This is not a discussion about Bataille.
I have not read Bataille nor is it my intention to tell n0 thanky0u how to run his channel but this is merely a reflection on some of the comments he made on his video. I hope this blog post is taken to mean nothing else than that.
Now, there are a lot of things I could respond to like his thoughts on the stylistic changes of videos on YouTube.com but I believe it’s best to write only about one topic per post, so the only thing I will respond to is n0’s thoughts on Bataille and Anime.
To restate his argument as I understand it:
- Economic scarcity is an illusion. In the grand scheme of things, death and reproduction occur because of an over excess of energy beamed onto the earth by the sun. Excess energy in the economy is also used up in war and violence.
- To break free from this curse of abundance of energy we must become Sovereign.
- A “Sovereign” is someone who has broken the mind forged manacles of over-abundance by becoming non-productive.
- Watching anime, collecting otaku paraphernalia is non-productive labour (i.e. labour which does not produce anything that is used to produce anything else, but is done for its own sake).
- Therefore NEETs are “Sovereign” or at any rate involved in mostly Sovereign activity.
Okay, first of all I don’t think there is any point in arguing whether scarcity is an illusion or if it’s real. We wouldn’t get anywhere arguing about that. For the sake of argument let’s grant that there is no economic scarcity, that war is caused by people competing for the resultant excess resources, and that therefore if these excess resources/energy did not exist then there would be no war or violence or death.
On the other hand I can’t grant the idea, even for the the sake of argument, that death is somehow caused by an excess of energy because it goes against my understanding of biology… but I don’t feel like the argument I want to have hinges on this point anyway so let’s agree to disagree and move on.
Ultimately, the first question I have is where does the commercial art which Otaku produce fall under in this system? I ask this because most anime and a lot of otaku art is commercial art. Even if you pirate everything, just by talking about anime you are promoting it. Basically, I don’t think that you can say otaku art has meaning because it has no practical value. The reason for this is because it has commercial value (and therefore practical “use” value), and if you still see some value in it after knowing that then that must mean you value it for some other reason other than for the alleged reason that it serves no practical use value.
It’s not that I don’t feel the sickness in society, of the pursuit of productivity over everything else including happiness, and I can understand the impulse to reject all productive activity in an attempt to try to restore some balance, to bestow a soul to a soulless situation.
But let me ask y0u this, when you started watching anime for the first time, (anime like No Game No Life), did you think that it was genuinely worthless and of no practical value? Or did you feel like it contained valuable life lessons, some personal or social truth, which if not taken literally but taken to heart and applied in a nuanced manner might lead to some personal growth, friendship (solidarity), and human flourishing?
Finally, as an aside, let me also say that I don’t believe that true Sovereignty is possible without a minimal amount of productivity. I am not asking for something unrealistic like taking the means of production into your own hands or to tie all your self-worth to productive activities but it just basically doesn’t seem to be sustainable to have a growing community in a country to lead some kind of destitute aristocratic NEET existence reading doujinshi and finding the holy in the profane. But no, that’s not the important point… Whether it is practical, that is. No I have already made the important point.
edit: I generally support the message of not making content to get clout or views just to be a little dancing monkey making slop and $£ for Alphabet Inc. of course.
