passivity

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patience

is a positive and difficult endeavor: In comparison to the urge to be active. He writes that 'the truly difficult thing is to step back and withdraw -the danger is not passivity but the urge to be active and participate'.

Even in much of today's progressive politics, the danger is not passivity, but pseudo-activity, the urge to be active and to participate. People intervene all the time, attempting to 'do something,' academics participate in meaningless debates... the truly difficult thing is to step back and to withdraw from it. Those in power often prefer even a critical participation to silence just to engage us in a dialogue, to make it sure that our ominous passivity is broken. Against such an interpassive mode in which we are active all the time to make sure that nothing will really change, the first truly critical step is to withdraw into passivity and to refuse to participate. This first step clears the ground for a true activity, for an act that will effectively change the coordinates of the constellation. (zizek 'how to read lacan' 23)

is a positive feature in politics insofar as the truly difficult thing is not to intervene but to step back and to withdraw from it.

People don't become inured to what they are shown if that's the right way to describe what happens because of the quantity of images dumped on them. It is passivity that dulls feeling. The states described as apathy, moral or emotional anesthesia, are full of feelings... the feelings are rage and frustration. Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others

is never good in excess. One shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands... one needs to be able to throw something back.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands... you need to be able to throw something back.

is unwise --- a nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

is powerful --- The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

passivity, n.Memes

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