Need, desire.
For a long time now modern man has forgotten how to talk in terms of what he needs, for to talk in terms of needs is to recognize one's limits, one's dependence on others and other things. Desires, on the other hand, are limitless and point to-at least theoretically-a person's autonomy, his or her freedom from necessity.
You don't ask why you desire something or someone (let's just stick with 'thing' to avoid unnecessary complications)..tastes are just taken as given, they just 'are'.
To speak of desires is easy and nothing is lost; they are often light, weightless, nothing that reveals too much about you the person, whereas needs get to the core of what you're about; needs single you out as fundamentally lacking in something. What is more isolating than a person in need? Paradoxically, there is a tendency to reaffirm a kind of unity with other needy beings...what defines us, in this reading, is that we share the same needs. For example, the needs of the body, even if mediated by society, are held to be universal, non-relative. And around that a form of politics can be built, perhaps...universal rights. But what of the needs that cannot be expressed such, or that are not so easily recognizable? I need you, I don't need you. Indeed!
Economics doesn't help here. Preferences or desires are not distinguished according to how they relate to what we really need. Any reflection on what we ought to desire isn't part of the story. The intensity of one's preferences or desires doesn't have to relate to some intrinsic value of the object of one's desire; in fact, one's desiring is what makes the object valuable.
Somehow you think that if you knew what you really needed you'd know yourself.
To speak of desires is easy and nothing is lost; they are often light, weightless, nothing that reveals too much about you the person, whereas needs get to the core of what you're about; needs single you out as fundamentally lacking in something. What is more isolating than a person in need? Paradoxically, there is a tendency to reaffirm a kind of unity with other needy beings...what defines us, in this reading, is that we share the same needs. For example, the needs of the body, even if mediated by society, are held to be universal, non-relative. And around that a form of politics can be built, perhaps...universal rights. But what of the needs that cannot be expressed such, or that are not so easily recognizable? I need you, I don't need you. Indeed!
Economics doesn't help here. Preferences or desires are not distinguished according to how they relate to what we really need. Any reflection on what we ought to desire isn't part of the story. The intensity of one's preferences or desires doesn't have to relate to some intrinsic value of the object of one's desire; in fact, one's desiring is what makes the object valuable.
Somehow you think that if you knew what you really needed you'd know yourself.
3 comments:
to approach this from a gender-point, i am amazed as to how many men i have known who deny the reality of "need", they don't use this word for themselves (as you say, it reveals a certain vulnerability) - while i know of no woman speaking in similar terms (maybe because a woman experiences the deepest form of "need" and vulnerability through her new-born child, who is entirely dependent on her, is only "need" so to say).
anyway, there are also those other men like him, the one you also quoted, who portray themselves as always-needing and play upon their vulnerability :-)
here, this is wonderful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fhhOZNYCY
Yes, I think you're right Roxana. Vulnerability and fragility go against the idea of autonomy-and maybe care as well? I think if we could see ourselves as 'rational dependent animals' rather than self-interested maximizers we'd have made progress.
I'm not sure I get you, though...I wasn't trying to portray a person who makes a play of their needs..in fact, I was suggesting just the opposite problem: the way in which society will turn away from recognizing other people's needs. One of the basic human needs is surely one of recognition/acknowledgement?
So, maybe two dangers here: by admitting one's needs in public one is open to the accusation that one is either a "loser" (as the Americans say) or that one is playing them up.
"I wasn't trying to portray a person who makes a play of their needs"
i haven't said that! this was my own comment upon Cohen's style, i wasn't talking about you here or your post... you had brought him into discussion with that song.
Post a Comment