The Transparent Society

The German-Korean philosopher continues to impress.
Made me think of the veil and the western/English fascination with it. Part of that fascination is no doubt down to the grumpiness of middle aged men who feel they have to comment on what women wear and how women wear clothes. But I think a larger part of it is really that it just comes across as mighty odd. I think the English sensibility is quite happy with a bit if difference-as long as you don't stand out and as long as you don't draw attention to yourself. It's a form of tolerance- or at least humility- I suppose. Wearing strange headgear might be passed off as simply coming across as a bit silly. But the covering of the face is way off the scale.

Then there's the question of autonomy. Some people (rightly) claim that this is sometimes a case of the imposition of male ideas of purity and not about women's free choice at all. Perhaps it's also about male fears of sexuality. 



All that can readily be granted. But I wonder if it isn't in part also about the horror of the fact that something remains secretive, hidden, in a world where everything must be exposed, brought out into the light. A world, that is, of bright surfaces and complete transparency. 

That desire for openness is itself not, you think, merely a product of the more fundamental desire to do away with all mystery, superstition. It's got more to do-at least in its current manifestation-with capitalism's need for smooth surface and friction-less places where the movement of capital cannot be interrupted. Show business. Show me the money. 

In a transparent society there can be no distances (including the distances of time). Immediate wants (not even desires). The constantly moving happiness machine. Just go with the flow. Just do it. In a pornographic society there is no desire or eroticism. In fact, there is no Other (whence the narcissism of the modern age).