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.