![[Parrhesia]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QBjZ!,w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc1bcf4ed-2dfe-4f99-9a6b-e68b31c9bb87_1168x1168.png)
![[Parrhesia]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QBjZ!,w_36,h_36,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc1bcf4ed-2dfe-4f99-9a6b-e68b31c9bb87_1168x1168.png)
Milady Symbiotics: On Parasites, Sophistry, and Metaxu
An Assemblage of Internet Randomness
4.18.2022
<Technolalia> focuses on Philosophy, Culture, and Tech and how those three categories interact. The content stems from original pieces to curated links and the occasional podcast.
You can now read <Technolalia> Newsletter in the new Substack app for iPhone.
Thanks for being a subscriber to <Technolalia> Newsletter. Last week’s Newsletter can be found below, as well as some of the things I’ve been reading lately:
Milady Symbiotics: On Parasites, Sophistry,and Metaxu
In biology, a parasite is an organism that integrates itself onto, or within another organism (host) and derives its sustenance from this organism’s enclosed biological system.
Philosophy has always been plagued by Parasites, as the practice often tends to lean into this modality. That being of the philosopher as a parasite of Sophia (knowledge or Wisdom.) It should be noted that Michel Serres has an excellent book on Parasites; this piece will heavily borrow the term and usage of Serres's concept of Parasites, which itself is not and will not be definitively exhausted.
Another form of Parasitism lies in language, as that which infects the host’s mind mimetically and reduces the being’s conceptual capabilities down to language. On Serres's account, Parasites are everywhere, and they are relational. They are not archetypal or essentially constrained.
It would be too naive to try reducing Michel Serres's work to one central idea or concept, but if it could be done, it would be that of The Message.
Messages seem to be fundamental to contemporary culture. The rise of the digital information age has only accelerated the transmission rate and the creation of messages. Serres likens or even equates messages with Angels. Angels are not relayers or messengers but are themselves the message. Biblically speaking, angels have always appeared with the arrival of new information.
With this in mind, we can see why in a time such as ours, our main cultural hegemon (regarding what few may call the Avant-garde) is Angelicism.
I’ve already written about Angelicism and my impressions and thoughts on it in a separate post. What I want to address is the appropriation, the parasitism, of Angelicism online and how this relates to Sophistry and Philosophy, of which both are themselves a type of Parasitism.
Without making any statements about whether or not Parasitism itself is good or bad, as, in nature, there are multiple forms of parasitism that both create affliction or, in some cases, benefit the host. Here too, we will address a multitude of modal relationships between knowledge, messages, and the relayers of said messages.
In Plato’s writing, Sophists did not pursue knowledge or Truth for its own sake; instead, they would give instruction or pass on Sophia for financial or material gain. Sophists under a particular relationship would be the parasite, as it were, parasitizing the youth of Athens, in a quite literal sense, for their sustenance and livelihood.
The main criticism regarding the use (and I must be cautious here as not to target Angelicism itself) of Angelcism as a Sophistic tactic. Much can be said regarding the validity of Angelicism that’s true, but when it comes to posturing oneself as grandiose or in the knowing, simply because of one’s relation to Angelicims in name: that is Sophistry. To add insult to injury, this is exacerbated by many crypto projects promising to relay the message that they are here to liberate, echoing the message of salvation and rapture, which, “you too can hook up and become a multiplicity, a transcendental unity, an assemblage via the blockchain.”
Contrary to what all the crypto-Mchulians may believe. Your grift is not the message. Promising salvation in return for a crypto tithe is sophistry par excellence. Their accelerationist eschatology is superficial and lacks any rigorous understanding of both faith as the message, but primarily of the tautological and transcendent truth that only the message is the message. To confuse oneself with the message itself is not only the ultimate form of hubris; these self-proclaimed Landians spew and regurgitate their excrement as ideas that are not their own and proclaim themselves as that which instantiates the process, those which will bring about the rapture, they fail to understand that God (the Noumenal) can not be represented. This is their most significant and most embarrassing shortcoming.
Ultimately one can not be saved by one’s grace, for we have none.
The parasitic relationship of the Philosopher is that of Metaxu, a notion first presented by Plato and then elaborated by Simone Weil as to represent the notion of in-betweenness or mixture. The philosopher becomes a mixture of a true flux, for they are that in-between space of the transcendent and of immanence. All parasitic relationships are themselves a form of metaxy/metaxu. Now, as Philosophers, we have a parasitic role with Sophia. Our pursuit of Knowledge is teleologically oriented both for truth’s sake but as the practice of ultimate unknowing. The Philosopher parasitizes culture, art, and concepts; they parasitize thought and thought them. The difference between this dynamic and that of the Sophist is Symbiosis and Mutualism. The Sophist only seeks knowledge for their gain, but the Philosopher is in a mutual relationship with Knowledge. Knowledge and the formation of the new are created by the Philosopher, but it is withered and stagnant with that of the Sophist.
Milady is a parasite and Angelicism is it’s host. I can’t get any more clear than that.
~Links~
“We no longer live addicted to speech; having lost our senses, now we are going to lose language, too. We will be addicted to data, naturally. Not data that comes from the world, or from language, but encoded data. To know is to inform oneself. Information is becoming our primary and universal addiction.”
— Michel Serres
As always, I would love to thank all of you who are subscribed to this Newsletter. If you are viewing this directly from a browser or link, please consider subscribing.
I would also like to send a special thank you to my Patrons:
Tim Canan (Patreon name)
H (Patreon name)
James McGlade (Patreon name)
PantherModern (Patreon name)
Tim Canan (Patreon name)
My Patreon is connected to the podcast I co-host with @YAgamben.
We recently opened up a Patreon to help support the expenses to keep some of these operations running, including hosting and things of that nature.
We strictly want to follow a “buy me a cup of coffee” model, so any “donation” for any period of time is welcome. If you would like to support any of the work we put out, consider becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/Decodecast.
-C.N.
Right, so my NFT grift pitch (gr/acc) is going to be hyper-imps. We take the Lemurs from the Numogram and we LIKE TOTALLY HYPER ACCELERATE THEM BRAH meaning we slap EXTRA numbers n' shiet on em. Gigowumpo netspan 7::6::33. Whazzapholn 88::4::7. G-BushoDidd 9::1::1. Every hyper-imp NFT will have a link to the Skull and Bones masonic Davos member you're helping leverage on the ponzychain. It is what it does, NOTHING.