Language and Vulnerability

“Language gives no stable ground to humanity, makes no room for our signs and representations. If we do so, if we make images and express ourselves, we do so only at the risk of the selves we so desperately long to present and represent. For language intervenes in the lives of those who seek to use it with a force and a violence that can only be compared to ... light, to the tear of the blinding, inhuman, and uncontrollable light that comes through a window - something soft, that breaks” (Keenan "Windows" 136)

Something that really struck me about this week’s readings was the concept of language as a form of light, as something public, and therefore something that upon using it make us vulnerable. Language is one of the most universal ways of exposing yourself, allowing the public access to what is the most private thing about us: our minds (and the privacy of our minds is something that has troubled philosophers of mind for centuries). As Professor Chun said, to speak is to put yourself at risk of being misunderstood. As I write this, and then post this, making my thoughts public and open to scrutiny, I am opening myself up to being criticized and judged, and even misinterpreted and it is terrifying. But then why am I so scared about posting on this blog, opening up my window to you, when I peruse Facebook so casually? Facebook is so open, but I feel some much less exposed when I hold social interactions with people on their public walls, post my feelings as a status, show and share my phone number with everyone. I am not afraid to have a public telephone conversation.

“The window implies a theory of the human subject as a theory of politics, and the subject's variable status as public or private individual is defined by its position relative to this window . . . Behind it, the individual is a knowing - that is, seeing, theorizing - subject. In front of it, on the street for instance, the subject assumes public rights and responsibilities, appears, acts, intervenes in the sphere it shares with other subjects” (132)

It is so much easier for me to look out the window, from my safe at others in the public sphere. Maybe because I am not expected to be profound, erudite, or cultivated when I am on Facebook or the phone. I am not intentionally interacting with anyone that I don’t already know. YOU right now are intentionally my audience and you actually should be paying attention to what I am saying, but I barely know you. You have been invited to look in my window, as opposed to Facebook-stalking or eavesdropping. When I do something in front of an open window, I risk that people can see in, but really don’t care. When I put on a show by my window, and invite people to look in, then it really matters. Every time we talk in class, it is a matter of politics, of grades, of judgement, or being known to the world, or maybe it is genuinely about sharing great knowledge. I know that I am a knowing, thinking, individual, and I now have to prove that to you. And this post is supposed to interact with the other posts, but we are all still singing aloud to our iPods, in our own little bubbles, insulated and pretending to share our spheres with others.

We always say “Home Sweet Home” because the private is so much more comfortable.