Quite a while ago, about 6 weeks ago, I prepared an outline that was primarily inspired by a chapter of Zizek's Violence titled "Sexuality In The Atonal World". The essay I outlined was tentatively titled 'Master Signifiers, Atonal Worlds, And Clausewitzian Theory Of Choice."
I now intend to write that essay.
I plan on doing it tomorrow.
It will be very off the cuff, very quick, very personal.
Because the issues I hope to address are very personal issues.
The operative question is, Why is it so hard to talk to people in this world?
I think that the notion of master signifiers and atonality will help me in answering those questions. Because at the end of the day this is an essay about the culture that I live within. And those concepts are both meant to help me understand the type of world I live in.
But it goes even deeper than that, it goes into my soul.
Because culture is not just some abstract thing that exists 'out there'.
Culture is something that has been inscribed into my heart, into my soul.
Master signifiers have penetrated my soul.
I have, in many ways, been a passive recipient of my culture, of its ways of being, its master signifiers.
This essay is an attempt to uncover those master signifiers and to rewrite them.
This can also be put in terms of habit: the things that I habitually think and do are master signifiers. I have certain behaviors that go unquestioned, they appeal to no logic other than their own. These are habits, these are master signifiers.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to say that habit is the subjective expression of master signifiers. I kinda like that.
So, this essay is an attempt to uncover and modify my habits.
God.
So much of my writing has been about this issue of habit and the modification of habit.
I'll try.
I'm excited to write this essay tomorrow.
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