Aesthetic Materialism

    Martha: [holding gun to forehead, sobbing] I can't go on!  My life is meaningless!  I'm going to end it all! Dick: Don't worry! All your problems are solved! Martha: [straightening up, sniffling] W-What do you mean?   Dick: There's an answer to all of your problems. Martha: What is it?  Tell me! Dick: Oh, I don't know. Martha: [putting gun back against forehead] I knew it!  There's no hope! Dick: Well, I don't know the answers, but I know who does. Martha: Who? Dick: A guy named Bill. Martha: You mean Bill from accounting? Dick: No, a different Bill. Martha: Bill the janitor? Dick: No, you don't know him. Martha: Can you introduce me to him? Dick: I don't know him either. Martha: Well, what's his last name? Dick: I don't know. Martha: You just made Bill up. Dick: No, he's real! Martha: So where is he? Dick: On vacation.  Look: this is a pair of shoelaces that once belonged to Bill.  That proves it! Martha: So how is this supposed to ...

If I were to sum up Wittgenstein in one word, it would be "repressive".  Wittgenstein's thought is a project of intimidation.  And generations of would-be philosophers have been made timid by his influence. Contrary to popular belief, postmodernism is not a product of continental philosophy - it comes from the analytic tradition's assault on continental philosophy, epitomized by Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein, in his later thought, claims that language only works within specific language games, and that the attempt to use language abstractly, outside of such specific language games, constitutes a misuse of language.  The answer to Wittgensteinism is simply to say, "Prove it."  Of course Wittgenstein cannot - nor can anyone else - prove it, for as soon as they started, they would be engaging in precisely the kind of abstraction, outside of any specific language game, that they forbid.  Any attempt at such an argument would be immediately self-defeating....