To be meshamet can, under some circumstances, mean to surrender. Shemitta as surrender, as a dis-arrogation to oneself of prerogatives whose exercise could injure rather than enrich one, is a way to recognize how it is that in the realm of abundance every addition is also a subtraction, that after the threshold of abundance has been passed, the marginal utility of 'more' not only gets smaller, it can easily go negative, and when it goes negative it does so infra-marginally, catastrophically. Shemitta recognizes that regularly and periodically the best thing a person could do for his welfare is to let go, to surrender and to refresh.
'Resistance is futile' was the slogan of the Borg, the life-form of ruthless, mechanical efficiency and reproduction through assimilation rather than through insemination and gestation. The Borg were the emblem of the life-crushing collective. It is ironic that the complement to 'resistance is futile,' namely 'surrender is inevitable' could well be the slogan for the most effective way to achieve personal fulfillment and individuality. Dis-arrogation is not the same as embracing the mechanical collective. It is rather the expression of recognizign one's limits and of opting for depth over grandeur.
07 April 2009
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