“The Difference between Poetry and Rhetoric.” and Between Art and Advertising, Performance and Performative, the Real and the Role

Art, properly understood, can afford an opening to what transcends us, such that its significance is crucial to our lives, and by the same token, its betrayal may lead to disaster. Recognition of this dynamic of the becoming of Truth enables us to reflect on new possibilities for our culture which is perhaps almost unable to face what may be its fate. Insights developed from Audre Lorde's definition, Heidegger's "poesis" and "aletheia," Merleau-Ponty's "parole originaire," (and my own coinage - "politique originaire"), J.L. Austin's "performative," Derrida's "deconstruction" and Lacan's account of the "Real" are used to illustrate its transformative potential in social, political and personal life (to the extent that these can be distinguished), as well as its essential and profound vulnerability.