Philosophy in the time of warlessness
French philosopher Michel Foucault visited and wrote in Iran during the overthrow of the Shah's regime, but he did not take a position on the Algerian issue which concerned his own home country. Or so everybody was told by a lecturer at the Alliance Francaise last week in Colombo.

Staying disengaged therefore is one's choice, it was said. For instance, it is this columnist's choice to rage about the foreign policy of the United Sates while there are fires burning at home, in Batticaloa or in the rest of the Eastern province!

Last week's lecturer also went on to say that the post-structuralist philosopher Derrida disowned his own Algerian origins and wouldn't even talk about them. This too was a matter of choice.

No, I'm not making any sweeping statements about the provocative French philosophers of deconstructionism and post structuralism, but merely pondering on the freedom to stay disengaged.

For the most part the Sri Lankan intellectual community has stayed disengaged from the developments around them in the recent past, particularly the two major issues concerning the politics of the day, the 2002 ceasefire agreement and the 2004 election of the UPFA government, which includes the formidable coalition partner the JVP.

A few who are actively engaged in prognosticating on the issues of war and peace, have been making their own submissions from a standpoint essentially of the political scientist. There has been the usual hawk versus dove debate, crudely put, between the likes of Jayadeva Uyangoda and H. L. de Silva. The latter took a shot dripping with sarcasm at Uyangoda when he referred to Uyangoda's latest foray into the areas of the unchartered, which is "non-territorial" federalism.

Silva scoffed at Uyangoda's "sophistry'' and without saying it, implied that Uyangoda is guilty of the worst kind of pandering by alluding to something nonsensical and non-existent such as "non-territorial federalism''.

But at least at the level of partisan thrust and parry, these are a few among the intelligentsia in the public sphere who have been engaged on the issues in some form. The majority on the other hand have been intellectually dead - - and here, again, though the reference may not be entirely fair, it's worth quoting our lecturer at the Alliance who invoked Nietzsche to say "God is dead.'' Going on from there he drew from Foucault (who in turn had drawn from Nietzsche) to say "God is dead -- therefore man is dead.''

Watching the extent of the disengagement in the current Sri Lankan milieu, maybe both questions can be flung about - - like plonking down on the counter, a bagel with a salami and mozzarella sandwich at a French delicatessen. Is God dead here in this island? Is man dead also?

Maybe both are dead, judging by the monumental nature of the intellectual disengagement. The Jathika Chinthanaya debates are over, and so are the exchanges by and large, on the issues of globalisation, poverty and the influence of the Non-Governmental Organisations.

Either the intelligentsia fails to think - - or if they do, they keep their thoughts to themselves. Maybe it is more of the former, because, it's easy to see people saying in newspaper interviews that they "do not have time to think'' as if it was a qualification. It fits in, almost as if it was an accomplishment -- the way it used to be when people said in those days "ah, he is a self-made man.''

So, for one reason or the other people stayed disengaged, but the clock did not stop. Future historians writing about the present time will say that there was a terrible lack of intellectual scrutiny in the newspapers of the day, when the JVP was trying hard to usurp the political high ground from the conventional political groupings, with the thousand Weva programme. As Gunadasa Amarasekera said after the April 2002 election, hardly anybody saw the significance of the JVP's advent to the so-called corridors of power. All these things will be noted down with a measure of acid cynicism by future historians - - that's if there are any historians left in the future to write about these things. If there are no thinkers today, we need to take seriously the supposition that there maybe no historians left for tomorrow, but that being a different "problematic'' altogether?

No no! If I'm inadvertently problematizing these thoughts already, it's not in my territory to proeblematize - - that being the exclusive purview of those who practise clean living and high thinking. As and when it takes the fancy, a bit (or a lot?) of both can be practised. But, it's also difficult to resist the temptation of pricking pomposities by the sidelines - - and here, one necessarily needs to go from the sublime to the ridiculous to say "one crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.''

But yet, it's not the intention here to deliver myself of such incidental observations quite out of the context of anything, as if I was throwing parts of my salami-and-mozzarella all over the dining area. Even if we do not problematize, we badly need to contextualise!

The fact is that while our intellectual community went into hibernation, things happened gradually, and while there was talk of high-treason and indifferent governance, the Liberation Tigers announced this week that they are willing to consider the proposals of the government and break the deadlock.

On the face of it, this was a sign of maturity on their part that the disengaged may have missed. Those who recognise a red flag instantly will ask why anybody has to say "on the face of it'' if he is making such a positive observation about the LTTE? The words "on the face of it'' are just a necessary rider, because the news is not reliable until it fully percolates and is digested in the public domain. But if the news is absolutely right as it looks to be, it marks yet another progression that will confound those who have been hunkered down by cynicism. There is no need to go lyrical now, and say, "God is not dead after all - he has awoken'', and man has to resurrect himself too in short order. God maybe dead and man may still be dead, but for anybody out there who has still some life left in him, there is a little spark of recognition that something is happening, and that accepted patterns are being broken.

One aspect of the LTTE's slow modification of its hard-line is that the organisation still remains schizophrenic. One part of it keeps bumping off political opponents while another keeps springing positive surprises. It maybe a type of madness of the times that Foucault documented in his treatise Madness and Civilisation! When God and man are both dead, one can hardly expect the rearguard of those who are alive to be perfect specimens of human decency and rectitude?

In its bare bones, the nation is confronted with an inbred cynicism. Years of confrontation and economic lethargy have contributed to this state of stoic acceptance. Hard boiled cynicism about everything, it is suspect, is part and parcel of this intellectual inactivity. It's a question of "use it or lose it'' -- even though the way a former Vice Presidential hopeful in the United States put it was quite disastrous. He said: "A mind is a terrible thing to waste.''

Ineptly at least, he got his point across. The sea of wasted minds in Sri Lanka are a breeding ground for dead-ness (…god is dead, man is dead?) and cynicism. Never mind the alive, but at least the un-dead need to continue hoping, and reposing some faith in the fact that the LTTE is changing, the state is changing, and the nation is transforming itself from being moribund to being fully alive.

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