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OTAKU_SNOBBED

                                                    May  9, 2012

"... Kojève emphasizes that after
the end of Hegelian history only two modes
of existence remained open for human
beings. One was the pursuit of the
American way of life, or what he called            Footnote 45:
'the return to animality,' [45] and the
other was Japanese snobbery."                      Alexandre Kojève
                                                   "Introduction to the
"Kojève called the form of consumer                Reading of Hegel"
that arose in postwar America _animal_.            (New York, Basic
His reason for using such a strong                 Books, 1969)
expression is related to the provisions
for _humans_ peculiar to Hegelian                           Koje`ve
philosophy ... Homo Sapiens are not in and                  Kojève
of themselves human, they must behave in a
way that _negates_ their own environment
... they must struggle against nature."
(p.67)

"... postwar American consumer society--
surrounded by products satisfying
consumer 'needs' alone and whose
fashion changes according to media's
demands alone is not, in his
terminology, humanistic ...  Just as
there is neither hunger nor strife,
there is no philosophy ..."  (p.68)


   This sort of stuff
   immediately makes one
   (i.e. this one) wonder
   if the struggle need
   be against "nature":
   if your environment is
   an environment of human
   beings, than contention
   against other humans
   would seem to be enough          (Groucho Marx
   to secure your "humanity"        was very human.)

   But that appears to be
   where "snobbery" enters the
   story:

      "Snobs are not in harmony with
      their environment" (p 68)

      "they manufacture formal opposition"

      They have their "moments of negation"

   The next question after this though,
   is whether snobbery is the one, sole
   form of contention (or just cultural
   contention?) between humans...

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