Perverse Egalitarianism

Something we discovered here on PE long time ago is now apparently confirmed by science…

Евгений Павлов — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:39:58 +0000

Read it and weep, all of your non-pseudonymous losers!

“You should not have posted this. It is terrible.” (Adam Kotsko)

Евгений Павлов — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 01:41:26 +0000

I nominate this as the best comment ever on what appears to be a controversial post…

Be Less Smart

Евгений Павлов — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 05:06:27 +0000

Brilliant essay:

I am a dumb writer, perhaps one of the dumbest that’s ever lived. Whenever I have an idea, I question myself whether it is sufficiently dumb. I ask myself, is it possible that this, in any way, could be considered smart? If the answer is no, I proceed. I don’t write anything new or original. I copy pre-existing texts and move information from one place to another. A child could do what I do, but wouldn’t dare to for fear of being called stupid.

“The Sniper is the person who is always on to some new book or author six months before everyone else. They use this author to fire apparently devastating salvos against everyone else, while hinting at some ominous coming paradigm shift triggered by this author that will call everything we ever believed into question.”

Евгений Павлов — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 02:28:01 +0000

Graham Harman finally comes up with a nickname for himself.

Here is Graham “The Sniper” Harman in action:

The French philosopher and novelist Tristan Garcia was born in Toulouse in 1981. This makes him rather young to have written such an imaginative work of systematic philosophy as Forme et objet, the latest entry in the MétaphysiqueS series at Presses universitaires de France. But this reference to Garcia’s youthfulness is not a form of condescension: by publishing a complete system of philosophy in the grand style, he has already done what none of us in the older generation of speculative realists has done so far. His book is sophisticated, erudite, rigorous, imaginatively rich, and abundant in worldly wisdom– despite the author’s conclusion that wisdom does not exist.

Always on to some new untranslated work that will forever change philosophy and so on. Reading new books that no one read yet and praising them to heavens. Beautiful.

Search Engine Terms: You Ask, We Answer.

Евгений Павлов — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 21:50:37 +0000

Question: Can I publish the same article twice?
Answer: Of course you can. You can publish the same article thrice. Some scholars publish the same article (or the same book) over and over again their entire life. No need to worry about this, kid.

Question: Post Hegelian philosophy?
Answer: There is no such thing. Whoever told you to look it up is an idiot – punch him in the face.

Question: If you can put your five finders through it…
Answer: …it’s not an object anymore – contact your local object-oriented philosopher to inquire about what to do next.

Question: Learning German to read Hegel…
Answer: …is a waste of your time. It will take most of your life and by the time you are good at it, you’ll realize you wasted most of your life on a useless skill. It’s like learning French to read Derrida or learning Russian to read Dostoevsky. Get a life!

Assholes don’t realize that they’re assholes, but they are less adept at detailing how they are not assholes than are people who are actually not assholes.

Евгений Павлов — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 00:09:19 +0000

Summing up your brilliant academic work in one sentence.

“The white-collar worker has kind of a Bob Cratchit attitude,” he explained. “He feels he’s a half-step below the boss. The boss says, ‘Call me Harry.’ He feels he’s made it. You go to a shoe store, they got six managers. They call everybody a manager, but they pay ’em all shit.”

Евгений Павлов — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 21:33:58 +0000

Interesting piece at Salon about wages, unions and workers:

As Oil Can Eddie pointed out, a class consciousness discourages office workers from unionizing. There’s a popular discounting company in Chicago called Groupon, where the account executives — who are all expected to have bachelors’ degrees — earn $37,800 a year. Adjusted for modern dollars, that’s about Stanley’s starting wage, without overtime. Because they’re educated and sit safely at desks, they don’t think of themselves as blue-collar mopes who need to strike for higher pay and better working conditions.

…largely it’s just a big, expensive celebration of the academic status quo.

Евгений Павлов — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:16:38 +0000

Interesting piece on the upcoming MLA convention in Chicago:

They’ll all be there: muckety-mucks whose rings ache for kissing; frazzled early-career professors angling for tenure; and, of course, hordes of desperate graduate students and barely employed Ph.D.s, hoping to break into what everyone actually calls “the profession.”

Hegelkongress in Buenos Aires 2014

Евгений Павлов — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 22:40:57 +0000

Metaphysik – Metakritik – Neubegründung der Erkenntnis
Der Ertrag der Denkbewegung von Kant zu Hegel

Mataphysics – Critique of metaphysics – New Foundation for knowledge
Legacy of the intellectual development from Kant to Hegel

Kongressankündigung / Call for Papers

New Year Resolution: More Non Sequiturs!

Евгений Павлов — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:13:52 +0000

2013 has been a good year for all things perverse and egalitarian. OOO is dead (as is Harman’s short-lived interest in politics). Stupidity is alive (and, unfortunately, doing well). Timothy Morton is still insane.

Adam Kotsko is in Paris.

Peter Brötzmann still rules.