The thing diminished and the thing exponential

Slavoj Žižek: "Increasingly in all areas we have the thing without having its nature. We have beer without alcohol, meat without fat, coffee without caffeine."*

But this is half the story. We also have the exponential version of the thing. We have fortified (high alcohol) beer, meat with "extra marbling," and "shock coffee."

We will always have with us the epicureans and stoics, Puritans and Roundheads.

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* „In allen Bereichen haben wir zunehmend das Ding ohne sein Wesen. Wir haben Bier ohne Alkohol, Fleisch ohne Fett, Kaffee ohne Koffein.“