Tracing the Riverbeds of Iconoclasm

This is a two-part video lecture in which I discuss the history and ontological formalization of iconoclasm, its Indo-European religious components, and its future. In particular, and insofar as I am am investigating this theme in relation to the theme of Time, I am looking at iconoclasm as, in part, a product of metaphysical modes of diurnal/nocturnal opposition. This reflects Immanuel Levinas' own tendencies to speak of theology in a Nocturnal language, as an exposure to the Infinity disclosed by "Height", and which I take to be indicative of the basic astro-theological character of Indo-European religion. Moreover, it is important to note that, at least by this astrological standard, Semitic religions are not "anti-Indo-European," but rather show themselves as a variety of such, if not linguistically. In this case, and historically speaking, both the Indo-European and Semitic religious tributaries are complicit in "iconodulatry" and "iconoclasm," and both reap its fruits, both in terms of theological criticism and violence. But what is even more important, neither are thereby ultimate causes, which I would suggest rather traces to Historiological Time itself: in our awareness of Time, we become entrenched in a Globalizing mentality, one that Universalizes by through the disclosing and destruction of possible futures.  This argument follows the view that the birth of History is itself a synonym for the End of Time, or "the End Times." In this respect, Post-Modernity figures as just one more phase in the enigma that is Historical-Being, and as such, is already in one respect anticipated and even transcended by the thought of the Gītā, which regards Time as the very limit of thought and action.  

Part I: 

Part II: