The old joke circulating among Lacanians to exemplify the key role of the Other’s knowledge: a man who believes himself to be a grain of seed is taken to the mental institution where the doctors do their best to finally convince him that he is not a grain but a man; however, when he is cured (convinced that he is not a grain of seed but a man) and allowed to leave the hospital, he immediately comes back very trembling of scare [sic] - there is a chicken outside the door and that he is afraid that it would eat him. “Dear fellow,” says his doctor, “you know very well that you are not a grain of seed but a man”. “Of course I know that,” replies the patient, “but does the chicken know it?”

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Several events, both global and quite local, have brought back into the forefront of my mind a very terse and timely letter published in Libération in 1984 by Michel Foucault, shortly before his death:

Confronting Governments: Human Rights

Michel Foucault

We are just private individuals here, with no other grounds for speaking, or for speaking together, than a certain shared difficulty in enduring what is taking place. (more…)

Quantum of Solace, the latest chapter in the redefined 007 series, is jam-packed with curiosities.  Yet one motif sticks out among them: the scrambled message concerning environmentalism and what it means to be involved in a ‘green’ economy.
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Democracy in many ways is a loaded term, an ambiguous word with multifarious interpretations. But in all its incarnations and formulations there is a specific commonality that can, perhaps, best define what we mean – that democracy is nothing more than the activation of individual political beings in place of political subjects. (more…)

Werner Herzog, an oft-acclaimed and diverse filmmaker, has created what may be his finest Documentary achievement with Encouters at the End of the World. (more…)