Transcribed from Examined Life (Zeitgeist Films), the words of Avital Ronnell.
If we’re not anxious, if we’re okay with things, we’re not trying to explore or figure anything out. So anxiety is the mood of ethicity.
Now I’m not proscribing anxiety disorder for anyone. …
This is something Derrida has taught. If you feel that you’ve acquitted yourself honorably, then you’re not so ethical. If you have a good conscience, then you’re kind of worthless. If you think, “Oh, I gave this homeless person five bucks, I’m great,” then you’re irresponsible.
The responsible being is one who thinks they’ve never been responsible enough. They’ve never taken care enough of The Other.
The Other is so in excess of anything you can understand or grasp or reduce. This in itself creates an ethical relatedness, a relation without relation. You can’t presume to know or grasp The Other. The minute you think you know The Other, you’re ready to kill them.
I wonder…is this the case, or is this an outpouring of energy to prevent the pressure of caring for one's self and one's own actions? I've found in life that I very often take the road of caring for others beyond reason…and feel horrible when I fail, even if I'm the only one who knows…but it's possible I do that to escape really working on myself at times…
What I mean is, my “self” cannot be a patchwork quilt of what I give to others…
Again, you have made me think.
David
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You certainly raise an interesting point. It makes me reflect on two other things I think are true.
1. We can't truly love and accept other people until we first love and accept ourselves. (You can't give love from a place of emptiness and non-love. You can only give from your abundance.)
2. We often feel much happier when we're focusing outward.
The question I don't know how to answer is how to connect these two things with what I shared above – and how it can produce anxiety! 🙂
One way that it relates is that – if you are afflicted with anxiety over not doing as much for others as you feel you must – particularly if the extent to which you wish you could give is extreme – then there is no time to work on yourself. Also, it's possible you'd start believing you didn't deserve your own time or care if you felt you were falling short of your duty to others. But this is all extremes. The point of what you shared is well taken…when you believe you have arrived, or have reached completion, or… Read more »
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