Tuesday, 8 March 2016



A desire must imply a venturing and an uncertainty of outcome, must exist in a context where histories of success blossom alongside histories of failure. The protagonist of such stories is not the desire but a self whose degree of being is at stake, even if such a self is only constructed after the desire has appeared. It is a finite game, the aim of which is to win, to be finished and only then to freely choose a new game or not. It can only end with a win, if you lose then you go on playing, you can't let go of it especially now that a self is involved, your self! - but the nature of the game has changed, now you are playing not only for the original goal but to erase your former loss. In this way it comes to resemble an infinite game, a game whose aim is to keep playing. This is a deviation of desire and of the strategies that are employed to satisfy it. The notion of a strategy only comes up and receives attention after a string of losses. Winners have no strategy, they are their strategy, but only losers notice this. A strong motive for the inwardising turn is the idea of an inner game as the ultimate winning strategy. Every partial awakening brings with it two observations; that large amounts of the burden of the self can drop away without any resistance or drama, almost magically, and that what takes their place is a freedom and playfulness startlingly devoid of any quality of strangeness. This freedom seems close to winning and fertilises desire.

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