The Continental as Radical Difference

During a very recently drawn-out discussion, I was finally informed, with not just a small amount of bemused exasperation, that I, “write in the continental way… emphasis on con.” 

The discussion was on radical difference.

Quod erat demonstradum.

Self-contradiction according to the law of non-contradiction

I’ve been scrutinizing this list with relish:

Self-contradicting words in English

Totally stress-relieving.

PS. If you do not get it, please refer back to my shrinking sense of humour.

Suck on it, suckers.

Watermelon Flavored Sigmund Freud Head Pops
Once you get over the initial reluctance to put a human head in your mouth, you’ll find that the subtle contours and watermelon flavor of these Sigmund Freud Head Pops are worth the strange looks you’ll get as you suck them. Each sucker is about 2-1/4″ tall with a 4″ plastic stick. Twenty-four individually wrapped lollipops in each illustrated display box.

Watermelon Flavored Sigmund Freud Head Pops
item 11771
Box of 24 $27.95 (USD)

(Link)

There are so many things I love about this, I don’t even know where to begin.

Nihilism

With a title like Theory Of Nothing, I’m surely asking for it.

What is the Theory Of Nothing?

We all know about the theory of everything. After all, there are so many versions of it out there. In philosophy, first (philosophy is always first), there was Plato, then Aristotle, then Hegel. In science, there was Einstein, and now there’s quantum physics with its M-theory. In literature and pop culture, there has never been a shortage of books, plays and songs entitled, “The Theory of Everything.” On the mass media front, there are tv shows, radio shows, pod casts and blogs, each and every single one of them the theory of everything. In digital participatory communities such as Wikipedia, you can also find your definition of the theory of everything. And if you go to Google, the ultimate search engine of everything, it will proudly present you with no less than 683,000 theories of everything. That’s quite a number of theories of everything, considering that if the theory of everything is indeed the theory of everything, then shouldn’t one theory of everything be the Theory Of Everything?

And then there’s the Theory Of Nothing. Sure, a Google search will turn up 18,200 theories of nothing. Only about 37 times less than the theories of everything, but still a pretty damn large number of theories of nothing. But who was even staking the theory of nothing as the one single theory of everything in the first place? Anything x 0 = 0 right? No matter how many theories of nothing there are out there, each of these theories is still the theory of nothing.

Talk about nihilism. After all that tracing of the history of philosophy, science, literature, pop culture, mass media, digital communities, etc, and all those stupendous numbers, the theory of nothing is the theory of nothing.

Is that all there is to the Theory Of Nothing? Itself? The Theory Of Nothing? Nothing? Is that what this blog is going to be about? Nothing despite everything painstakingly designed (ok, so I filched a standard WordPress template, but hey, I did put it all together), thought about, written and finally, posted and published? Nothing despite the archives sagging down my sidebar here (yes, they are empty now, but I’m speaking metaphorically and hopefully about the future lifespan of this blog… (double parantheses for the nihilism in thinking about mortality at birth)) and bearing witness to everything?

More about Nietzsche and Heidegger later, I promise. This is already too much for a first post. And a first post on nihilism. Or is this first post on Theory Of Nothing? Nietzsche and Heidegger later, I promise.