g.g. on world's end

If this day marks the end of that world, in which people feel entitled to gain full control over the desires and motivations of others, it is supposed to be a lovely day, said the nerd.

f.f. on equality

O yes, said the nerd, it's nice to think about a woman gaining professionally through a "functional marriage"; but see, as long as a woman is not capable of earning her money without any connection soever to her personal relationships, we don't seem to have come across a reasonable notion of equality, have we?

e.e. on goals

If you have a good goal that involves others: negotiate it - you think you cannot negotiate it? Then there os probably something wrong with your goal, said the nerd.

d.d. on hatred

Take your hatred back, said the nerd, it's not mine, it's yours; I can't use it.

c.c. on diaries

Isn't it strange, said the nerd, when she left that beautiful house in the Nordend of Frankfurt to the friend together with whom she had attended a literary salon on the diaries of the late Adorno and the fate of poor Gretel after his death, isn't it strange how discreet people handle a man who was known to relax from his genius work in brothels, and how less than decent they behave towards a woman who wrote some strange letters and diaries when working on her books, and they both wondered.

b.b. (on sanctions)

Dear friends, said the nerd, let me speak out for once on sanctions: I still don't believe in sanctions. Because the hand that causes pain by sanctions can never be accepted by those people whom you need in order to really overcome the regime: the very strong characters will never just "skip" their national pride. They DO need support from the West. And they need it as real partners. Their strength of opposition is depending on their economic and civil strength. But the more you press an entire state by sanctions, the more the regime you want to fight will concentrate the remnants of national wealth in its own hands, the weaker will the opposition be. If only the martyrs will still oppose their regime, then the outcome is, what we know already: a regime of martyrs. That is no good, friends, it is no good at all.

a.a.

If I were part of the rough folks or the strategic heads of the Syrian opposition, if I'd see that the conflict does not seem to end with a victory of either side, if I'd see that the government does not stop its attacks against the opposition and does not make any diplomatic effort, if I'd see that the Western world does nothing to help either side - I might feel tempted to say: why not provoke the neighbors who have Western affiliation so that they must needs react? The sad-eyed nerd, who didn't need to say that she just imagined how it would be, if, left her guests from the EinSatzLeitung with this, and didn't say a word to evaluate the forces fighting in that country.

z. context matters

Context matters, said a friend, and gave an example: yesterday, some swiss fake-company sent me a test -form of attractive simplicity. The "IQ-elite" was so very interested in analyzing my personality. They posed some questions, and you could choose between two sentences or four pictures (I'd rather be cool/ I tend to act warmheartedly, a picture showing different settings of evening occupation or holiday, where I'd always have prefered to be able to say, one evening reading, the other evening dining with friends, yet another evening dancing, and so on, but you had to choose one). Given, that they wanted to check your job-qualification, you would certainly sign the pictures and sentences in a way that could qualify you for a senior position in any job (the coolness, the mountains, the book etc.). Given, that they wanted to find out about your love-life and honor you with a nice partner, you would sign exactly the other pictures in order to be most attractive there (the dancing, the warmhearted way etc.). Given that they wanted to check your qualities as a performer in arts, you would sign in again another way (you would like to be in the shoes of Madonna rather than in those of Obama etc.). But how come that you expect them to reward you for anything, said the nerd, with a frown.

y.

Stupidity rules.

x.

Just a barking cat it was, said the nerd.

w.

What struck me most in your paper, said the nerd, is the easiness with which you seem to are doing away with the entire notion of autonomy, how do they call your business, is it Wir-alle-Werbung?

v.

A draft:

"In Vindication of 'Satan's Methodology, or: How to Deal withe the Notion of the Real in Psychology"

When Gershom Scholem read Hermann Cohen, he got very angry. He was sure that

Cohen’s move to found the humanities on normativity alone was either a whim or

the methodology of Satan. To simply admit that nothing is more real than our

yearning for reality, seemed unbearable to him. And certainly the vast majority of

scholars, philosophers and psychoanalysts and psychologists, would rather follow

Scholem’s exclamation than dive deeper into Cohen’s idea. To bother too much

about the reality of the real, is either being described as the symptom of a serious

mental illness or a theorem in the very complex building of Lacanian psychoanalysis.

But what if the ethically founded epoché concerning our knowledge about the reality

of the psychic movements of the other is not a loss in reality but rather a gain? What

if abstaining from an ontology of the mind is indeed a more secure and rational way

of dealing with the intersubjectivity of psychic events than any ontology of the mind

could ppossibly be?

It is these questions that make me want to vindicate Cohen’s revolutionary

approach as a very promising way of coping with the conceptional limits to anything

the brain can achieve by reflexion on itself and the brains of his fellowmen. Classical

Kantianism seemed to reduce the faculties which could be conquered by sound

reasoning to an almost unbearable degree in the eyes of Kant’s believing

contemporaries. Yet, in the end, it opened a wide space for new types of

knowledge. Couldn’t it be that Cohen’s Neo-Kantianism, that seems so much to

humiliate and restrict the spheres of knowledge about ourselves, will in the end

widen the space in which knowledge concerning our minds can move?

u.

Writing is rioting, said the nerd, and hoped they would read it in Moskwa.

t.

Naivety is hard work and a warm gun, said the nerd.

s.

Sustainability, sustainability, training, training, teaching, teaching, babbled the nerd, when I look at how you waste your time with showing off and on and up, if I see how you kill your time in your offices, I am sure, you are mainly running a business called "sustainable creation of hatred" - and, she added, I am saying that with regret, 'cause, in a way, I like you.

r.

I cannot make sense of that story, said the woman and dropped the paper with a frown; the nerd said, neither can I, but supposed you were strong - and someone fragile, whom you used to like or even admire until this very moment, would attack you, what do you think, would you make use of your strength?

q.

I was just thinking that I was the centre of the universe, said the nerd, but thank God you came to teach me how to limit my self-image, and grinned. We only tried to teach you to love and focus on really important matters, like humility and so on, said … Yes this was necessary, said the nerd, good bye then, now teach another rotton creature, they're all so desparately in need of it, believe me.

p. tax-numbers

In order to trade your "lovely book" (as such it was listed, said the nerd proudly and gratefully) you seem to be in need of an american tax number and/ or a luxembourgian vat-system, please fill in the w-7 form, send us a copy of your passport, assure us that you do not hold terrorist or other criminal purposes, and wait another 8 weeks or so, wtf, said the nerd.

o. as_if

As_if I hadn't tried to oppose, as if I had never spoken, as if I wasn't there, as_if_as_if_as_if, said the nerd, but the most shameful of it all are their rationalizations, their justifications, their unbroken propaganda, their … it is, in short, hopeless, she said, with a smile.

n. grilling

O, still grilling, asked the nerd, in a like high-browed way. She got a little angry, nothing worked in the more sophisticated technical sphere, while the campaigners were still trying to figure things out. She murmured some anger into her webcam, and concluded: well then, darlings, keep on grilling, that will give me at least a slight opportunity to answer your ridiculous questions - might help us all to a good laugh, might it not?

m. campaign failed

The campaign was officially ended - it had failed. Now, a new campaign would have to deal with the question: how to limit destruction after failed campaigns?

l. bill and unbill

Bill and Unbill came troubling down the street, when…

k. burnt witch

"Notorische Aufpasser gehören eigentlich hintergangen, oder?" said Beatryx Pirchner, "you don't mess around with burnt witches", said the nerd.

j. Stanzerl

Mozart wouldn't have been able to produce anything without Konstanze, said the man, yeah, you're right, said the woman, that's why I do no longer listen to Mozart's music, I only listen to what Konstanze has written, the great concert-halls should so so as well.

i. exposure

How come, said the nerd, that people, who seem to believe, like, they see you naked, are so unable to afford the little self-exposure of telling you how and why they think to be able to see you so utterly exposed?

h. the world-formula

The nerd had received very friendly words - or so they appeared. I'm no longer used to that, she muttered, haven't you noticed how far the IRR is willing to go? The IRR, asked the person walking beside her, what do you mean? The International Religous Reaction, she said, they don't even need to organise themselves, they still work on the sameself formula all over the world: Opression of women, Hatred towards female sexuality and other supposedly uncontrollable things, Hatred towards homosexuality, and a Frightening Fear  of Freedom. This is not a formula, said the friend. O, is it not, said the nerd.

g.

"So, what do you actually believe," asked the man, and he tried to be so neutrally interested. Somehow, the nerd was not as quick as she would have loved to be, or it was because she found it boring to repeat over and over again what must needs to be repeated. But still it has to be said: In a time, in which - again, and "nach alles" - it can be of real importance over your life, liberty and well-being, how you answer this question, there is only one possible answer to it: "You must not ask this question." That was what she should have said. But, deceived by the so very "neutral" place, or just tired, she said something elusive instead. Next day she thought she should have said: "Why don't you just ask me about the colour of my pubic hair?"Or:"Why don't you tell me something about your bank-account first?"

f. tango

Tango is so NOT my glass of wine, said the nerd, yawning, but if you tell me about a nice little jazz concert, that could be good.

e.

The civilizational competence of "the others" as well as "my own" reaches as far as the respective right to self-governance. If people behave in a civilized manner although the others do not allow for their autonomy, they are at best martyrs for the sake of their own self-esteem. What if they decide to refuse to suffer? A lot of the bad politics in the Middle East, a lot of gender trouble and other things, is about this central issue. To the strong and powerful in the world this means: If you want civilized neighbors, don't try to be wiser than they are by "knowing their real motives", for instance, but take their offers of civilized dealings seriously. "They have to prove maturity first", however, is a good sentence to begin a spin of escalation you won't be able to control in the end.

d. We Do not Accept Fallen Maidens Here

Today the nerd proudly presents her first English eBook: http://www.epubli.de/shop/buch/We-Do-Not-Accept-Fallen-Maidens-Here-Gesine-Palmer-9783844219128/13882

c. heartwinner

"I only want to win your heart for …" he said. The nerd said, "you don't have to go on, delete the 'for' and maybe, you …"

b. Share!

The female nerd had been strolling the web in the background of her working screen, as usual, and, as usual, the vast majority of calls were about "sharing"! I share, you share, he, she, it shares, the balance of life is maintained that way, the spiritual balances balance out quite nicley, or was it micely, there were Indians and aborigines who lived on sharing, and each and everyone was ready to share their wonderful pictures and advices, and probably also some devices, with one or more of their significant others, and the only question that was never posed by those who were so eager to call for a general sharingness was: what exactly is it you want whom exactly to share with whom? The nerd remained puzzled. It is not about thinking, they said, it is about feeling, you know? Something in your feelings must be - well, don't you want to share it? The nerd began to draw pictures of shire-horses, which was certainly none of the things she was expected to do. By definitely knowbody, I bet!

a. (high-pitched male voices)

Sometimes the nerds and the would-be nerds come crawling out of their rooms and gather together in one of those hipster-clubs in prenzlauer berg in order to talk. I mean really. I found this amazing. They do have bodies, they are bodies, they wear clothes, they move, they smell, and they really do look different. Sometimes you meet one of your facebook friends and find out, he or she really lokks like that damn old picture on FB, and they have the same name! Sometimes they don't look like their pictures but are identifyable. And in some cases you clearly identify the face with one of the pics you got, but the name is clearly not the same. Some look as if they are no less astounded than you are. And others are stunning because they all use the same type of high-pitched male voice you reckon is the fashion of the day!