Not for (the) Lack: Episodes in Trying

[© tweed]

Here marks a turn in the form of argument.  Above I rather over-simplified in order to explore some more over-arching tendencies, but here, I will introduce a more complicated model of debt and libido.  Do not try to reconcile this model with the above text, you may fail.

Recall that above I have made clear I am seeking a unity of id, ego, and superego, in order to displace my libidinal energy into productive, non-sexual work.  This is referred to as the ‘Popular Front’, and mental space therein is called ‘Flow’.   We have largely settled the ego and super-ego components of this question: they both are on board with Dave-the-socialist-revolutionary, though they may at times disagree on how to perform the task.  The problem lies with the id, which is the motor: how can I ‘talk’ to my libidinal energy-force, get it to buy into this project?  For even if it is possible to go about it without the id, it seems silly not to try.  Compared to the other two constituents of the character, it is a renewable energy source.  If I can devote the raw force I feeling with which I pursue the sexual object to the revolution, I’d really be getting somewhere.  Moreover, this is seen as desirable, for it works to create a pro-revolutionary space.  This work will, at worst, serve as a signifier: Dave is a socialist revolutionary.  Good, that’s what I want to be!  But further, it has the capacity to change the environment: say that a reader is hit with this signifier: he could keep it all to himself, yes.  Or he could write something back, or contact me.  All of this is good, very good, because it serves to expand the space in which the socialist revolution is predominant.  Once this space becomes sufficiently large, it forms a Community.

So the deferred dream is, and I know I am going over familiar ground here, the deferred dream is the dream of the expansion of that socialist-revolutionary space, and the attainment of a sexual object within that space.   One reader advised me after reading an earlier section to “find a socialist girl”, either here or in New York City.  Sounds good to me!  I remarked to a sexual partner last month, that if I could find a hot Marxist-Leninist of any stripe, I would be liable to fall incurably into love.  A few questions are popping to mind.  First of all, let us take again our current muse, the young woman from Austin. Let us just simplify here and call her a ‘socialist’, whether she is or not.  Now let us return to the example of foot fetishism: say I am attracted to this young woman’s feet, they are the object-within-the-Object, an encapsulation of my desire.  The question is: are her feet, as a sexual object, socialist-revolutionary?  If so, would it not follow that it would be possible to dialog directly with the ‘socialist’ aspects of her feet, especially in contrast with ‘non-socialist’ feet which I nonetheless properly fetishize?  And how does this socialist-revolutionary character therein effect that experience itself, and serve to enhance it?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Tweed: Modern thinker, philosopher, cult leader, master of the TL;DR...

[Simfan34]

I found myself writing about Csikszentmihalyi just now and was immediately reminded of this series, which introduced me to his work. I'd forgotten what an undertaking this was.

Ironically, I am using Csikszentmihalyi as a very small piece in an argument where I postulate leaving the child masses out to pasture and redirect our resources to the gifted.