Kensho shames me

Yes, yes, yes... I've got a book report due, and it's not ready yet.

Meantime, go read Kensho Godchaser's very interesting post on Mel Gibson and religious pluralism, and be sure to check out the comments section for writingwolf's insightful remarks. These folks aren't far from where I stand. In fact, writingwolf's position sounds an awful lot like Panikkar's "dialogical dialogue"-- i.e., you're not in the game because you expect the game to finish: the way is the goal; the dialogue is itself dialogical.

There's also some discussion, in the post and comments, of postmodernism and subjectivism. The term "postmodernism" has become about as vague and useless as the term "Hinduism"-- it's an umbrella rubric covering a very wide and often-disparate range of thought and action.

I personally have no trouble conflating PoMo and subjectivism, because that's in fact what so much PoMo is. From many PoMo-ers' point of view, Enlightenment rationality, with its objectivism and scientism, are both epistemological and moral mistakes (cf. again, Edith Wyschogrod's Saints and Postmodernism, which lays out the case for the PoMo condemnation of rationality as a major contributor to the "death event" that was the 20th century), which is why the stress was placed on a more subjectivist approach.

But that's not all: many PoMo thinkers would object to the very notion of a "subject"-- and in this antifoundationalism/nonessentialism, they have much in common with most Buddhists. This nonessentialism is in fact what gives certain PoMo-ers the grounds on which to reject the charge of subjectivism.

A decent book of postmodern theory that presents PoMo in all its hairy alterity is Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations by Steven Best and Douglas Kellner. It's a text designed for undergrads, but still pretty heavy reading-- not something you take to the toilet with you unless you're planning on dropping a mile-long turd.

What's cool about my blogroll is that I can move from this exploration of pluralism and alterity to Glenn, who's obviously not in a mood to deal amicably with The Other:

ATTENTION RETARDS

I know some of you don't like that word but I really could give a shit about what most of you think.

If you think you're getting something special... then you are a motherfucking moron and I ask that you leave this website and proceed to jump off a fucking bridge you dumb ass, know nothing, blog skimming, close minded, rude piece of shit retard.

And the misanthropy-mitigating finale:

May the force be with you.

So you're not necessarily doomed to hell.

_