Closed
and open
In a space with positive
curvature the dynamics of the human project tends to be buckled
up in the enclosure of its loop.
In a space with negative curvature, on the contrary, this dynamics, far from being able to be buckle up, opens exponentially.
There is ultimately, beyond the
important human decision, something like an ontological decision of
the being itself, between the 'same' and the 'other'. Either the
identity is buckled on itself in safety or the difference opens
infinitely.
Around the `same' the space is bent and takes a positive curvature. The reign of the `same' buckles its roundness in this enclosure. On the contrary the 'other' opens the space in negative curvature. The difference and the transcendence push towards the explosion of the enclosures.
Let
us still return to the allegory of the cave by Plato. A most
vertiginous question put to man. Can these cave dwellers, locked
up since their birth, have the slightest doubt on what appears to
them to be the 'real'? They lack any reference to the 'other'. They
are prisoners of the 'same'. This 'same' is thus the sole lawmaker and like an absolute to them.
The 'other' Word coming from
elsewhere has only few chances to be heard in the middle of these assured
and settled voices. If it dared to raise the voice it would
be expelled at once with violence. Isn't it the
bad conscience of the cave? And moreover isn't it
suspicious-looking in this enclosure where it spoils captive
euphorias? And yet it knows…
Thus
you have to leave. Only from outside the 'whole' of your situation
will be clear. But when are you gone far enough 'outside' to see
every thing from outside? Is it possible to go out infinitely?
Undoubtedly such a total 'breaking out' will remain forever
impossible. However this impossibility should not condemn the effort
to try the limits.
The range of the allegory is infinite. The human reality never finishes leaving the cave and making its exodus. Today more than ever. The extreme human decision does not cease being played between the 'closed' and the 'open'.
goto