Beyond the proliferating multiplicity of identities in
the contemporary political arena based on cultures, languages, regions,
religions, nations, sexes, classes, and special interests, what makes us truly
one without limits, without exclusions and restrictions—is nothing. Precisely
Nothing. And nothing is more important for us to grasp than this, in order to
be able to live together on our shrinking, globalized planet. This nothing is
the nothing specifiable or stateable of the single individual, the person
herself or himself intimated or divined behind or beyond all categories and
groupings into which his or her specific differences can be fit. It is the
nakedness of our person. That is what is truly universal. All fundamentally are
this nakedness: in it alone, all are equal. Without any support from outside,
without superiority of class, gender, race, or social standing, the naked self
stands alone in the dignity of having nothing to disguise it or to answer for
it, no alibi but itself. As such, each of us can stand out, ex-ist (from
the Greek ἵστημι,
to stand or make stand) in the full stature of our uniqueness and, at the same
time, our universality. This is a universality of being nothing—nothing
that can be said or specified.
William Franke
Vanderbilt University
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