The Messiah will come as soon as the most unbridled individualism of faith becomes possible—when there is no one to destroy this possibility and no one to suffer its destruction; hence the graves will open themselves. (Franz Kafka, from “The Coming of the Messiah”1) The two things which etiquette requires we refrain from talking about in polite company—these being politics and religion—are the two things I mean to discuss here directly. At the outset, I feel compelled to admi

Ideology does not vanish when cultural theorists explain it. Material relations and unconscious desires recapitulate it. Theory does affect practice in subtle ways. However, the common sense assumption of philosophers directing action is an idealistic one. Language, which originates in one context, quickly becomes appropriated for use in quite different ones. Language functions like what Roland Barthes, in his essay, “Myth Today,” called a “constantly moving turnstile.”1 Alte