In contrast to the discourse of reality and rationality,

which bets on the fact that there is something (some meaning) rather than nothing,

and which, in the last analysis,

wants to be built on the preservative notion of an objective and decipherable world,

radical thought bets on the illusion of the world.

This thought wants to be illusion,

restituting non-veracity to the facts, non- signification to the world,

and formulating the reverse hypothesis

that there may be nothing rather than something,

tracking down this nothingness

which runs under the apparent continuation of meaning.

–Excerpt, Radical Thought by Jean Baudrillard

It is Saturday, and time for one last effort, a parting shot in the struggle to write some lines worth remembering.

A great deal happens in the course of a week.  There’s the cell phone news feed, the social media posts, electronic sources of information which impress us as endless.  A cacophony of words, impossible to outrun this avalanche.  The temptation is to think that the truth is lost, and we feel lost without knowing “the facts.”  And there are many iterations, versions of the way it is or the way it was.

Take the trial of officer Derek Chauvin for killing a Black man, George Floyd as an example.  The prosecution and the defense tell two oppositional stories, the jury is charged with discerning, deciphering the truth.  Law is a matter of definitions…

What if there is nothing, emptiness at the foundation of every definition?  I know, that’s a contrarian hypothesis. Such a reverse hypothesis … where would it lead, in what direction might we journey?

Maybe toward a more just, a less violent society…

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Well, another way to make the same point.  This tune by Exile presents a version of reality, a fabulous illusion if you will, — a lyrical painting of a male and female relationship.  Is love real?  Real enough.