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Yeah, I think the ambiguity in the iceman’s formula would be if the embrace of death was really a metaphysical one — one that gave you peace of mind in a magical sense, rather than in the sense of actually killing oneself inwardly (which would be the psychological sense of it).

In the book on Lacan I have just read, the author says that Lacanianism was about realising that the ego is empty. This is, I would say, akin to Buddhism, which also counsels a certain ascetic indifference to life’s possibilities. However, I can also see how this idea as per Lacan can be very healthy too, if you are in a society which is generally sick, because it is better to have a calm mind and a nurtured indifference to how others see you than to chase after all sorts of things that you just “have to have”. If you are genuinely gifted and talented it is better to cut your losses so far as social awards and recognition goes — and just let it happen.

I saw The Iceman Cometh last night. I’m still thinking about the ambiguous message it imparted, concerning giving up one one’s dreams and embracing death in order to find peace. It seems to be the state of being that a lot of people find themselves in.

It also amazes me that this more or less sums up the deep structure of Reeducation: “The absolutist approach is kind of like the 1950s idea of authentic manhood. You know, you tell the woman what she ought to do and what she ought to be thinking. That is the only way to save her from her own hysteria.”

Making absolute statements that I don’t actually concur with is very stressful. You adopt a posture that is totally unnatural in doing so. No wonder this took all my energy and then some. Always to check oneself that one does not make a natural feeling statement, but the expected unnatural one, is tiring. And no wonder I used to rebel, and sometimes let out a number of conditional statements and then look around challengingly to see the response. Ah! It is difficult to have to fight oneself in this way.

It really seems that this is what those here who do not have at least a bachelor’s degree seem to want. They want some harsh rule setter to come down from the sky and tell them what is what. They want the authoritative recipe for life’s success. And yes they do see this as kind — even godlike.

By contrast, they read an enlightened approach to learning as so much dithering and uncertainty. The conditional statement is read in this way. It is not read as a statement of knowledge (in the positive sense) but as an emotional statement (in the negative sense). The absolute statement is read as the only form that a statement of knowledge can present itself in.