From: revelins <revelins@scf-fs.usc.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cx-l@debate.net>
Subject: MARQUIS DE SADE 1NC SHELL
The following is the Marquis De Sade shell, as it was originally written
(I don't know how/if it was altered for the TOC). Within the cards,
all caps are the parts of the cards I had originally underlined, so you
can get both the 'full card effect' and the 'debate effect'. Numbers
within cards are footnotes within the book. I didn't type out the footnote
citations, but at least you know they're there. Please excuse any typos. I
was typing this really fast.
Armands Revelins
Performative Sadism 1NC
PROLOGUE: During circles of relaxed discussion over cigarettes between
rounds, and at late hours in drunken parties where debaters don't have the
oppositional mindsets that a quick one and a half hour debate round seems
to breed, we very often admit to ourselves and each other that debate is
merely a game. However, besides periodic assertions of 'fiat is utopian'
or hints that we may in some amorphous future grow up and act on the
policies we are describing, the extent to which this game is purely a
theatric fiction and not a political reality is overlooked. The reality is
that debaters tend not to join lobby groups, volunteer, or join clubs such
as amnesty international while in college because we're just so damned
busy cutting cards on these issues so we can travel on weekends and feel
an inflated sense of political importance, just because we can talk really
fast and intelligibly about issues other people are actually acting on.
The following argument should be read as a creative performance,
consistent with the reality that debate is nothing more than theater. Our
thesis is that debaters read harms contentions only because debaters find
pleasure in indulging discussions about evil in public forums. We get off
on big impact cards. In fact we should only indulge in the performative
pleasures of perversion. Thus, the 1AC, by tacking on a solvency
contention to the 1AC, is like a hypocritical script to a play. It
subverts the harms contention to an issue that needs to be solved, and not
an evil to be indulged for its own sake. Performative evil is important
because it is creative, it expresses freedom, and it reflects the reality
of our inner psychology. Our performance has three acts, drawing heavily
on the philosophies of perversion as explicated by the Marquis De Sade.
ACT ONE: DEBATE IS ONLY A THEATER: The ritualized agreements to have an
affirmative and negative division. The exchanges of beratement, whereby
the negative block gets to perform as the abusive 'top' and launch
offensive argumentation at the affirmative, which the aff quietly endures,
because they in turn know know they will have an opportunity to turn as
many arguments and launch as many ad homs as possible in the 1ar. The
content of the issues are stories we have construed by piecing paragraphs
of evidence together. And at the end of teh ritual, a handshake. All of
this is very much like De Sade's world of Sado-Masochistic performances.
Airaksinen '95 (Timo, Professor Philosophy@University Helsinki, Finland,
The Philosophy of the Marquis De Sade, Routledge Press,
p 43)
"WE MUST TRY TO UNDERSTAND PLEASURE. I shall suggest that Sade
fictionalizes the topic. SOME STUDIES ON SM - THE SADO-MASOCHISTIC SEXUAL
SUBCULTURE - HAVE REACHED INTERESTING CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING ENJOYABLE
CRUELTY. This is the case where victims seek painful social positions. SM
COMMUNITIES DISPLAY FEATURES WHICH ARE PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD AS GAMES RATHER
THAN REALITY. THE ACTORS IN THE GAME WANT NEITHER TO HURT OTHERS NOR TO
GET HURT THEMSELVES:
HIGHLY FORMALIZED, SOCIAL INTERACTION RITUALS or ceremonies MAY BRING
TOGETHER INDIVIDUALS WHO WOULD OTHERWISE BE DANGEROUS ENEMIES, without
risk of their being rude (much less violent) with each other .... GAY
PRACTICIONERS OF SM HAVE DEVELOPED AN ETIQUETE EQUIVALENT TO THAT OF
POLITICAL OPPONENTS SHAKING HANDS AND EATING WITH EACH OTHER. 14
THEY DESIGN COMPLEX FICTIONS WITH RULES, VALUES, ROLES, AND MYTHOLOGIES
WHICH ALLOW THEM TO STAGE ENJOYABLE SCENES OF CRUELTY. LEATHER OUTFITS AND
WHIPS SYMBOLIZE REAL WEAPONS OF HUMILIATION AND PUNISHMENT. TO ANY
EXTERNAL OBSERVER THEIR BEHAVIOR IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND, since it
displays at once a high degree of violence and also tenderness and love.
THE WORLDS OF FACT AND FICTION ARE SO MIXED TOGETHER THAT THE PARTICIPANTS
MAY ENJOY THOUGHTS OF PAIN AND CRUELTY ALONG WITH REAL VIOLENCE. The
demarcation between love and pain, terror and enjotment, is not
consistently drawn. Only the limited cases need to be known. PERHAPS THE
DETAILS OF THE RULES CANNOT BE CLEAR AND CONSISTENT, even if they do not
express " a confusion of pain and pleasure, but rather of a redefinition
of pain."15 To speak of a definition in this context may be
over-optimistic, simply because the scene to be defined is neither that of
a laboratory nor of a butcher's shop, and still less that of a family or a
law court."
Second, our debate discourse, characterized by word economy and numbered
precision and conciseness, is directly analogous to the sadistic extasies
of sexual penetration:
Airaksinen '95 (p133)
"JANE GALLOP provides an interesting discussion of women, sex, and male
domination in her study of Sade, Jacques Lacan, and Luce Irigaray. She
SEEMS TO ARGUE THAT SADEAN SEXUALITY IS ANAL, LIKE THAT OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
AND EVEN SOME OF FEMINISM. IT IS MARKED BY ITS PHALLOCRACY: DRY IDEAS,
TIGHT ARGUMENTS, PENETRATING INQUIRY, AND MOST OF ALL, THE NEED FOR
UNILATERAL CONTROL. She writes: "ALL PENETRATION, CONSIDERED TO BE
SADISTIC PENETRATION OF THE BODY'S DEFENSIVE ENVELOPE, IS THOUGHT
ACCORDING TO THE MODEL OF ANAL PENETRATION. The dry anus suffers pain; the
penetrated is a humiliated man.""
Third, debate tournament schedules mirror the practices of traveling
theatre. We go to Wake and we perform, and then we perfect our
performances with more research before the next travelling performance at
USC, etcetera:
Airaksinen '95 (p 143)
"LIKE A TRAVELING THEATER TROUPE, THE HEROES MOVE TO ANOTHER PLACE WHERE
THEIR PERFORMANCE IS ONCE MORE A NOVELTY AND WHERE THEIR AUDIENCE IS
ALREADY WAITING. They even go to Siberia, where the only audience is
animals. Nevertheless, the DISCUSSION AND TRAVEL - THE SPIRITUAL AND
PHYSICAL JOURNEY - IS REPETITIVE. THE RESULT IS AN EFFORT OF MEANINGLESS
CHATTER. But all this is different from the lives of the victims. THE
HEROES REST AND DISCUSS THINGS WHEN THEY ARE EXHAUSTED. THEIR REST IS A
PHILOSOPHER'S REST, IN THE SENSE THAT THEIR BODIES RECOVER AND THEIR MINDS
WORK. The result of this intellectual work is a justification and a theory
of what they are doing. But WHATEVER THEY THINK DURING THE PERIOD OF
RECUPERATION, THEIR ACTIONS ALWAYS RETURN TO THE SAME FORM. For instance,
MUCH OF THE TALK IS GENUINELY ETHICAL. THEY REPEAT MORAL TERMS IN THEIR
NORMAL SENSE, ANALYZE AND LAMENT THE UNJUST STATE OF SOCIETY AND THE
EXCESSIVE POWER OF ITS RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS, BUT WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING
ABOUT IT."
ACT TWO: VICE IS A VIRTUE. PAIN, I.E. THE 1AC HARMS ARE A GOOD THING, AND
YET THEY ARE SUFFOCATED BY ONLY EXISTING TO BE SOLVED FOR BY THE AFF PLAN:
The most atrocious harms tend to be treated as unimportant gray areas to
be avoided. Instead, they are colorful phenomena to be appreciated.
Airaksinen '95 (p13)
"SADE DOES NOT EXHIBIT ANY WEAKNESS OF THE WILL, SELF-DECEPTION, MORAL
NEGLIGENCE, OR EVEN ERROR. HE AIMS AT SUBJECTIVE PLEASURE AND OBJECTIVE
HARM WITH PERFECT SELF-KNOWLEDGE; HE REALLY CARES FOR HIS PET
COUNTER-VALUES, and he is ready to suffer imprisonment and censorship in
order to entertain his readers. This is why he is divine. He exemplifies
the wickedness of the will through the very fact that he struggles to
sabotage any idea of what Hannah Arendt was to call "the banality of
evil." THE ULTIMATE RECOURSE OF COUNTLESS HELPLESS VICTIMS, INCLUDING
THOSE THAT WERE PERSECUTED BY THE NAZIS, HAS BEEN THE IDEA THAT CRUELTY IS
A SMALL, GRAY, BORING, AND UNDISTINGUISHED THING. AS SUCH, IT NOT ONLY
LACKS VALUE IN ITSELF BUT VALUE FOR ANY OTHERS; IT IS UNREWARDING TO THE
AGENTS OF EVIL THEMSELVES. FROM THIS STANDPOINT, EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL
CRUELTY WOULD BE A MATTER OF THE AGENT'S ERROR AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAKNESS.
SADE'S PROJECT IS TO COMBAT ANY SUCH NOTION. HE PAINTS WICKEDNESS AS A
STRONG AND GRAND PHENOMENON WHICH PROVIDES GLORY AND SPECATCLE, AND
ENTAILS ALL THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENJOYMENT, CREATIVITY, AND
SATISFACTION."
Second, violence is thrilling. This is the truest reflection of the inner
psychology of humans, and should be embraced in accords with the chaotic
nature of the world.
Airaksinen '95 (p. 60)
"In a figurative, uninformative sense, NATURE CAN ALSO BE CALLED
MALEVOLENT. What this means is that ITS VICTIMS OBSERVE TAHT NATURE IS
REALLY A CHAOTIC PROCESS WITHOUT ANY INTRINSIC TELOS. IT SENERGIES ARE
MORE GEARED TO DESTRUCTION, THE NEGATION OF ITS OWN CONTENTS, than to
anything creative. The Pope may take this as an atheistic idea, simply
because God is supposed to be a creative force capable of destroying His
creation. Nature is different: "In all living beings the principle of life
is no other than that of death." Therefore, religious ethics are
unnatural.
THE ARGUMENT PROCEEDS STEPWISE AND ESTABLISHES A CONNECTION BETWEEN
DESTRUCTIVE NATURE AND HUMAN MOTIVATION. THE FIRST STEP REPEATS THE IDEA
OF FOLLOWING NATURE:
SO REND AWAY, HACK AND HEW, TORMENT, BREAK, WRECK, MASSACRE, BURN, GRIND
TO DUST, MELT .... UNABLE TO PLEASE HER BY THE ATROCITY OF A GLOBAL
DESTRUCTION, AT LEAST PROVIDE HER THE PLEASURE OF LOCAL ATROCITY, AND
INTO YOUR MURDERINGS PUT EVERY IMAGINABLE FOULNESS AND HORROR, THEREBY
SHOWING UTMOST DOCILITY IN YOUR COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAWS SHE IMPOSES ON
YOU.
In this way the Pope insists both on the desirability of the natural life,
and on the main reason why all this is true. "ATROCITY IN CRIME PLEASES
NATURE, SINCE 'TIS ACCORDING TO THIS FACTOR ALONE SHE REGULATE STHE
DELIGHT TO PROVIDE US WHEN WE COMMIT A CRIME. THE MORE FRIGHTFUL IT IS,
THE MORE WE ENJOY IT; THE BLEAKER, THE FOULER IT IS, THE MORE WE ARE
THRILLED BY IT.
THE SECOND STEP FOLLOWS: SINCE MAN HIMSLEF IS CONSTITUTED ACCORDING TO THE
DESTRUCTIVE PRINCIPLE OF NATURE, THE POPE MUST BE UNDERSTOOD AS SPEAKING
NOT OF THE EXTERNAL NATURE BUT OF THE INNER LIFE OF MAN. HIS PSYCHOLOGICAL
LANGUAGE REFERS DIRECTLY TO HUMAN MOTIVATION. MAN IS EVIL IN THE SAME
SENSE AS NATURE IS DESTRUCTIVE, AND THEREFOR EHE ENJOYS EVERYTHING TAHT IS
A CRIME, as the Pope says. He argues that "CRUELTY IN MAN IS SIMPLY AN
EXPRESSION OF HIS DESIRE TO EXERCISE HIS STRENGTH." This is explained by
saying that "WE ARE BORN TO SERVE AS BLIND INSTRUMENTS" WHO ARE DRIVEN
FORWARD BY THE SEARCH FOR EXCITEMENT AND PLEASURE. MAN IS BOTH A NATURAL
CREATURE HIMSELF AND MOTIVATED BY THE LAWS OF NATURE. MAN AND NATURE MAY
BE NORMATIVELY INDEPENDENT OF EACH OTHER, BUT MAN'S MOTIVATION STEMS FROM
HIS ESSENCE."
Third, so-called rational goals of reaching out to help suffering, as
embodied in the 1AC, are nonsensical. We should seek wicked pleasure in
enjoying the suffering of others.
Arthur Schopenhauer writes (excerpt from the World as Will and
Representation)
"IF NOW, A MAN IS FILLED WITH AN EXCEPTIONALLY INTENSE PRESSURE OF WILL,
--if with burning eagerness he seeks to accumulate everything to slak ethe
thirst of his egoism, AND thus EXPERIENCES, AS HE INEVITABLY MUST, THAT
ALL SATISFACTION IS MERELY APPARENT, THAT THE ATTAINED END NEVER FULFILLS
THE PURPOSE OF THE DESIRED OBJECT, THE FINAL APPEASING OF THE FIERCE
PRESSURE OF WILL, BUT THAT WHEN FULFILLED THE WISH ONLY CHANGES ITS FORM,
AND NOW TORMENTS HIM IN A NEW ONE; and indeed that if at last all wishes
are exhausted, THE PRESSURE OF THE WILL ITSELF REMAINS WITHOUT ANY
CONSCIOUS MOTIVE, AND MAKES ITSELF KNOWN TO HIM WITH FEARFUL PAIN AS A
FEELING OF TERRIBLE DESOLATION AND EMPTINESS: IF FROM ALL THIS, which in
the case of the ordinary degree of melancholy, IN THE CASE OF HIM WHO IS A
MANIFESTATION OF WILL, REACHING THE POINT OF EXTRAORDINARY WICKEDNESS,
THERE NECESSARILY SPRINGS AN EXCESSIVE INWARD MISERY, AN EXTERNAL UNREST,
AN INCURABLE PAIN; HE SEEKS INDIRECTLY THE ALLEVIATION WHICH DIRECTLY IS
DENIED HIM, -SEEKS TO MITIGATE HIS OWN SUFFERING BY THE SIGHT OF THE
SUFFERING OF OTHERS, WHICH AT THE SAME TIME HE RECOGNIZES AS AN EXPRESSION
OF HIS POWER. THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS NOW BECOMES FOR HIM AN END IN
ITSELF, AND IS A SPECTACLE IN WHICH HE DELIGHTS, AND THUS ARISES THE
PHENOMENON OF PURE CRUELTY, BLOOD-THIRSTINESS, which history exhibits so
often in the Neros and Domitians, in the African Deis, in Robespierre,a nd
the like."
Fourth, the utilitarian calculus of the affirmative, i.e. adding up
advantages, is a banal and limited way of discovering pleasure.
Airaksinen '95 (85)
"FOR SADE, IF DEATH IS A PLEASURE, THEN THE WHOLE IDEA OF THE SUMMATION OF
PLEASURES IS NONSENSICAL. THE SUM OF ALL PLEASURES IS SOMETHING TO BE
CALCULATED AFTER THE EVENT, AND ONE CANNOT MAKE ANY CALCULATIONS AFTER
DEATH. A SIMILAR TRUTH APPLIES TO PAIN AND TO ORGIASTIC PLEASURE. IT WOULD
BE FOOLISH TO SUMMARIZE ALL ONE'S PAINS AND THEN CLAIM THAT THE LARGER THE
SUM, THE BETTER THE LIFE. Beacause it is experienced pain, such a sum of
memories must be a calculus of misery. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO SAY THAT
ONE RESTRICTS PRESENT PAIN SO THAT FUTURE PAIN WILL BE LARGER. ONLY AT THE
MOMENT OF EXPERIENCING IT CAN THE PAIN APPEAR AS SOMETHING PLEASANT. TO
RESTRICT PAIN IS TO AVOID IT, AND TO MINIMIZE ITS TOTAL EFFECT. Of course
the memory of pain stimulates too, but such a pain, as pain, cannot be
maximized. The anticipation of pain may be pleasant to a sado-masochist,
but it may be disgusting as well. SADE'S CHARACTER'S CERTAINLY LOVE TO
DISCUSS PAIN AND PLEASURE, BUT THIS IS BECAUSE SUCJ TALK IS ITSELF WICKED
- AND THEREFORE PLEASURE WHICH IS INDEPENDENT OF THE COUNTER-HEDONISTIC
CALCULI."
Fifth, the theatric indulgence of sadistic pleasure opens us up to new
possibilities
Airaksinen '95 (p136)
"The ordeal the heroes at Silling must face is a terrifying one. They work
hard at their project and achieve better and better results. They stage
scenarios which reflect the principles of nature, ethics, and psychology
in totally new and unexpected ways. Because the society is small and the
theater resources are poor, all productions are just the abstract frames
for what can be imagined. Perhaps this is all we can expect from life
itself, Sade seems to say. SINCE THERE ARE NOT MANY GRAMMARS OF HUMAN
EXPERIENCE AND GRATIFICATION, THE BEST WE CAN ACHIEVE IS A TRUE
UNDERSTANDING OF SUCH POSSIBILITIES. THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS IT IS THROUGH
THE REALIZATION THAT THE POSSSIBILITIES CAN BE REALIZED. IN THIS SENSE WE
ARE FREE. REALITY IS ONLY ONE POSSIBILITY: AN INFINITY OF FICTIONS CAN BE
ACTED OUT, IF ONE KNOWS HOW AND HAS THE POWER. In 120 Days of Sodom Sade
argues that it is possible to act out (almost) all the possibilities one
is able to imagine. This is his catechism of personal freedom. One may
also achieve something else, namely, an invulnerability to the exercise of
power. FREEDOM HAS A DOUBLE FACE; A PERSON IS FREE TO REALIZE WHATEVER HE
MAY WANT TO IMAGINE, AND HE IS FREE FROM ANYBODY'S POWER. Whatever happens
to the heroes, it will be another stage production, and they will be
prepared for it. The social contarct entails freedom. In other words, what
is artificial defies the truth.
Sade seems to claim the normal ideaology of liberty is worng. IT IS NOT
THE CASE, AS ONE TENDS TO THINK, THAT ONE MUST BE NEGATIVELY FREE -FREE
FROM CONSTRAINTS- IN ORDER TO ENJOY POSITIVE FREEDOM. ON THE CONTRARY, ONE
NEED NOT BE NEGATIVELY FREE TO BE POSITIVELY FREE. LIFE MAY BE AT ITS BEST
A STAGE PRODUCTION, AND AT ITS WORST ONLY A REJECTED MANUSCRIPT: IN EITHER
CASE, IT CAN BE LIVED TO THE FULL WHATEVER THE EXTERNAL CONDITIONS HAPPEN
TO BE. ONE CAN ALWAYS STAGE A PLAY, AND PERHAPS THIS IS ENOUGH TO
CONSTITUTE ALL THE POSITIVE FREEDOM THERE IS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. AS
SADE ARGUES, FICTION AND THEATER ARE MORE CINCRETE THAN WHAT WE CALL REAL
SOCIAL LIFE. THEREFOR ETHE SOCIAL CONTRACT ESTABLISHES A STAGE AND
PRODUCES A PLAY. FOR SADE, OF COURSE, THE HOME OF DISCHARGE IS ON THE
STAGE, WHERE FULL CONTROL IS POSSIBLE."
Finally, indulgence in evil is transcendent. It allows our discovery and
discharge into the emptiness of life in a new, mor einformed way.
Airaksinen '95 (64)
"PErhaps the most important lesson to learn is that PLEASUR EMUST BE
UNDERSTOOD AS TRANSCENDENCE, AS THE CROSSING OF LIMITS SO THAT ONE ENTERS
THE VOID WHERE ALL IS PERMISSIBLE, NOTHING MATTERS, AND NOTHING CAN BE
ACHIEVED. ONLY THROUGH CRIME IS TRANSCENDENCE TRANSFORMED INTO
TRANSGRESSION, THE FEELING OF THE TOTAL VOID. MURDER BECOMES A COMMENTARY
ON EARTLIER CRIMES, AND REPETITION IS TEH KEY TO THE PLOT OF THE PLAY.
ETHICS IS NOT CONCERNED WITH SUCH A VOID; ON THE CONTRARY, IT IS CONCERNED
WITH A CAREFL REDEFINITION OF THINGS, AND THEIR SOCIAL CONTROL. IT IS THE
MINIMIZATION OF CAPRICE. GOOD AIMS ARE WELL DEFINED, AND THEREFORE (TO
SADE) THEY ARE NOT WORTHWHILE. EVIL THINGS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE
INCOMPREHENSIBLE, AND THUS ARE PLEASANT LIKE DISCHARGING OR JUMPING INTO
THE VOID. SADE REFERS TO WICKEDNESS AS IRRITATION AND TO PLEASURE AS
DESTRUCTION: A PERSON WHO FACES AN INCOMPREHENSIBLE DANGER FEELS A STRONG
PHOBIC EMOTION. It is like the torture by the rats in George Orwell's
1984; the torture exploits Winston's worst fears and changes his life,
even if rats never touch his face.12"
ACT THREE: PRESERVE THE PUREST FORM OF THEATER. INDULGE IN ORGIES OF
VIOLENCE THAT WE LOVE TO OH-SO-RIGHTEOUSLY TALK ABOUT IN DEBAT EROUNDS,
AND LET YOUR BALLOT REFLECT YOUR APPLAUSE FOR THE BEST PERFORMANCE THAT
ALLOWED YOU TO DO THIS.
First, the theater must be preserved as an outlet for our aggressions of
violence. The negative does this best by not handcuffing the harms
contention to solvency and restricting its proliferation for its own sake.
The 1AC is a script which asks you to restrain evil and only presents evil
to demonstrate how ell it is avoided. The affirmative actors are not
daring enough to ad-lib what should be their own darker persona pleasures
to a boring script. It is not only bad acting, it is a restraint on the
freedom to be perverse.
Airaksinen 95 (139)
"In this way, Sade's heroes proceed through a long learning process in
order to become their own storytellers. Sade's Philosphy in the Bedroom
and Juliette deal with education from the point of view of a good learner.
JUSTINE, on the contrary, NEVER LEARNS. HER LIFE REMAINS SIMPLE AND ONE
DIMENSIONAL; SHE IS GUIDED BY WHAT SHE CALLS VIRTUE, WHICH LEADS FROM ONE
DISASTER TO ANOTHER. SHE NEVER ENTERS THE THEATER AS AN ACTIVE INTERPRETER
OF HER OWN STORIES. OTHERS CAN TELL STROIES FOR HER, BUT SHE IS UNABLE TO
DECIPHER THEM. She is a hermeneutical invalid. One can defend Justine by
saying that the fictions are as difficult as they are fantastic. THE
SADEAN EXPERIENCE OF SOCIAL LIFE IS SUPPOSED TO LEAD ONE TO THE GATES OF
HELL. WHAT ONE EXPERIENCES MAY LOOK LIKE AN ULTIMATE HORROR THAT NO ONE
CAN TOLERATE. NEVERTHELESS, SADE HIMSELF MAINTAINS THAT HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY I
SSUCH THAT WE ARE ABLE TO DRAW OUR GREATEST PLEASURES DIRECTLY FROM
DESPAIR. ONCE WE UNDERSTAND SOCIAL LIFE, WE NEED TO FIND AN ANSWER TO THE
PROBLEM OF HOW TO LIVE WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE WHICH THE
WHORE-STORYTELLER RELATES.
HOW CAN ONE HANDLE THE TRUTH OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT? SADE SAYS THAT THE
HUMAN MIND IS CONSTITUTED IN SUCH A WAY TAHT ITS GREATEST PLEASURES ARE
EXCITEMENT, RAGE, AND OTHER VIOLENT EMOTIONS, SO THAT SOCIETY MUST BE
BUILT TO SERVE THOSE ENDS. They are fictions which a master loves becaus
ehe knows, before Freud, that "virtuous continence is no longer awarded
with the assurance of love."27 THE MASTER NEITHER RESTRICTS HIS MIND NOR
MISSES THE SOCIAL STATE OF NATURE. HE WANTS AN ARTIFICIAL AND CRUEL
UTOPIA. ONLY THERE CAN HE LEARN TO FULFILL HIS DESIRE TO BE A PREDATOR,
FREE FROM ALL CONSTRAINTS AND ABLE TO CONTROL HIS VICTIMS. After the
learning process is over, he is his own predator and able to exploit his
surroundings.
THE SOCIAL CONTRACT CREATES A SOCIAL LIFE WHICH IS BOTH CRUEL AND
ENJOYABLE, WHEREAS THE ORIGINAL STATE OF NATURE (and France) WAS CRUEL BUT
NOT ENJOYABLE. After the social contract is finally transcended, the rake
need not face terrifying and incomprehensible nature any more. THE THEATER
SETS HIM FREE SO THAT HE CAN PERFECT HIS PREDATORY PLANS; AND BECAUSE HE
LIVES A FICTIONAL LIFE, NATURAL LAWS ARE REPLACED BY STYLE. THE PERSON CAN
DO WHATEVER HE LIKES."
Second, the affirmative is a missed opportunity for exploring and
indulging the ecstasies of evil
Airaksinen '95 (59)
"The Pope next develops a rudimentary naturalistic ethic which allows the
audience to understand the problem of self-deception. This proves to be
the direct opposite of the motive to be virtuous. ANY PLANNING UTLIZES
VALUES AND TRUTHS, WHICH MEANS THAT ONE AIMS AT ONE'S OWN GOOD. BUT SINCE
THERE IS NO GOO DIN NATURE, THE RESULT IS SELF DECEPTION. THIS IS BAD
BECAUSE IT CANNOT BE ENJOYED. A SELF-DECEIVING PERSON DOES NOT UNDERSTAND
HIS OWN VICE. IT IS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY SIMPLY BECAUSE A SELF-DECEIVING
AGENT CANNOT EXPLOIT THE CASE IN WHICH THE VALUES "WE REGARD AS VIRTUES
BECOME CRIMES FROM HER (NATURE'S) POINT OF VIEW." In the same way,
killing, negligence, and cruelty look like virtues if they are seen as
something they really are not. At this point we must leave the realm of
the Pope's simple theory, which maintains the independence of man and
nature along with the Hobbesian right to everything.
NOT ONLY IS A PERSON ENTITLED TO WRONGFUL ACTION, BUT HE IS ALSO MOTIVATED
TOWARDS THE EXPLOTATION OF SUCH A POSSIBILITY. IT IS INDEED A LONG STEP
FROM THE IDEA THAT ALL ACTIONS ARE PERMISSIBLE, AND FOR THE SAME REASON
TOTALLY INDIFFERENT TO MAN, TO THE THESIS THAT THE WAYS OF NATURE SOMWEHOW
ATTRACT AND MOTIVATE MAN. What is this motive like? Somehow the Pope's
ethics should explain the thesis to the effect that virtue is something
which must be avoided, like vice. BUT BECAUSE VICE SHOULD BE CHERISHED, WE
ARE FEACED WITH SOME KIND OF MERE MOCKERY OF MORAL DISCOURSE, from which
no sensible derivatives eem to follow. VALUES WILL DISAPPEAR BECAUSE
NORMATIVE LANGUAGE AND THEORY ARE UNSTABLE. VIRTUE AND VICE WILL FLICKER
AND VANISH AS THEY APPEAR AT THE SAME TIME AS SOMETHING SIMILAR AND
DIFFERENT. AS BATAILLE WOULD PUT IT, ONE IS PARODY OF THE OTHER.10"
Finally, performances of evil must be explored to discover our darker
psycology, instead of trudging through the so called lines of facts
delivered by the 1ac structure.
Airaksinen 95 (3)
"At the same time I would like to reflect on the main features of the
Sadean world of fiction, and how it can be used as a new philosophical
tool. FICTION MAY TELL US A MOST TRUTHLIKE STORY ABOUT EVIL AND MADNESS,
SIMPLY BECAUSE THE FIELD IS SO STRANGE. IT IS THE REALM OF THE FROBIDDEN,
THE BANNED, AND THE REPRESSED. In fact it does not exist, because its
world is so full of irony, ambiguity, and paradox. Therefore, WE MUST READ
FICTION AS PHILOSOPHY, USE METAPHOR AS ARGUMENT, RELY ON RHETORIC, AND
BELIEVE THE PLOTS OFTHE STORIES. WE SHALL LEARN WHAT WE ARE NOT OR -
WHICH IS THE SAME - WHAT WE ARE AFRAID OF. CERTAINLY THIS FEAR IS SO REAL
THAT ITS CAUSES HARASS US MORE CRUELLY THAN ANY REPRESENATTION OF FACTS."
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