You can definitely fall into a hole from going through an entire bottle in one sitting, and you're 120% guaranteed to projectile vomit a big red A on the carpet, turning it into an anarchist flag.
There are people whose desires behave in every way like sexual ones, but who at the same time entirely disregard the sexual organs or their normal use; people of this kind are known as "perverts."
Perversion was defined by Freud as any form of sexual behaviour which deviates from the norm of heterosexual genital intercourse.
However, this defmition is problematized by Freud's own notions of the polymorphous perversity of all human sexuality, which is characterized by the absence of any pregiven natural order.
Lacan overcomes this impasse in Freudian theory by defining perversion not as a form of behaviour but as a clinical structure.
"What is perversion? It is not simply an aberration in relation to social criteria, an anomaly contrary to good morals, although this register is not absent, nor is it an atypicality according to natural criteria, namely that it more or less derogates from the reproductive finality of the sexual union. It is something else in its very structure."
The distinction between perverse acts and the perverse structure implies that, while there are certain sexual acts which are closely associated with perverse structures, it is also possible that such acts may be engaged in by non-perverse subjects, and equally possible that a perverse subject may never actually engage in such acts.
It also implies a universalist position; while social disapproval and the infraction of "good morals" may be what determines whether a particular act is perverse or not, this is not the essence of the perverse structure.
A perverse structure remains perverse even when the acts associated with it are socially approved. Moreover, in Lacan's formulation, it is the neurotic subject who is in conflict with the Name-of-the-Father, in other words, with Law as such. The perverse subject, on the other hand, 'knows very well' the letter of the Law--in other words, knows what the Other desires. The perverse structure follows the Law to the letter, follows the "No" of the Father--the dictum not to enjoy. According to Jean Clavreul, " As far as the pervert is concerned, this conflict [between desire and Law] is resolved by making desire the law of his acts."
Hence Lacan regards homosexuality as a perversion even when practiced in Ancient Greece, where it was widely tolerated.
This is not because homosexuality or any other form of sexuality is naturally perverse; on the contrary, the perverse nature of homosexuality is entirely a question of its infringement of the normative requirements of the Oedipus complex.
Thus Lacan criticizes Freud for forgetting at times that the importance of heterosexuality in the Oedipal myth is a question of norms and not of nature.
The analyst's neutrality forbids him from taking sides with these norms; rather than defending such norms or attacking them, the analyst seeks merely to expose their incidence in the subject's history.
There are two main ways in which Lacan characterizes the perverse structure.
Perversion is distinguished from the other clinical structures by the operation of disavowal.
The pervert disavows castration; he perceives that the mother lacks the phallus, and at the same time refuses to accept the reality of this traumatic perception.
This is most evident in fetishism (the "perversion of perversions") where the fetish is a symbolic substitute for the mother's missing phallus. One can also formulate the fetish object as a veil that the perverse subject erects in front of the Thing in order to avoid an encounter with it.
However, this problematic relation to the phallus is not exclusive to fetishism but extends to all the perversions.
"The whole problem of the perversions consists in conceiving how the child, in his relation to the mother . . . identifies himself with the imaginary object of [her] desire [i.e. the phallus]."
This is why the preoedipal imaginary triangle plays such an important role in the perverse structure.
In the perversions, the phallus can only function as veiled.
Perversion is also a particular way in which the subject situates himself in relation to the drive.
In perversion, the subject locates himself as object of the drive, as the means of the Other's jouissance.
This is to invert the structure of fantasy, which is why the formula for perversion appears as a <> $ in the first schema in "Kant with Sade", the inversion of the matheme of fantasy.
The pervert assumes the position of the object-instrument of the "will-to-enjoy"(volonté-de-jouissance), which is not his own will but that of the big Other.
The pervert does not pursue his activity for his own pleasure, but for the enjoyment of the big Other.
He finds enjoyment precisely in this instrumentalization, in working for the enjoyment of the Other.
"The subject here makes himself the instrument of the Other's jouissance."
Thus in scopophilia (also spelled scoptophilia), which comprises exhibitionism and voyeurism, the pervert locates himself as the object of the scopic drive.
In sadism/masochism, the subject locates himself as the object of the invocatory drive.
The pervert is the person in whom the structure of the drive is most clearly revealed, and also the person who carries the attempt to go beyond the pleasure principle to the limit, "he who goes as far as he can along the path of jouissance."
Freud's remark that "the neuroses are the negative of the perversions" has sometimes been interpreted as meaning that perversion is simply the direct expression of a natural instinct which is repressed in neurosis.
However, Lacan rejects this interpretation entirely.
Firstly, the drive is not to be conceived of as a natural instinct which could be discharged in a direct way; it has no zero degree of satisfaction.
Secondly, as is clear from the above remarks, the pervert's relation to the drive is just as complex and elaborated as that of the neurotic.
From the point of view of genetic development, perversion is at the same level as neurosis; both have reached the third "time" of the Oedipus complex.
Perversion therefore "presents the same dimensional richness as [a neurosis], the same abundance, the same rhythms, the same stages."
It is therefore necessary to interpret Freud's remark in another way: perversion is structured in an inverse way to neurosis, but is equally structured.
While neurosis is characterized by a question, perversion is characterised by the lack of a question; the pervert does not doubt that his acts serve the jouissance of the Other.
Karl Marx's Capital can be read as a work of economics, sociology and history. He addresses a myriad of topics, but is most generally trying to present a systematic account of the nature, development, and future of the capitalist system. There is a strong economic focus to this work, and Marx addresses the nature of commodities, wages and the worker-capitalist relationship, among other things. Much of this work tries to show the ways in which workers are exploited by the capitalist mode of production. He also provides a history of past exploitations. Marx argues that the capitalist system is ultimately unstable, because it cannot endlessly sustain profits. Thus, it provides a more technical background to some of his more generally accessible works, like The Communist Manifesto.
Marx argues that commodities have both a use-value and an exchange-value, and that their exchange-value is rooted in how much labor-power went into them. While traditionally people bought commodities in order to use them, capitalists use commodities differently. Their final goal is increased profit. Therefore, they put out money and buy commodities, in order to sell those commodities for a profit. The cycle then repeats itself. The reason why the capitalists are able to make a profit is that they only need to pay workers their value (how much it takes to keep them functional), but the workers produce more than that amount in a day. Thus, the workers are exploited. The capitalists are able to do this because they have more power, and control the means of production. Furthermore, the workers' character is negatively affected by the system. They don't own the products of their labor, and the repetitive work they have to do makes them little more than machines.
The Duke: Within a budding grove, the girls think but of love. Hear the radio, drinking tea and to hell with being free. They've no idea the bourgeoisie has never hesitated to kill its children.
The President: Homage to the rear temple is often more fervent than the other.
The Duke: This howling is the most exciting thing I have ever heard.
The Duke: I remember I once had a mother too, who aroused similar feelings in me. As soon as I could, I sent her to the next world. I have never known such subtle pleasure as when she closed her eyes for the last time.
The Magistrate: Signora Vaccari is sure to soon turn them into first class whores. Nothing is more contagious than evil.
The Duke: Dear friends, marrying each other's daughters will unite our destinies for ever.
The Duke: We Fascists are the only true anarchists, naturally, once we're masters of the state. In fact, the one true anarchy is that of power.
Signora Castelli: It is not enough to kill the same person over and over again. It is far more recommendable to kill as many beings as possible.
The Duke: It is when I see others degraded that I rejoice knowing it is better to be me than the scum of "the people." Whenever men are equal, without that difference, happiness cannot exist. So you wouldn't aid the humble, the unhappy. In all the world no voluptuousness flatters the senses more than social privilege.
The Bishop: Idiot, did you really think we would kill you? Don't you see we want to kill you a thousand times, to the limits of eternity, if eternity could have limits?
The Duke: The limit of love is always needing an accomplice.
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