I am under the general impression that most Americans are not famaliar with the name ‘Jean Baudrillard’. A modern French philosopher, Baudrillard writes mostly on the concept of being and also has written on modern concepts such as information and knowledge in a digital age. I was first exposed to Baudrillard in a book titled ‘The Illusion of the End’–a book centered primarily on the concept of human progress in a world drowning in the wake of too much information. (I have written an unpublished editorial on this book and I hope to publish it on this blog after I complete the edits)
Finding that Baudrilliard’s writing style was both provoking and charming, I decided to read yet another of his books titled, ‘Impossible Exchange’ with the vast amounts of free time I have over summer vacation *sarcasm*. Fortunately, his books are always rather short and concise… it makes reading him much less painful.
Moving along, I wanted to touch on a few pieces in his book that especially grabbed my attention.
“Nietzsche analyzed the stratagem of God in these terms: in redeeming man’s debt by the scraifice of his son, God, the great Creditor, created a situation where the debt could never be redeemed by the debtor, since it has already been redeemed by the creditor. In this way, He created the possibility of an endless circulation of that debt, which man will bear as his perpetual sin. This is the ruse of God, But it is also the ruse of capital, which at the same time as it plunges the world into ever greater debt, works simultaneously to redeem that debt, thus creating a situation in which it will never be able to be canceled or exchanged for anythign.”
I’ve never considered the concept of God and his relation to man’s sin in a Creditor/Debtor relationship before. It is quite an interesting blend of academic fields… I disagree, though, that the endless circulation of debt is the consequence of His redemption. The fact that he has redeemed his own from the burden of debt means that IT no longer exists. The sin still exists, but the debt created by the sin does not. A small but important point.
Secondly, I had never realized that invested capital is actually very akin to debt (I’m not sure he is to be taken literally on this point… so I am extrapolating a bit). Capitalizing investments make it very difficult to USE the investment for anything other than it’s capitalized purpose. You are then ‘locked-in’ to the investment… held subject to its performance… it’s interesting to think around that concept at any rate.
All for now. more to come.
