Theory

[icycalm]

People usually say of my essays and this site that they are the most extreme, the most radical things written in the field of videogames. Some people see this as a positive aspect (at the very least one that makes these writings interesting), whilst many others, if not most, see it as a fault. It is indeed in the very nature of journalism, of commentary, of dialectics, to shy away from the extremes, because with the extremes journalism, commentary and dialectics become impossible.

So is radical thought something good or not? -- that is the question.

I have considered this question carefully and my answer is pretty straightforward: It is plain that the world is extreme, therefore in order to understand it, i.e. to mirror it in thought, thought itself must become at least equally extreme (more, if one wants to effect any kind of perceptible change whatsoever). In view of this, any compromise, any so-called "balanced" analysis, of the kind that journalists and academic thinkers regularly peddle, will not only simply lead straight to error -- it will also be pathetically ineffective in producing any kind of change whatsoever. (It is worth noting that even figures such as Jesus and Gandhi were, in their own way, extreme...)

Related to the above is this passage from Nietzsche's Will to Power:

We immoralists -- we are today the only power which needs no allies in order to come to victory: we are thus the strongest of the strong by far. We do not even require the lie: what other power can do without it? A powerful seduction fights on our side, the most powerful perhaps that exists: the seduction of truth... "Truth"? Who puts this word into my mouth? But I remove it again: but I disclaim that proud word: no, we do not need that either, we shall come to power and victory even without truth. The enchantment which fights on our side, the eye of Venus that charms even our opponents and makes them blind, is the magic of the extreme, the seduction exercised by everything extreme: we immoralists -- we are the most extreme...

Whoever wants to pursue this further should perhaps read Baudrillard's essay "Radical Thought":

http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=67

I will refrain from commenting on it at this time, thought I will say that I vehemently disagree with it.