Reactions on the concept of despair

I.

Conscious desire is always obscure. When I claim to desire, I am the one who does so. But there is no determinate I. I cannot define myself as if I were something foreign to me. Thus, every self-determination is self-defeating.

II.

Traumatic events are not superseded by means of their being in the past. What has shaped me is now a part of who I am. This thing that I am is shaped by past events.

III.

For the unconscious does not take time into account.

IV.

No self-determination will do. Claiming to be flawed is a way of protecting myself from the possibility of change. Thus, possibility is a form of denial; but what I am becomes determined by this very act of denial.

V.

My relating to the world as my other; that is, as something other than me which I am not, shapes me and not the world.

VI.

My relating to others, whether negative or positive, constrains me to their denial or acceptance.

VII.

Therefore, the struggle for recognition is in a way the struggle to be determined by the other.

VIII.

Sadness is pleasurable in that it entails the acceptance of the negative relation to the world.

IX.

But conflating sadness and depth, as I used to do, will not do. For depth does not entail a better understanding of the self or the world. And neither does sadness, which resigns itself to the denial of the external.

X.

Thus, despair does not lead to anything other than itself. The deepest, most authentic despair will not do. It will not lead into faithfulness.

XI.

For faith is an empty predicate.

XII.

Faithfulness is not properly self-deceit. Faith affirms one relation while denying any other possibility. There is no possible outcome for faith. Faith leads to the certainty of the necessity of the expected outcome.

XIII.

The believer is not concerned with the outcome. It does not depend on them. Therefore, the final product of faith is the most radical form of self-denial.

XIV.

Desire, as Blake pointed out, turns sacredness into vacuum. The categorial mistake relies in opposing desire and reason.

XV.

"Where man is not, nature is barren." Blake's Proverbs of Hell point towards the general idea where opposites are unified. Not for us, but themselves.

XVI.

But no further theological commitment is necessary in order to grasp the totality. And we do not have resources to see the unity. Thus, nature is indeed barren.

XVII.

Temporal beings cannot be completed. Their mere existence rejects contradiction. Thus, the single idea of continuous, stable happiness conflates it with depth.

XVIII.

For there is no deeper understanding in accepting sadness, or despair, or happiness.

XIX.

Reality, therefore, remains elusive.