Derrida – The Politics of Friendship - Theory Reading Group at UNM

40 POLITICS OF FRIENDSHIP
opposite of that which infonns our aims and instincts - not to mention the fact
that in regard to those new philosophers appearing (heraufkommenden neuen
Philosophen) they must certainly be closed windows and bolted doors, They
belong, in short and regrettably, among the levellers (Nivellirer) , these falsely
named 'free spints' - eloquent and tirelessly scribbling slaves of the democratic
taste and its 'modem ideas', men without sohtude one and all, without their
own solitude (allesammt Menschen ohne Einsamkeit, ohne eigne Einsamkeit), good
clumsy fellows who, whlle they cannot be denied courage and moral respectabllity,
are unfree and ludicrously superficial, above all in theIr fundamental
Inclination to see in the forms of existing society the cause of practically all
human failure and misery: which is to stand the truth happily on its head! (wobei
die Wahrheit glucklich auf den Kopf zu stehn kommt,~ What with all their might
they would like to stnve afrer is the universal green pasture happiness of the
herd, WIth security, safety (Sicherheit, Ungefahrlichkeii) , comfort and an easier life
for all; their two most oft-recited doctrines and rutttes are 'equalIty ofnghts' and
'sympathy for all that suffers' - and suffering ItSelf they take for something that
has to be abolished, We, who are the opposite of thIs '" [we think that]
everyth10g eVll, dreadful, tyrannical, beast of prey and serpent In man serves to
enhance the specIes man (der species Mensch),'·
And here, once again, a 'perhaps' arrives to spread disquiet in the opposition
itsel£ The perhaps carries away the extreme alterity, the possibility of this
other end, this other tenn which structures no less the antidemocratic
provocation, and results in there never being 'enough to say' or 'enough to
silence':
We do not say enough when we say even that much, and at any rate we are, In
what we say and do not say on this point, at the other end (at the altogether other
end, Nietzsche's emphasis: am andern Ende) from all modern ideology and herd
desiderata: as Its antipodes perhaps (als deren Antipoden vielleicht)?
At each instant the discourse is carried out to its limit, on the edge of
silence: it transports itself beyond itself It is swept away by the extreme
opposition - indeed, the alterity - by the hyperbole which engages it in an
infinite build-up [surenche're] (freer than the freedom of the free spirit, a better
democrat than the crowd of modem democrats, aristocrat among all
democrats, more futural and futurist than the modem), swept away by the
perhaps that arnves to undecide meaning at each decisive moment,
All this (this surplus of democracy, this excess of freedom, this reaffirmation
of the future) is not, so we suspect, very promising for the community,
communication, the rules and maxims of communicational action,
Nietzsche continues, in effect:
, ' ' t the point of cruelty, WIth rash
cunous to the point of VIce, investigators 0 th 'di tlble
fi ers for the ungraspable, With teeth and stomach for e most In ges ,
mg k that demands acuteness and sharp senses, ready for every
ready for every tas rfi f 'fr will' (dank einen Uberschusse von Jreiem
venture thanks to a supe Ulty 0 ee
Willen~, with fore- and back- souls into whose ultimate intentions no o~ed~:
.1 'th r ore and backgrounds to whose end no foot may go,
easilY see, WI I' - h d digals
der mantles ofhght, conquerors even though we look hke ,em an pro full'
un fr till night misers of our nches and our -
collectors and arrangers om morn, , h
cramme d cup b oar ds , thnfry ' night
, ud of tables of categones, sometmles pedants, sometmles
sometimes pro b d dayhght (mitunter Nachteulen der Arbeit auch am
In learning and forgetting, inventive 10 sc emata,
owls of labour even 10 roa d
crowS when we need to be - and today we nee to
hellen Tage); yes, even scare born sworn J' ealous mends of solitude, of our own
be' m so far that IS, as we are " " ht
' "d 'ght most midday sohtude (unserer eignen hefsten I1l1tternac -
deepest, most m1 m , e we we free SPIrits! and
lichsten mittaglichsten Einsamkei~ - such a type of man ar, ? ew
, f h type you coromg men, you n
erha s u too are something 0 t e same , ,
Pphilo:OP:rs? (und vielleicht seid auch ihr etwas davon, ihr Kommenden? Ihr neuen
h ' has' } 20
Philosophen? - ) {Nletzsc e s emp IS,
And now for the fmishing touch, the owls in full light of day - ~urselv~s
'th' that we owe it to ourselves to be today; friendship
"gam - e scarecrows f fr ill d
without friendship of the friends of solitude, the, surplus 0 ee V; ,an
""in the perhal1s in which I see you commg, you, the amvants to
once ab - or 'th ming (das
come you the amvant thinkers, you the commg, e up co,
Kom~enden), the new philosophers, but you whom I see c~mm~, me, I
who am already perhaps a little like you who are perhaps a httle lik: us, ~
bit on our side, you the new philosophers, my readers to c~~e, wow
be my readers only if you become new philosophers - that IS, If ~ou ~ow
how to read me - m 0 er wor s,
'th d if you can think what I wnte m my
, d d 'f ou know how to countersign in advance or how t~ pr~p~e
stea ,an
yourse to cou ,
me here exactly, teleiopoetically:
If 1 y ntersign always in imminent fashion, what you msptre m
I' wonder we 'free spirits' are not precisely the most communicative of
s It any, " '? tha e do not want to betray m every respect
spints (die mlttellsamsten, ?elSter)'fr t,:; If and to what (wohin) it is then perhaps
from what (wovon) a spmdant
can ee £1 r:ula 'beyond good and evil' with which
dnven? And as for the gerous 0, thI
' d against being taken for what we are not: we are some ng
different (wir Sind etwas Anders) from 'libres-penseurs'" I en pe~a on,' all
we at any rate guar 'rb' t" 'Preidenker'
or whatever
themselves,"
else all th
ese worthy advocates of modern Ideas lIke to c
LOVING IN FRIENDSHIP: PERHAPS
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