This post is about the rapture. Carles concludes this post, which is ostensibly about the possibility of extraterrestial lifeforms, with an offhand reference about the future of his writing: "In 2k10, HIPSTERRUNOFF.com will be a blog about ‘The Mission: How can we transport 6 billion people outside of our solar system before the sun blows up.’" Of course, the solution to this apparently insolvable riddle is the evangelical Christian notion of the rapture, by which believers will be bodily removed by a deity from their condition of immanence and be physically transported into the heretofore metaphysical realm of a spiritual haven. This concept was memorably explored in a series of fictional works by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the Left Behind series, the theological and eschatological credibility of which has been questioned by some commentators.
Despite his oblique reference to the idea, Carles himself seems skeptical of the rapture solution to the intractable mind/body, substance/essence dualism problem which plagues philosophic inquiry. Is soul a substance, as the rapture implies? Or, as Carles questions, "Does ’space’ make yall feel insignificant/deep?" That is, is the principle of extension itself a death sentence on the species? Does it invalidate any sort of ultimate meaning, while rendering depth psychology uselessly relative? "Do yall believe that there is life somewhere out there?" Carles asks, externalizing the problem that plagues all mortal conscious creatures internally.Once we exist in a space-time continuum, is it possible to be anything other than agnostic on the question of immmortality? "How will we be able 2 live 4ever?" Carles asks, without resolving the dualism question, without identifying a unifying transcendental substance that can be held as guarantor of ontic continuity.
Carles seems to hold more faith in an extraterrestrial as opposed to transcendental being, though his references to "aliens" here are ambiguous in their reference points, as he may be conducting a multi-pronged critique of the status of the outsider in cultural, national, religious, metaphysical, and planetary terms. In that sense, as Carles notes, "aliens are the key to everything." They afford the potentiality of a standpoint from which to critique subjectivity that would not be marred with theusual conundrums of immanent critique. They allow us to escape the "‘house of mirrors’" Carles complains about: "all I can see are poorly executed reflections of myself whenever I look around." To achieve a view from beyond the noetic funhouse, one must be able to make a leap into the impossible, into a epistemology unconstrained by the Kantian a prioris.
Another way of looking at it: Only a perspective from outside the prevailing hegemony ("the only way left to let the world know that you are alternative would be by ‘being from another planet/galaxy/universe’") can offer transformative insight ("Maybe they could teach us all more about life. Maybe they could teach us how 2 be happy") -- if we can resist the reactionary urge to forcibly assimilate them: "It is important that we ’show them a good time’ when we run into them at music festivals, instead of ‘being snarky’ and ‘analyzing their personal brands.’" Philosophical profundity may appear to us in the guise of fashion novelty, Carles intimates, so using the critique familiar to us from consumer capitalism may lead to the premature dismissal of epistemic breaks.
Interestingly, Carles expects hedonic lessons to come from outside the ideological veil, which seemingly uses the promise of happiness to keep itself fastened over our heads. Perhaps Carles is suggesting that what we recognize as happiness will have to be abandoned upon a radical confrontation with an alien hedonism. We will be on the brink of transcendence when our joy becomes sorrow. Perhaps the widespread epidemic of depression heralds that we are on the brink of a breakthrough. Bonjour tristesse!
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