Political theatre seems to be on the uptick. Or rather it is being foregrounded by media puppets. Take the government shut down as example one. Or the debt ceiling, which is just part of the same show. Or better, take the raids on Somalia and Libya. These really are the stuff of kitsch TV and film. From Raialyoum... "A US official told CNN television that the Libyan Government had been informed in advance of the raid carried out by u.s. special forces in broad daylight, but Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan denied this, saying he had demanded an explanation from Washington and stressing that Libya was, ‘Keen on prosecuting any Libyan citizen inside Libya’. However, his keenness … [Read more...]

I wanted to follow up on the last post. And I want to discuss in a sense why Tragedy seems to impossible today. I recently found myself in long debates about two popular cultural products, The Avengers and Breaking Bad. I realized that this sort of discussion is problematic, in the same way Obamacare arguments are problematic. It is problematic because government shutdown is just bad theatre. Just a bad movie. But to explain that to, even, a lot of leftists, requires a long and often tedious discussion. Same with having to discuss The Avengers. Someone had gotten very upset at the idea that I called, what was clearly a favorite film, "fascist". But this raises the question of what I began … [Read more...]

"*I am what I am*. This is marketing's latest offering to the world, the final stage in the development of advertising, far beyond the exhortations to be different, to be oneself, and drink Pepsi. Decades of concepts in order to get to where we are, to arrive at pure tautology. I equals I". The Invisible Committee. One of the questions one is often confronted with is to explain why or how an artwork has value, or quality. Now, in one way, this blog has often been about exactly this, but what I'm more thinking about here are the prevailing assumptions this culture demonstrates in it's non specialized outlets. Given that there is so little arts education anymore, I often find distinct … [Read more...]

Here is a story that is not uncommon these days. http://www.adistinctiveworld.net/health-department-raids-community-picnic-and-destroys-all-food-with-bleach/ And this curious bit of legislation: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-09/kansas-s-self-destruct-button-a-bill-to-outlaw-sustainability.html And this.....http://jonathanturley.org/2013/09/19/95-year-old-man-in-nursing-home-resists-going-to-hospital-police-arrive-and-shoot-and-kill-him-stun-gun-and-bean-bag-rounds/ These are examples of an ascension of irrationality in state agencies, and a new level of aggression. That is the key, the aggression is coming out of a culture now inundated with representations of violence. … [Read more...]

Nothing arouses the almost religious indignation of the U.S. populace (the educated liberal class anyway, and that means mostly white) than to criticize their favorite TV shows. Vince Gilligan's AMC series Breaking Bad has, as we close in on the final two episodes, reached clear cult status now. I've seen it compared to Dostoyevsky and Kafka. What accounts for the show's over-valuation? I think the clearest answer, the most simple, is that it flatters the intended audience. Network Demographics has it this way: AMC targets viewers 18-49, viewers 25-54, males 18-49 and males 25-54, according to its 2007 Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau profile. For full-year 2007 the network … [Read more...]

"...the certain realization that Kafka's entire work constitutes a code of gestures which surely had no definite symbolic meaning..." Walter Benjamin, On The 10th Anniversary of Kafka's Death I want to continue on fromn that last post, and also to incorporate some of the long comments thread, and also try to more specifically look at this idea of violence in the West, and its cultural expressions. The link below is almost a daily occurance now. http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/09/12-1 The new theatre of violence is this temporary stage on the side of the highway. This mini drama encapsulates the thrust of the white male system of domination. The beating of a woman, … [Read more...]

"There is no need for you to leave the house. Stay at your table and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t even wait, be completely quiet and alone. The world will offer itself to you to be unmaksed, it can’t do otherwise, in raptures it will writhe before you." Franz Kafka "...we must acknowledge at the outset that our concept of 'social identity' is a product of that culture (American political culture) and that only within that culture can an author's racial, ethnic, or gender identity found a politics of cultural curricular revision." John Guillary Media today is the single most powerful force in shaping our sense of identity, and of socio-political reality. Mass … [Read more...]

"We are witnessing transitions from social-welfare states to social-control states around the world. We are facing a global crisis that is unprecedented, given its magnitude, its global reach, the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the sheer scale of the means of violence. We truly face a crisis of humanity; we have entered a period of great upheavals, of momentous changes and uncertainties. " William Robinson The painting above is by Italian fascist painter Mario Sironi. It is a magnificent and haunting work. Sironi was a strange isolated figure even when rabidly supporting Mussolini. He was an architect of sorts, but his plain brutal buildings were not met … [Read more...]