I learnt a new word today, abjection. From what I understand, from a sociological point, abjection must be something that is abhorred and the mere sight of it is repulsive. We show abjection to something that we have tried to keep away and do not want to be seen with.
In the same way, abject poverty is put in the same kettle of fish. Everyone want to be high heeled. Hence, we show our repulsiveness to being poor by putting it in the abject category.
We show abjection at people embroiled in the quagmire we once were, as if they are stuck in a time capsule that you somehow managed to escape. You want to erase all traces of you bring in the same boat. You abhor the boat people who you think would tarnish the sanitised world that you and your fellow countrymen have carved for yourselves.
We all clamour to be free from our unsavoury past. We go to great lengths to forget our old path which were paved with figments of our tarnished or unpleasant past. We want to unchain the shackles that bound us to our past history. At the same time, we do not want to forget our history, We know it has an uncanny habit to repeat itself. If we do not remember our past, how do we avert history when it comes back the second time around, maybe with vengeance. We would not be able to reach our promised land with our new found acquaintances.
The “abject” exists accordingly somewhere between the concept of an object and the concept of the subject, representing taboo elements of the self barely separated off in a liminal space; that within the boundaries of what one defines as subject – a part of oneself – and object – something that exists independently of oneself – there resides pieces that were once categorised as a part of oneself or one’s identity that has since been rejected – the abject.
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