Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - The GOP gets caught in yet another media scam

roachboy · 02-04-2005, 07:20 AM

bush is the discourse of democracy what stalin was to the discourse of socialism.

the qualification added a bit later:

it seems that in their paranoia about dissent--which extends to a hostility toward pluralism, the administration makes a mockery of the principles that it espouses. its handling of the press--which is in the great tradition of the reagan administration (who in turn got their inspiration from thatchers degrading control over the british press during the falklands war)--is a good microcosm for this.

the parallel bush/stalin has to do only with their corrosive effect on the ideological language that they use to legitimate themselves and their actions--a language that is opposed at almost every meanignful level to what they are in fact doing on the ground. i make the parallel as a function of the work i have done in my real life on the gradual implosion of marxism through the post world war 2 period: the long grinding away of referentiality ion the language of marxism came to a head with the hungarian revolution--in france, this lines up with a collapse of a whole tradition of worker mobilization at the factory-floor level....

you have a parallel process going on with the discourse of democracy now. which is in many ways the worst possible outcome for the abiilty of folk in oppressive situations to imagine something other than what exists.

02-04-2005, 07:20 AM	#15 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	bush is the discourse of democracy what stalin was to the discourse of socialism. the qualification added a bit later: it seems that in their paranoia about dissent--which extends to a hostility toward pluralism, the administration makes a mockery of the principles that it espouses. its handling of the press--which is in the great tradition of the reagan administration (who in turn got their inspiration from thatchers degrading control over the british press during the falklands war)--is a good microcosm for this. the parallel bush/stalin has to do only with their corrosive effect on the ideological language that they use to legitimate themselves and their actions--a language that is opposed at almost every meanignful level to what they are in fact doing on the ground. i make the parallel as a function of the work i have done in my real life on the gradual implosion of marxism through the post world war 2 period: the long grinding away of referentiality ion the language of marxism came to a head with the hungarian revolution--in france, this lines up with a collapse of a whole tradition of worker mobilization at the factory-floor level.... you have a parallel process going on with the discourse of democracy now. which is in many ways the worst possible outcome for the abiilty of folk in oppressive situations to imagine something other than what exists. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 02-04-2005 at 07:33 AM..