Avital Ronell. On Stupidity. 2000 1/10

[dendryite]

Why is this called a "talk" when she merely reads?

[Nusq7]

Rubbish babbling... food for those lazy minds who just enjoy deconstructive play with words! no concreteness, no responsibility, total stupidity!

[TheLungpipes]

@Nusq7 Ironically I think she would have a precisely opposite opinion to you. I interpret this short lecture as labeling individuals stupid, when they believe their choice of language contains a sense of concreteness or responsibility. This actually sets the stage for a more rigorous social discourse on arguments put forth to the public. Making you points with a clearer more concrete language may be more convenient for the general public but that doesn't necessarily mean it will help further..

[adaimantus77]

i agree with deadlyvengeance. men who feel threatened by Derridean strumpets or, as happens increasingly frequently, are actually threatened by them, require a vocabulary with which to resist them. once during my years at cornell, three Derridean strumpets cornered me at the dining room table, and in the course of interrogating me, drove me, a strong and proud man, to tears. they raped my mind with groundless accusations that i was a thought criminal. never let them get power over you.

[kchamps]

she is my favorite UNthinker.

[dionnewarpig]

Avital Ronell is absolutely amazing. Thank you for this.

[deadlyvengeance222]

Don't be seduced by the siren song of this Derridean strumpet, her discourse is so much tosh. Beneath it lurks the teeth of a castrating harlot-- The teeth of a Deconstructionist elitist, which only defer the meaning of castration to the point that it agonizes all men into a luxurious and liberating textual suicide

[gbien]

"castrating harlot", "strumpet" !?!?!

you are totally allowed to discount her discourse, but when you use misogynist phrases like the above, it becomes obvious that you are threatened by a woman thinker - thereby completely discrediting any arguements you may ever make

fuck you!

[godwiththelyre]

It's great to see the entire lecture by Avital. I really enjoy hearing her speak.

[sickuntodeath2]

Thanks for uploading this series on stupidity. It is an issue that interests me very much. I think of stupidity as a curse introduced by language - as such only speaking beings can be described as stupid. As I was once told, stupidity is my word for neurosis. Considering what Freud said about neurosis being normal, then, much to our great misfortune, stupidity is the normal state of mind.

[godwiththelyre]

Yes, it is to our misfortune, isn't it? :) It's also to our benefit! I never really appreciated it before hearing this talk and the one by Jacques Derrida about "bêtise". In his lecture, he seems to conclude that it is part of what it means to be human. I think every great artist has recognized this, too.

[godwiththelyre]

Where would we be w/out the Falstaffs and Leporellos of the world? Haha

[sickuntodeath2]

Stupidity is one of the curses that is introduced by language. Only speaking beings can be accused of stupidity. As I was once told, stupidity is my word for neurosis.