Two lectures on time and ideology: January 23 and 24

By Dilip -
NB: For those interested, I am presenting two lectures next week, one on Tuesday, January 23 at IIT, Delhi; and at Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication (SACAC), on Wednesday, January 24. The details are given below. DS

International Conference, The Present of the Day 
January 22-23, 2018; 09:30 AM to 05:30 PM
Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT Delhi
in collaboration with ICSSR and Institut Français, Delhi
Event Venue: Senate Hall, First Floor, Main Building
Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT Delhi
For more information visit: http://hss.iitd.ac.in/news/present-day
Those who wish to attend may register here: http://hss.iitd.ac.in/event/present-day

My presentation is on January 23. My presentation is at 10 am

The title and abstract are as follows:

In Time to Come: ideological existence as escape from the present

Abstract: The public consumption of ideology manifests three things: the secularisation of theodicy in the form of the nationalisation of God/ deification of the Party; the replacement of the supra-sensible realm by the Future; and the semantic cum moral erosion of language via radical alterity. The essence of ideologically-sustained life is a relentless attempt at mastering the past on behalf of a hoped-for glorious future. The ramifications are nothing short of the annihilation of truth, life and time. The submersion of existence into dream-like transience stabilises the universal sovereignty of capital. Ideological alchemy transmutes humans and natural life into resource material for the future, enabling capital to inhabit the present.

*********************************************************************

Moving Image: Open Form, a six month course in filmmaking (MIC)
Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication (SACAC)
Sri Aurobindo Society, Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg, Adchini, New Delhi
24 January 2018 Wednesday 11.30am
Creative Documentary Course (CDC) classroom, ground floor

After Discourse

Abstract: The appearance of the term 'post-truth' is another step toward the ongoing dissolution of meaning. The long-standing rebellion against truth has now become a means whereby the problems confronting humanity are dismissed by resort to relativism, linguistic dodges and the conflation of knowledge with opinion. The domination of the public sphere by ideology has rendered all this acceptable to sizeable sections of the intelligentsia and public. The academic fascination with 'multiple narratives' versus 'grand narratives' has contributed to a situation wherein there are no standards of meaningful speech whatsoever. Is speech about ecological catastrophe and nuclear contamination not a 'meta-narrative'? The very ubiquity of 'narrative' (words like 'account' or 'version' have gone out of use) is a result of the popularity of 'deconstruction' in disciplines related to literature and media. 

Having politically abolished objectivity and truth in favour of 'multiple narratives', the protagonists of deconstruction are now faced with Presidents who deny climate change and Prime Ministers who speak of rhinoceri being culled to make room for Bangladeshi infiltrators. But if everything is interpretation and perspective, how may we contest anything anyone says? 

Scepticism is a necessary corrective to dogmatism, but if there are no normative foundations upon which to make moral judgements, if all we have is permanent scepticism, why and how should we act at all? Why is it desirable to resist domination rather than to accept it ? Radical alterity and exclusive identity have undermined first principles such as truth and goodness - principles that lie at the heart of human speech. If cultural, communal ethnic identity is permitted to supervene human identity, the very possibility of communication - the basis of social life - is destroyed. 

Ours is an age of ideology. Ideology is a means of escaping the present; it enables the submersion of everyday existence into dream-like transience. Ideologically-sustained life is a relentless deferral of presence on behalf of a hoped-for glorious future. If the criterion of truth is not agreement with reality, but agreement with the spirit of a nation, class or caste, we are left with neither knowledge nor wisdom, but an activist recipe for endless conflict and linguistic chaos. Ideology denies the inherent value of thought; it weaponises the mind. The preoccupation with the future and the endless dissolution into multiplicity are both expressions of contemporary nihilism. The ramifications are nothing short of the annihilation of truth and life.  

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