To speak only about human meaning is to have ceded a gigantic area of reality — let’s call it the whole universe — to whatever is the currency of the realm: neoliberalism in the case of political economy, crude reductionist materialism in the case of ontology, possibly with an overlay of cultural relativism. How’s that been working out? Outside the university, cultural relativism has been repurposed, not as a way to say that society doesn’t have to be racist, but as a way to defend the use of the Confederate flag. By refusing to insist on reality — and in some cases refusing even to acknowledge it or demonizing anyone who does — the humanities has in effect acceded to the status quo unconsciously, protestations aside. There is a boring, oppressive gray elephant in the room, and our job is to talk about the 13 different ways of looking at it, and how those ways of looking never change it, or can’t — or shouldn’t — or are always already co-opted as quaint decorations for the boring oppressive tusks. Or there isn’t even a boring gray elephant — we made it up by talking about it, just like Wall Street makes up value. Who’s on the side of commodification now?

The above passage comes from a great article by Timothy Morton in defense of speculative realism.

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Image above: Glitchometry by Daniel Temkin

Tags:object oriented ontologypostmodernismprocess philosophyspeculative realismtimothy mortonwhitehead