one man is king... other men... subjects

"one man is king only because other men stand in the relation of subjects to him. they, on the contrary, imagine that they are subjects because he is king” 

here marx gives an example of reflextive categories (relations in general) in hegel. (horsemouth is indebted to ben for this quote). it reminds him of althusser's interest in precisely how marx does his thinking even though althusser's view on it would be an anathema to ben. 

it reminds horsemouth of john berger's formulations in ways of seeing. the key word here is imagine.

kings are of course not like other men, they are magical creatures, they are tabooed, the food they have touched may not be consumed, should the harvest fail they may be sacrificed as an offering to the gods (here horsemouth should probably go back and re-read totem and taboo). 

sadly this is now observed less literally than it once was. we are into the days of a constitutional monarchy (whatever that is). ersatz kings and queens are sacrificed on many different ballot boxes and derive their legitimacy from them likewise. 

horsemouth will be ignoring the days of mourning for the old queen (what the fuck is this? game of thrones?) he has no time for their puppet shows. the strikes and the measures to stop the population freezing to death this winter he will pay attention to.  

meanwhile signs of life at hawbinge towers. they claim to be editing the show on choose your masques (one of the dullest hawkwind albums ever made). horsemouth had suspected the youngster had done a runner faced with the decades of dross. here an interview with the oldster (and long established fan) andy hood - and decent it is too. 

yesterday a wander (in fact conducted by bus) with ayesha up to the william morris museum to see the althea mcnish exhibit. later howard visited (on his way back from work) and they sank some beers (by way of food all horsemouth had to offer was toast). 

thereafter horsemouth went to bed early.