Negative space – the paradox at the heart of Buribunkology

Abstract

ABSTRACT The careful insights of Carl Schmitt’s Die Buribunken resonate so strongly with the dominant post millennial Weltanschauung that it could be supposed that he was prophetic rather than merely philosophical. Indeed, the Buribunken project has so clearly established itself in the Lebenswelt that it would seem that world history is being written backwards. The ‘heightened self-awareness’ of a great life demonstrated by Ferker is now the model of the post-millennial, so that ‘every single one of [their] seconds can be recorded’ – not in an ink-written diary, but in a digital image. The temporal distortion of ‘history’ and ‘present’ should not disturb us – even though the ink immortalising Ferker’s cremated remains will, in the course of time, be digitised and take its place among the modern artefacts of history (if this has not already been done). The surveillance facilitated by Schnekke to result in historico-philosophical self-reflection built upon ink to incorporate film, photographs, and certainly implicitly, ejusdem generis, digitisation. There is a paradox in Buribunkian success, however. This chapter will consider the negative space at the heart of Buribunkdom – the loss of the unrecorded moment.