Peregrinations of the Beautiful Soul

All too often the siren song of the beautiful soul these days comes in the form of a call to act, NOW! In this sense it appears to be its opposite. Let me give you a brief example from a Twitter exchange I just had:

“Michael Moore is self-serving because his movies have not created real, substantial social change. The point is to CHANGE things, NOW.”

I'm sure Stalin said quite similar things.

It sounds awfully like the Nature injunction:

“The point is to stop thinking, stop reflecting, go OUT and ACT.”

That's why I get a little queasy when I read Brassier's translation of Meillassoux: “the great outdoors.”

The cynical ideological distance typical of modernity is maintained by these injunctions to act, which induce the guilt that cripples genuine action—which of course includes reflection and art.