…it’s a very good idea to look at the idea of nihilism; and questioning values, I think, because that is at the core of what nihilism is about – re-evaluating our values and asking, what are the values that we want, are the values that we hold ideals that exist in some utopian realm or some transcendent realm that can never be realised, or are they things that we can realise. And then I think production will also work differently, because at the moment it’s definitely focused on comfort. Most of it is about comfort and volume…
Quantity! Quantity as opposed to quality. …I believe that if you do start questioning the values, and you start questioning this idea of comfort and how important [comfort] should be, you won’t necessarily be focused on [producing] as much red meat as you can. You will maybe start to think of the quality, and so on.
Another one:
[Play] is a vehicle to becoming. …If you pick up a new form of play, or if you engage in any kind of play, you generally change your life, and who you are, how you think. You gain certain capacities; you might lose others! But the idea is that you change.
Karen and Corné du Plessis kindly joined me on the podcast to chat about food and nihilism. Sub-topics include: What nihilism is, types of nihilism, Nietzsche, Deleuze, vegetarianism and veganism, food production, comfort and discomfort, the questioning of values, ART, art as an uncomfortable experience and the role this plays, art and the making of new connections, the phenomenon of picky eaters in a context of endless food choices, Play as a vehicle to Becoming,Heston Blumenthal, mock turtle soup, the philosophy of play, the riddle of the utopian society, the limitations of utility thinking, difference and individuality, the impossibility of knowing what the greatest good is, assemblages, soilents, the Tibetan practice of removing dead bodies to the outskirts of the city to be eaten by wolves, a reference to nutrition being today where surgery was 200 years ago, the Spinozean notion that nobody knows what a body can do, why experiment with diet, health as stasis, Nietzsche’s illness, and acting the reactive.
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