charnas’ 2nd consideration on potential
philosopher mark charnas, kloof street, cape town, 5 june 2009
once potential is realized it becomes reduced, manifested into a single thing. this diminishment of itself is in fact the opposite of potential.
it is only when potential is not actualised that it has any potential.
June 6th, 2009 at 6:01 am
come live in durban and learn to live with eternal potential….
i do not see potential as a reduction/diminishment
but as a manifestation of completion which then leads onto whatever grows from that - there is no great shakes about this…it is a normal process of evolvement..
but now i realise why durban is obsessed with potential
it is terrified of what it will be reduced to…
because in manifesting itself it is to too fearful of
realising how little it has, how small it is, how
nothing it is: i.e. it obstinately refuses to move
on…it clings desperately to the only thing it has…
potential!
June 6th, 2009 at 8:46 am
well put helge!!! i think that is why so many of us originally from durban moved on.
there’s something fallacious about charnas’ definition of “potential”: it’s kinda upside down. it only considers the situations/things in which actors find themselves manifesting potential, not the potential of the actors themselves.
potential is asymptotic, by definition… to be potential, as mr charnas points out, it can’t be fully actualised. however, it doesn’t follow that the potential in someone is reduced to any “single thing” that potential has spawned.
the more you realise your potential, the more opens up for greater things. your potential to act is never diminished by something you’ve accomplished, even if your ability to exercise it in that particular situation or relationship reaches a dead end. your potential itself cannot be exhausted. unless you are dead.
don’t deny yourself agency. don’t rest on your laurels. and don’t ever claim to be all washed up, that your best work is behind you (look at leonard cohen).
June 6th, 2009 at 10:39 am
intriguingly mr. charnas originally comes from durban. we were at durban high school together in the 1970s.
June 6th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
so if one’s potential is to be
less than what is possible
one may as well stick with potential
the unmanifest
that way one never has to prove anything
which once again brings this ‘argument’ back to durbin!
June 6th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
that wasn’t what i meant, helge, if you read it again…
one’s potential isn’t related to a context of possibility directly. only the expression of that potential is. that is the difference that i was trying to point out.
hence, one should get out of durban if it’s cramping one’s style. that’s kinda the nub of it.
June 6th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
there cannot be a difference between the context of
possibility and its expression - the one stems from
the other
otherwise it is all nonsense, make believe, add on..
think about it…
but
durban has never cramped my style
and i have a history to prove it
quite obviously durban has never been able to rise to
the occasion
and again i have a history to prove it!
but
what i wrote was not written in response to your
statement..:)
June 6th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
i think the confusion arises because you are are using ‘potential’ and ‘possibility’ as synonyms, but i’m not. potential and possibility are different things.
potential is the ability inherent in one to express/do.
possibility is the context available to express/do what you have potential to. and sometimes no matter how much potential you have, the context stops you from being able to achieve all you’d like to.
i know durban has *never* cramped your style: you have helped define a lot of what is great in durban! you have been very influential. i completely agree with you about durban just not being able to get it. some of us got frustrated by small-minded durban just never fucking getting it, so we moved elsewhere, where there was greater possibility.
June 7th, 2009 at 7:17 am
whoever, i agree with what you say in the first
response!
all i am trying to demonstrate is to what extent durban
is an aberration and in that sense charnas statement
is logically applicable to durban!
let’s hope the moses madhiba stadium blasts durban
into the 21st century….its the last hope!
August 21st, 2009 at 10:43 am
Don’t spoil potential with ambition…