Max Herman on Wed, 25 Aug 1999 14:57:30 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> Re: the Histor or network analyst



I was just reading my website, the definition of History.  It comes from the 
Greek for "learned man," or "histor."  This is of course a synonym for 
genius, on one level.    

Therefore the entire concept of history comes from the concept of individual 
genius, and the yin and yang are totally out of whack.  How can history and 
individual cognition interact in a dynamic union if they are reduced in 
advance to exactly the same thing?  

So the Western idea of history is based even etymologically on the hierarchy 
of a genius class.  This reduction of phenomena in the name of administrative 
efficiency deprives the phenomena of their complexities and thus their 
existence.  Administration pretends to articulate the ineffable and for that 
reason nullifies it.

What if the phenomena one day disappear completely, even their traces 
disappear?  Maybe we're already left only with traces.


Max Herman
The Genius 2000 Project
Day of Demonstration Sept. 1
www.geocities.com/~genius-2000

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