Tangible Philosophy

Hello, my name is Chris Leonardi (this should have been tragically obvious by my user name.) I'm a senior in High School in Dumas, TX (pronounced "middle-o'-nowhere") and have been involved in policy debate for coming-on four years now. This experience with policy debate has created a very unique exposure to the world of philosophy and critical theory for me (almost entirely because of Hank and his brother), and is what has led to this collaboration between myself, the Tank, Adam, Gonzaba and others who may contribute in the future. I'll be going to college next year in one of two institutions with top 10 communications programs where I'll work to receive my PhD in political communications studies.

My background in policy debate is rather mixed, and admittedly, boring. I've only ever attended a handful of competitive tournaments, some of which I've won and some of which I've lost, but more wins than losses, which is always a good thing. I won't go into any kind of history of accomplishments or medals or seeds or war stories: mostly because it has nothing to do with this blog, but also because that would be egotistical. Ask if you must.

My background in philosophy, however, is directly relevant, and I will expand on it (at length when necessary.) I began my reading in a very difficult and interesting place: after being defeated on a Nietzschean criticism in a debate round my freshmen year by Hank's older brother Preston (He probably remembers the round, semis of some local on the Africa topic) I decided to read up on this "philosophy" business and see how it was relevant to policy-making. I began with what my parents told me was the beginning of philosophy: a copy of Plato's "Republic". Since then my interest in philosophy has always been tinged with a normative spur to apply our thought to the political. My interests span from Nietzschean explorations of aesthetics and ontology to Marxist strategies of revolutionary organization in contemporary resistance to Deleuze/Guattari's writings to Derridean/Artaudian notions of language. My appetite for thought is interminably expansive. Even if I'm not familiar with a body of work, I'll begin to read it at a mere suggestion or a slight pique of interest. My main focus, out of all of these categories above, is the works of Deleuze and Guattari and their applications to the modern process of politics and the composure of space. While this will (hopefully) be a large part of my field of study in the field of communications as my degree progresses, I aim to use this blog to explore the finer points of how political and communicative/ontological space are formed through the physical aspects of space.

Which brings us to this blog. If you take nothing else from this blog, take this: always search and question new ways to apply the leviathan-esque metaphors and nebulous ideas of writers and thinkers to the world in very particular, active ways. I intend to provide such an outlet for the generation of new lines of thinking that fracture the contemporary frames of reference that form both our physical and metaphysical space by introducing questions and problems about the application of our thought to the world around us.

Welcome to Lines of Fracture: stay awhile and enjoy the view. I take this name as a means of, not of translating thought into action, but of an irreparable blending of the two. Philosophy should not be something left to "high thinkers" and "scholars" - we are all scholars. Thought is the single most potent weapon in human history, and the refusal of the masses to wield it only represents a death of politics. This is a reclamation of philosophical thought for the every-man: let's begin.

Signed,

Chris Leonardi