"Why is there something instead of nothing?" is the question generally regarded as the starting point for Heidegger's metaphysics. For the rarified few who have slogged through several hundred pages of Being and Time only to arrive at the realization that little will be understood without reading it again (probably in the original German) and then realizing that this will never happen, it will surely imbue us with awe and pride that a member of our city council attempted to solve our budget challenges by subsuming Heideggerian metaphysics within the Hegelian dialectic. Check it out:
As I glanced at Winburn's "Plan C" budget proposal with the barely conscious minimal scrutiny I glance at all things Winburn, I noted the similarity with Heideggerian metaphysics. Just as Heidegger began his quest with "Why is there something instead of nothing," so too did Winburn begin his budget with "Why is there some budget instead of no budget?"
And with a nod to Hegel, Winburn then drafted his "Plan C" antithesis to City Manager Dohoney's thetical (I guess that has to be a word, right?) budget. Replacing sense and sensibility with pride and prejudice and parks and police, Winburn's proposal is a true gem of nothingness, a donut hole in the pastry shop of municipal government, an ill-conceived sideshow exorcism of a possessed's unschizophrenic cousin.
As November approaches we can expect more Winburn junkets to the Squeaky Wheel Islands and I'm sure 1230AM radio will provide us regular dispatches. And who knows, maybe an arts issue will come up and give us the chance to discover Winburnian aesthetics. I have no doubt it would be as profound as his metaphysics.
1 comment:
I started that Being & Time after seeing the movie Ister. I had to take a break & read up on Marx, tho, who, it turns out, was as absolutely miserable as Ayn Rand.
I wonder sometimes what it would be like to spend some time alone with the Windbag.
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