The thinking man's Blog

“…when the Old is attacked by the new, this first appearance of the New is, as a rule, flat and naïve - the true dimensions of the New arises only when the Old reacts to… the New.” Slavoj Žižek, Less Than Nothing, Verso 2012, p.138 (via fuckyeahdialectics)

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Socrates (via allyeneedtoknow)

(Source: anicekid)

“The limitations of the standard liberal attitude towards Muslim women wearing a veil are visible here, too. Women are permitted to wear the veil if this is their free choice and not an option imposed on them by their husband or family. However, the moment women wear a veil to exercise a free individual choice, say in order to realize their own spirituality, the meaning of wearing a veil changes completely. It is no longer a sign of their belonging to the Muslim community, but an expression of their idiosyncratic individuality. The difference is the same as the one between a Chinese farmer eating Chinese food because his village has been doing so since time immemorial, and a citizen of a Western megalopolis deciding to go and have a dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. This is why, in our secular, choice-based societies, people who maintain a substantial religious belonging are in a subordinate position. Even if they are allowed to maintain their belief, this belief is “tolerated” as their idiosyncratic personal choice or opinion. The moment they present it publicly as what it is for them, say a matter of substantial belonging, they are accused of “fundamentalism”. What this means is that the “subject of free choice” in the Western “tolerant” multicultural sense can emerge only as the result of an extremely violent process of being torn out of a particular life world, of being cut off from one’s roots.” Zizek, Violence, Tolerance as an Ideological Category, The Effective Universality, page 145. (via arielnietzsche)

(Source: jayaprada)