Edward E. Wilson

Originally posted: Tue, Feb. 7th, 2006 19:22

“They must reinvent every gesture. But such a man produces himself as a free man” (Deleuze & Guattari, Anti-Oedipus 1972).

No one “true” ego exists anymore. Each self has to be grown-produced for each situation. Pseudopods. These self-organs can be used and abandoned, atrophied. New ones made the next time an interface is needed.

If a different self forms depending on the context then we can see that a self only exists as a distinction to an other. The self forms upon the surface of the boundary that we have produced. If we perceive the other in a different way then the distinction occurs at a different location and we have a different self. If we do not make this distinction then neither self nor other comes in the being. Being a self is making a boundary in the flow of experience. We can not interact with an other without making this boundary but we can learn to control how we relate by making the distinction at a different location.

The self is a structure that is built, produced, or grown on “our” side of the border in order to interface and interact with the other side.