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going back for a second the to 1984 analogy, remember what has been raised in passing above--that domination in orwell's text was a function of discourse.
it was a function of domination of discourse by television and of a population more than willing to submit to the logic of the medium. a population willing to adopt a short collective memory, a population willing to get their information from a single source, and to adjust their interpretive framework as the media required them.
it was a vision of a population willing to dominate itself, control itself, censor itself. that most interpretations of orwell try to align this with stalinism is only partially true--it is as much about the type of domination--or rather the modality of submission--that you see being extended in america as we sit here typing. you might remember as well that the population in 1984 was also quite sure that it was free--more than that--the population understood itself as all the more free through the total mobilization of war.
conservative discourse in power is an authoritarian discourse.
think about it.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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