it's own factories dotting the eastern coastline respectively.
Like yesterday and the pardox of the deadly nice weather, the impact of the shitty smog isn't always readily apparent. It begins with the unseen inocuous self-limiting of behavior by a minority who are keen to the potential ramifications of staying outside too long and/or not wearing a mask. Slowly but surely awareness will grow and spread. People, most likely infants and young children, will develop respiratory or skin related diseases at higher rates than average or worse, be born with certain defects similar to those born to mothers who smoke through pregnency. Unfortunately many will need to be personally affected before they feel the need to take action. Maybe it will happen on one of those early, unseasonably hot stretches of spring or early summer. A week straight of dangerous levels of yellow sand tainted fine dust smog lingering past its usual early spring schedule will imprison the citizenry, bringing their collective anger to a boil. Then on the fifth or sixth day something will just snap and a hitherto unimaginable violence will be unleashed upon the Chinese embassy. In self-defense numerous Koreans will be shot dead and the anger will both intensify and be redirected inwards at the South Korean government due to their impotence in dealing with the problem for so long...
Possibly, but who is to say how things will unfold? That, however, is the nature of old forgotten landmines. No one knows that they lay here or there until it is too late. This, to be clear, is not owing to mans inability to predict the future nor is the essential unknown that is wrapped around the future and its impregnability to speculation to be blamed. No one wants to know because no one wants to admit to the possibilty that such a deadly future feature is already embedded in their collective present. Fuck the cowboys and their myopic concept of an unpredictable future that they in turn interpret to mean that they have full license to make a shit show out of the present. It's not about the future, it's about the right now and the landmine we are all blindly burying.
¹ http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130215000728
Yesterday was a beautiful day; on paper. Blue skies with a high of 18 degrees, Spring finally peaked out from behind the changing room curtain, much to her chagrin. You see, the atmosphere was saturated with poison smog laden with ultra-fine and fine dust. However, that was not enough to stop people from breaking out of their winter caves to enjoy the nominally great weather enmasse. Only a few or so individuals could be seen wearing any mask let alone the very specific mask that I was wearing that prevents one from inhaling the fine and ultrafine particulate matter. Maybe this is because no one watches the news. Or because the news seems to downplay the deadly seriousness of this ish. Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that unless you live up on the 18th floor and can see the extent of the stagnant effluvium stretching out for kilometers and kilometers around, nothing really looks amiss from ground level other than the fact that things are a bit hazy when you look out into the distance.
Looking ahead...who does that anymore? Live in the moment, man. YOLO. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. And other pea brained, dimwitted, cowboy-ish American sentiment parroted around the world seem to explain why this is so. But let's think forward a bit, shall we? As all the Kurzweilian Village Technolidiots are apt to do, let's suppose the course we are on is unalterable. Populations will continue to grow, albeit at lower rates due to the lowered birth rate in this part of the world. Still the base population will be massive with several densely populated megalopitan areas. Consumption growth will follow at either an equal, slower or faster rate depending on the trajectory of per capita GDP. The crude, polluting factories of today that share much of the blame in terms of creating and accelerating the production of domestic and regional pollution will no doubt be substituted in favor of hi-tech factories that spew forth less pollution quantitatively, but will instead add a richer diversity of heavy metals to the atmosphere.
One need look no further than Suwon City, home to massive Samsung Electronics semi-conductor plants to get an indication of our future. It's not so much the direct pollution from such factories that is such an issue, although to be sure it can be at times,¹ but the sum total of related externalities from the conglomeration of staff and workers required to run such operations and their own externalities such as energy consumption and transportation emissions, that when scaled up to meet the future trajectory of Chinese growth and global demand should give everyone reason for pause. To be sure the endemic energy shortages that South Korea experiences every summer and 30~40% of the toxic smog plaguing Seoul as of late have their origins in the insane cooling demands of the factories and citizenry as well as the clogged arteries of Seouls transport system and it's own factories dotting the eastern coastline respectively.
Like yesterday and the pardox of the deadly nice weather, the impact of the shitty smog isn't always readily apparent. It begins with the unseen inocuous self-limiting of behavior by a minority who are keen to the potential ramifications of staying outside too long and/or not wearing a mask. Slowly but surely awareness will grow and spread. People, most likely infants and young children, will develop respiratory or skin related diseases at higher rates than average or worse, be born with certain defects similar to those born to mothers who smoke through pregnency. Unfortunately many will need to be personally affected before they feel the need to take action. Maybe it will happen on one of those early, unseasonably hot stretches of spring or early summer. A week straight of dangerous levels of yellow sand tainted fine dust smog lingering past its usual early spring schedule will imprison the citizenry, bringing their collective anger to a boil. Then on the fifth or sixth day something will just snap and a hitherto unimaginable violence will be unleashed upon the Chinese embassy. In self-defense numerous Koreans will be shot dead and the anger will both intensify and be redirected inwards at the South Korean government due to their impotence in dealing with the problem for so long...
Possibly, but who is to say how things will unfold? That, however, is the nature of old forgotten landmines. No one knows that they lay here or there until it is too late. This, to be clear, is not owing to mans inability to predict the future nor is the essential unknown that is wrapped around the future and its impregnability to speculation to be blamed. No one wants to know because no one wants to admit to the possibilty that such a deadly future feature is already embedded in their collective present. Fuck the cowboys and their myopic concept of an unpredictable future that they in turn interpret to mean that they have full license to make a shit show out of the present. It's not about the future, it's about the right now and the landmine we are all blindly burying.
¹ http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130215000728
2014년 3월 14일 금요일
Hearing Simplicity, Simply Saying
Can anyone hear their own voice as others hear it? Along a similar vein, how many people hear their own voice when they write? Of that written voice - that literary voice - how many people actually hear that? Questions abound today for me, it seems.
People listen to people. People don't pay attention to phonies, fakes and fraudsters; intentionally that is. To rephrase: People listen to people who are human. Being human means not to be phony, fake or feigning ones real intentions. Kendrick Lamar says it best: I'm not the next pop-star, I'm not the next socially aware rapper. I am (a Human fucking being over dope-ass instrumentation) Kendrick Lamar.¹
People who are listened to must have something to say. How they say that something is important. Important means to be heavy, to be weighty. Not like a rock that you can feel weigh down your pocket; more like a boulder that is leaning against you and you against it. What is important for me may not be for you, not because it isn't important for you too, but rather you just can't or don't feel it the same.
How can I make others feel what I say? Most importantly, how can I make the masses feel what I say and maybe even eager to feel what I say? Many may say Ethos, Pathos and Logos, the three pillars of Aristotelian Rhetoric, are key, but such explanations are half-measures. Instead let's listen to someone who embodies the aforementioned rhetorical appeals: I know some rappers are using big words to make their similes curve but my simplest shit be more pivotal. I penetrate the hearts of good kids and criminals...²
There is an indescribable weightiness inherent within simplicity. Simplicity begs to be heard. One must strain to hear what is simply said. In this sense simplicity speaks. In it's own way, simplicity is the hardest complexity; the weightiest of all. So then is complexity or difficulty or speciality less important than simplicity?
What is commonly held to be complex or difficult or specialized is not complex or difficult or special, essentially. They are simply confusing or misleading. Confusion is in it's own way simple because there is always a reason at root for such a confusion to arise. But, it is not direct. It is not simple. Therefore, a distance exists that must be traversed in order to get to the root simplicity. Sometimes the root to simplicity is easy or hard and sometimes it is known or remains unknown. There remains always a relation.
Most if not everybody wants to be heard. Only a minuscule minority are ever truly heard, and of that group an even smaller percentage penetrate the hearts and minds of the many. It is that later group I too am struck by and feel compelled towards. I can't help but feel that what and how they speak is anything other than simple.
So why can't I simply speak simplicity?
¹ Lamar, Kendrick. Section.80 "Ab-Souls Outro feat. Ab-Soul"
² Lamar, Kendrick. Section.80 "Poe Mans Dreams ft. GLC"
People listen to people. People don't pay attention to phonies, fakes and fraudsters; intentionally that is. To rephrase: People listen to people who are human. Being human means not to be phony, fake or feigning ones real intentions. Kendrick Lamar says it best: I'm not the next pop-star, I'm not the next socially aware rapper. I am (a Human fucking being over dope-ass instrumentation) Kendrick Lamar.¹
People who are listened to must have something to say. How they say that something is important. Important means to be heavy, to be weighty. Not like a rock that you can feel weigh down your pocket; more like a boulder that is leaning against you and you against it. What is important for me may not be for you, not because it isn't important for you too, but rather you just can't or don't feel it the same.
How can I make others feel what I say? Most importantly, how can I make the masses feel what I say and maybe even eager to feel what I say? Many may say Ethos, Pathos and Logos, the three pillars of Aristotelian Rhetoric, are key, but such explanations are half-measures. Instead let's listen to someone who embodies the aforementioned rhetorical appeals: I know some rappers are using big words to make their similes curve but my simplest shit be more pivotal. I penetrate the hearts of good kids and criminals...²
There is an indescribable weightiness inherent within simplicity. Simplicity begs to be heard. One must strain to hear what is simply said. In this sense simplicity speaks. In it's own way, simplicity is the hardest complexity; the weightiest of all. So then is complexity or difficulty or speciality less important than simplicity?
What is commonly held to be complex or difficult or specialized is not complex or difficult or special, essentially. They are simply confusing or misleading. Confusion is in it's own way simple because there is always a reason at root for such a confusion to arise. But, it is not direct. It is not simple. Therefore, a distance exists that must be traversed in order to get to the root simplicity. Sometimes the root to simplicity is easy or hard and sometimes it is known or remains unknown. There remains always a relation.
Most if not everybody wants to be heard. Only a minuscule minority are ever truly heard, and of that group an even smaller percentage penetrate the hearts and minds of the many. It is that later group I too am struck by and feel compelled towards. I can't help but feel that what and how they speak is anything other than simple.
So why can't I simply speak simplicity?
¹ Lamar, Kendrick. Section.80 "Ab-Souls Outro feat. Ab-Soul"
² Lamar, Kendrick. Section.80 "Poe Mans Dreams ft. GLC"
2014년 3월 13일 목요일
Blink
Standing on the precipice, with the horizon at it's widest looking out wondering what will unfold upon it, he stares starry eyed. I push him off.
After years sojourning in the academe constructing scaffolding to support her left-leaning intellectual conception of new Marxish thought, she climbs atop. I topple the structure.
Returning to the shanty town after dumping last nights vile concoction of food scraps and feces in the dried out river basin she pauses, and sighs. I burn the village down.
Having erected the tallest phallus, its tip penetrating the clouds, the contractor rides the elevator to the top, and smiles. I initiate its implosion.
Sitting here typing this while nothing happens around me, I continue typing, while being swallowed by the nothing. And then I blink.
After years sojourning in the academe constructing scaffolding to support her left-leaning intellectual conception of new Marxish thought, she climbs atop. I topple the structure.
Returning to the shanty town after dumping last nights vile concoction of food scraps and feces in the dried out river basin she pauses, and sighs. I burn the village down.
Having erected the tallest phallus, its tip penetrating the clouds, the contractor rides the elevator to the top, and smiles. I initiate its implosion.
Sitting here typing this while nothing happens around me, I continue typing, while being swallowed by the nothing. And then I blink.
2014년 3월 12일 수요일
Piercing Thought
I can only hope that one day, one thought may, if given one opportunity, pierce the conciousness of our collective society.
2014년 3월 10일 월요일
2014년 3월 4일 화요일
크림반도, 꿈 같은 나의 크림반도
어렸을 때 나에게는 꿈이 있었다. 매일 밤 고된 하루로 무거워진 눈꺼플이 내려앉자마자 난 그 꿈속으로 떠나게 되었다. 거기가 어디이였냐면 바로 크림반도.
말 그대로 달콤한 크림으로 만들어진 곳. 머리 위에 솟아치는 높은 하늘부터 발 밑 부드러운 풀까지 다 크림으로 조성된 곳이었다.
말 그대로 달콤한 크림으로 만들어진 곳. 머리 위에 솟아치는 높은 하늘부터 발 밑 부드러운 풀까지 다 크림으로 조성된 곳이었다.
내가 비록 어렸을지라도 일찍부터 꿈과 현실의 차이가 뭔지 알았기에 꿈은 꿈대로 남긴채 유년시절을 보낸 난 이제 성인어른이 되었다.몇일전 뉴스를 보던 중 특집뉴스를 듣자마자 감짝 놀랐다. 내 꿈이 현실이 되었기 때문이다.
놀랐던건 나뿐만 아니 다른 사람에게도 똑같은 꿈이 있었다는것이다. 더구나 나보다 더 빨리 그 땅을 찾아낸 사람이 있다는 사실을 그 방송을 통해 알았다는것이다.
그분은 바로 세상에서 운이 제일 좋은 푸틴 왕이다! 그리고 그 분이 바로 내가 거의 30년동안 원했던 크림반도를 자기 혼자만 독점하고 싶어서 지난주에 점령했다는 소식이다.
놀랐던건 나뿐만 아니 다른 사람에게도 똑같은 꿈이 있었다는것이다. 더구나 나보다 더 빨리 그 땅을 찾아낸 사람이 있다는 사실을 그 방송을 통해 알았다는것이다.
그분은 바로 세상에서 운이 제일 좋은 푸틴 왕이다! 그리고 그 분이 바로 내가 거의 30년동안 원했던 크림반도를 자기 혼자만 독점하고 싶어서 지난주에 점령했다는 소식이다.
이기적이라기보다 누구나 다 그렇게 할 것이라고 본다. 남녀노소 모두 크림을 좋아해서 그렇다.
업데이트: 종종 헷갈리는 분들이 이 블러그에 잘못된 댓글을 올리는 경우가 있다. 내가 말하는 곳은 크림반도이다. 우크라인에 위치한 크름 (우크라이나어: Крим, 영어: Crimea) 반도가 아니다. 왜 그런지 모르겠지만 크름반도와 크림반도가 같은곳이라는 혼란이있다. 동일한 곳이 아니다라는 사실에 대해 주의하시길 바란다.
2014년 3월 3일 월요일
A True Thinking
Is the mark of a true thinking not that it was said by someone, but rather that it was spoken through somebody?
2014년 3월 1일 토요일
Kanye Heidegger
"Everything in the world is exactly the Same."
"The ἐνέργεια which Aristoltle thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, of ἐόν, the ἰδέα which Plato thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, the Λόγος which Heraclitus thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, the Μοῖρα which Parmenides thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, the Χρεών which Anaximander thinks is essential in presencing - all these name the Same. In the concealed richness of the Same the unity of the unifying One, the Ἒν, is thought by each thinker in his own way."
These quotes are from two thinkers from different continents seperated by two generations, both world wars, the Atlantic Ocean and common conception. I don't know why, but no one has yet thought through the Same vein of thought these two titans of truth thrived in and thrive in, respectively.
The first quote was originally laid down in speech; as all teachers have done throughout the ages. As a saying then, the onus is upon us as listeners to hear what is said. But, do we hear properly? Do we even know what proper hearing is? Heidegger said proper hearing is paying thoughtful attention to simple things catching what is essential.
Unlike the time of Heraclitus - which is to say past times - the present remains for a time in popular memory until it is forgotten. Therefore the context of the first quote, having appeared a few days prior on Late Night with Seth Meyers, is still fresh. The quote is a response by the polymath musician/designer/citizen-of-the-world Kanye West to a question that went as follows: "What's the difference between how you approach fashion and how you approach music?" The response was given with unexpected stern seriousness and focus. It didn't seem to answer the question and was casually laughed off. Thus it's initial classification as a response must be revoked according to mass consensus (democratic opinion?) and so it becomes an orphan clause: a fragment.
For many ancient thinkers too what is left of their sayings more often than not take the form of fragments.* As fragments they necessitate closer listening to what they say. Upon closer listening to what Heraclitus says in his famous fragment concerning Λόγος Heidegger hears this: ὁμολογεῐν σοφόν ἐστιν Ἓν Πάντα, "the fateful comes to pass insofar as One All." What is to be thought here is Ἓν Πάντα': One: All, All: One. Likewise we must consider what Kanye himself says in his fragment. "Everything is the Same." Is this not even more proper for what is thought here, and it's nature as a fragment?
There is something dangerously simple about this saying. Dangerous in the sense that it may lead others to believe the speaker is seeking to re-present a universal formula and/or make him seem crazy; which he is not. Rather, this Heraclitean saying conceals this thinker's first steps which initiated all of the following steps in the fateful course of his thinking.
"Everything is the Same" lets things stand together which usually are not thought of belonging together - which is to say things that are separated from one another - such as the sun and moon, light and dark, sobriety and intoxication, evil and the good, Heidegger and Kanye. But how can such opposites, separated by that seemingly insurmountable distance between presence and absence, come to stand together? The answer: through the Sameness that pervades or runs through All.
As everyone today seems all too ready to admit - whether prompted or not - Kanye is no teacher, let us accept this. Instead let us see him then as a thinker. As such he only gives us to think. That is his gift to us. As the Giver, he has no need for whatever bounds we try to keep him within, for he has transcended them already. We, on the other hand, are not only behind him, but we still have no idea how to be thankful to him and by association to all thinkers past, present and soon to be.
Reference:
ἐνέργεια - energia
ἐόν - eόn
ἰδέα - idea
Λόγος - Lόgos
Μοῖρα - Moera
Χρεών - Chreôn
Ἒν - En
* This does not mean to imply that their remaining as fragments is due to the fact that the context surrounding them was completely superfluous as well, not by a long shot.
"The ἐνέργεια which Aristoltle thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, of ἐόν, the ἰδέα which Plato thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, the Λόγος which Heraclitus thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, the Μοῖρα which Parmenides thinks as the fundamental character of presencing, the Χρεών which Anaximander thinks is essential in presencing - all these name the Same. In the concealed richness of the Same the unity of the unifying One, the Ἒν, is thought by each thinker in his own way."
These quotes are from two thinkers from different continents seperated by two generations, both world wars, the Atlantic Ocean and common conception. I don't know why, but no one has yet thought through the Same vein of thought these two titans of truth thrived in and thrive in, respectively.
The first quote was originally laid down in speech; as all teachers have done throughout the ages. As a saying then, the onus is upon us as listeners to hear what is said. But, do we hear properly? Do we even know what proper hearing is? Heidegger said proper hearing is paying thoughtful attention to simple things catching what is essential.
Unlike the time of Heraclitus - which is to say past times - the present remains for a time in popular memory until it is forgotten. Therefore the context of the first quote, having appeared a few days prior on Late Night with Seth Meyers, is still fresh. The quote is a response by the polymath musician/designer/citizen-of-the-world Kanye West to a question that went as follows: "What's the difference between how you approach fashion and how you approach music?" The response was given with unexpected stern seriousness and focus. It didn't seem to answer the question and was casually laughed off. Thus it's initial classification as a response must be revoked according to mass consensus (democratic opinion?) and so it becomes an orphan clause: a fragment.
For many ancient thinkers too what is left of their sayings more often than not take the form of fragments.* As fragments they necessitate closer listening to what they say. Upon closer listening to what Heraclitus says in his famous fragment concerning Λόγος Heidegger hears this: ὁμολογεῐν σοφόν ἐστιν Ἓν Πάντα, "the fateful comes to pass insofar as One All." What is to be thought here is Ἓν Πάντα': One: All, All: One. Likewise we must consider what Kanye himself says in his fragment. "Everything is the Same." Is this not even more proper for what is thought here, and it's nature as a fragment?
There is something dangerously simple about this saying. Dangerous in the sense that it may lead others to believe the speaker is seeking to re-present a universal formula and/or make him seem crazy; which he is not. Rather, this Heraclitean saying conceals this thinker's first steps which initiated all of the following steps in the fateful course of his thinking.
"Everything is the Same" lets things stand together which usually are not thought of belonging together - which is to say things that are separated from one another - such as the sun and moon, light and dark, sobriety and intoxication, evil and the good, Heidegger and Kanye. But how can such opposites, separated by that seemingly insurmountable distance between presence and absence, come to stand together? The answer: through the Sameness that pervades or runs through All.
As everyone today seems all too ready to admit - whether prompted or not - Kanye is no teacher, let us accept this. Instead let us see him then as a thinker. As such he only gives us to think. That is his gift to us. As the Giver, he has no need for whatever bounds we try to keep him within, for he has transcended them already. We, on the other hand, are not only behind him, but we still have no idea how to be thankful to him and by association to all thinkers past, present and soon to be.
Reference:
ἐνέργεια - energia
ἐόν - eόn
ἰδέα - idea
Λόγος - Lόgos
Μοῖρα - Moera
Χρεών - Chreôn
Ἒν - En
* This does not mean to imply that their remaining as fragments is due to the fact that the context surrounding them was completely superfluous as well, not by a long shot.
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