In the light of the discussions on the Meaning of the Paris Attacks, I think this passage from Zizek would be rather pertinent: ...the prohibition to embrace a belief with a full passion explains why, today, culture is emerging as the central life-world category. Religion is permitted — not as a substantial way of life, but as a particular culture or, rather, life-style phenomenon: what legitimizes it is not its immanent truth-claim but the way it allows us to express our innermost feelings and attitudes. We no longer really believe, we just follow (some of the) religious rituals and mores as part of the respect for the life-style of the community to which we belong (recall the proverbial non-believing Jew who obeys kosher rules out of respect for tradition). I do not really believe in it, it is just part of my culture effectively seems to be the predominant mode of the disavowed/displaced belief characteristic of our times: what is a cultural life-style if not the fact that, although we do not believe in Santa Claus, there is a Christmas tree in every house and even in public places every December? Perhaps, then, culture is the name for all those things we practice without really believing in them, without taking them seriously. Is this not also the reason why science is not part of this notion of culture — it is all too real? And is this also not why we dismiss fundamentalist believers as barbarians, as anti-cultural, as a threat to culture — they dare to take seriously their beliefs? Today, we ultimately perceive as a threat to culture those who immediately live their culture, those who lack a distance towards it. Recall the outrage when, three years ago, the Taliban forces in Afghanistan dynamited the ancient Buddhist statues at Bamiyan: although none of us, enlightened Westerners, believed in the divinity of Buddha, we were so outraged because the Taliban Muslims did not show the appropriate respect for the cultural heritage of their own country and the entire humanity. Instead of believing through the other like all people of culture, they really believed in their own religion and thus had no great sensitivity for the cultural value of the monuments of other religions — for them, the Buddha statues were just fake idols, not cultural treasures. -Passion In The Era of Decaffeinated Belief
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:15:39 +0000
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