Fade Out Philosophy: How to Read a Tear

If in a web search you type the word “tear” you will find in the absolute majority “physiological” definitions of that word with brief nods to the cathartic value of a good cry with sobs outlined by some neuropsychiatrist (our grandmothers used to say the same thing!).

A philosopher of Fade out must question words, their etymology, his perception of such words in the present context with projection into the future.

Decontextualization has been the cultural phenomenon, primarily artistic then scientific and parascientific, that has characterized the twentieth century and the beginning of the current century.

Artists have always been anticipators of philosophical reflections: Daniel Defoe with his “Robinson Crusoe” outlined long before Adam Smith the “homo oeconomicus”; Dosteovsky anticipated “existentialism” and the crisis of values of a world (also fading). So artists, such as surrealists like Marcel Duchamp, used decontextualization to highlight the attitude of their contemporary and future thinking.

The decontextualization, although sometimes useful in some rare contexts, is now abused becoming a deception of the mind with serious repercussions in all areas of existence.

One cannot judge a historical figure of the Middle Ages with the sensitivity and the scale of values that we have today! That is why some statues, some symbols of the past, some historical memories are destroyed by some contemporary men: because of an absolute, blind and ignorant decontextualization.

The dream of the serial decontextualizer is to live on the island of Laputa by Jonathan Swift suspended over nothingness, over the death of History, of concepts, of thought.

No judge today would condemn a scientist for witchcraft (maybe some No vax!): in the Middle Ages (and a few years later too!) instead happened this and worse.

Decontextualization does not necessarily have negative connotations in absolute terms: written language and its invention, the instrument with which, for example, the thoughts in this article are communicated, was the first great phenomenon and manifestation of the same intellectual operation. Real world, objects, situations, events were abstracted, decontextualized and made usable by everyone not only in the present but also in the future.

The meditation of a man beside the fire could take on a valid guise for others: communication was born. The exchange of ideas, where, as someone said, if two men meet and exchange their opinion on a fact both go home with two ideas, while before we had only one (unlike the barter and trade of goods and money!).

So decontextualizing is not to be despised: but abusing it is! And the last 121 years have abused it to the point of making human beings insensitive and anesthetized in their souls.

So: what is a tear? What does it tell us? What does it communicate to us ?

If we see it as a “sign” If we see it as a “sign”, as if it were a “word” discharged from the soul, it can tell us many things.

The emotion, the pain, the happiness, the sadness, the joy and so on.

Is it obvious? If this is the case, ask yourself: why, despite all the tears that have been shed and that are still shed on this tormented planet of ours, even now there are men who believe themselves superior to others? Why is it that in spite of all the tears shed, racism, sexual discrimination and violence against women still exist? Why do millions of children die of hunger, disease, exploited in degrading jobs, denied childhood and education, denied food and medical care?

Tears should not only be heard but read!

They are a text written in another language, in other words to tell us how wrong we The majority of human beings are soul illiterates, they cannot read a tear. And some of these illiterates have the arrogance based on ignorance to decide the fate of many men, sometimes of the entire planet.

Recontextualizing a tear on the face of one of our fellow human beings, giving it the right weight in our time, the right interpretation is a huge effort certainly for those who follow “influencers” on the Internet, for those who put themselves at the center of the world in a delirium of pathological narcissism, in those who spend $30,000 for a plastic bag while a child, perhaps the son of the neighbors has no education, no medical care and dies of hunger and disease.

Contextualizing a tear of another human being within our existence is the first step towards a reassignment of meanings to words and things (Michel Foucault docet!). It is the first step to regain  the ownership of the syntax and grammar of authentic existence. In a world where so many people communicate through tattoos anger, hate and emptiness (tattoos are nothing more than the decontextualization of an identity if you have not noticed!), we learn to recognize the tears as tattoos of the soul and maybe we will be better.

Print