Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Does George W. Bush really say what he means and do what he says?

roachboy · 05-11-2007, 09:45 AM

has no-one read "the prince"?

the problem is not that cowboy george the human being and cowboy george the spokesmodel for american reactionaries do not line up: of course they dont. if power is rooted in spectacle and the center of the spectacle of power is the image that personifies it, then what matters is the consistency of the image itself...and nothing else...because the image is about the production of a signified and that signified IS the personification of state power. the referent--you know, that hale fellow george w bush whom we all adore, each in our way----is at the very most secondary.

the problem is that cowboy george as spokemodel is incoherent outside a very particular frame of reference. the purview of that frame of reference has been shrinking and shrinking and cowboy george has not adjusted. as the purview shrinks (and the space outside it grows), the claims rooted in it become increasingly absurd. that i--for one--found the framework absurd from the outset (by framework i mean the neofascist conception of nation that is at the core of populist conservative ideology)--or that others here might also have found it so--is strangely enough secondary.

that the bush people have shown themselves wholly incapable of registering the collapse of the hold their political ideology might have had IS their weakness. that weakness follows from the rigidity of ultra-right discourse--it is a structural problem with the discourse itself.

ace might argue that this rigidity follows from the idea that cowboy george is a "man of conviction"---but that idea is a function of the frame itself, is only relevant as a function of that frame, only has an effect if you accept a whole series of other predicates that, taken together, ARE that frame.

so ace's claims regarding bush as "man of conviction" are circular. and what they indicate is a repetition of the weakness of conservative discourse in general: it cannot adjust. it is rooted in claims that do not allow for it. the entire idea of populist conservative ideology rests on claims about the nation as essentially static, a hallucinated community that they get to define in their own image. its basic structure is narcissism. that is the weakest possible approach to the spectacle of power, *unless* you presuppose total control over the dominant media, which you reduce to a relay system for particular political messages that are presented as descriptions of the world. well, the right had it for a while--right after the 9/11/2001 attacks---but they fucked it up. now it's over and they cant face it. narcissism doesnt allow for it. the ideology doesnt allow for it. since they cannot adapt, the best the right can hope for is another attack. but another attack would obviate everything that they have been doing since 9/11/2001 to prevent another attack.

so it would seems that they are fucked.
every advantage they had has turned out to be a weakness.
of course, because we the people are only politically free one day every four years, the story isnt over-----so this is only how things look now.

but isnt machiavelli fun?

05-11-2007, 09:45 AM	#17 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	has no-one read "the prince"? the problem is not that cowboy george the human being and cowboy george the spokesmodel for american reactionaries do not line up: of course they dont. if power is rooted in spectacle and the center of the spectacle of power is the image that personifies it, then what matters is the consistency of the image itself...and nothing else...because the image is about the production of a signified and that signified IS the personification of state power. the referent--you know, that hale fellow george w bush whom we all adore, each in our way----is at the very most secondary. the problem is that cowboy george as spokemodel is incoherent outside a very particular frame of reference. the purview of that frame of reference has been shrinking and shrinking and cowboy george has not adjusted. as the purview shrinks (and the space outside it grows), the claims rooted in it become increasingly absurd. that i--for one--found the framework absurd from the outset (by framework i mean the neofascist conception of nation that is at the core of populist conservative ideology)--or that others here might also have found it so--is strangely enough secondary. that the bush people have shown themselves wholly incapable of registering the collapse of the hold their political ideology might have had IS their weakness. that weakness follows from the rigidity of ultra-right discourse--it is a structural problem with the discourse itself. ace might argue that this rigidity follows from the idea that cowboy george is a "man of conviction"---but that idea is a function of the frame itself, is only relevant as a function of that frame, only has an effect if you accept a whole series of other predicates that, taken together, ARE that frame. so ace's claims regarding bush as "man of conviction" are circular. and what they indicate is a repetition of the weakness of conservative discourse in general: it cannot adjust. it is rooted in claims that do not allow for it. the entire idea of populist conservative ideology rests on claims about the nation as essentially static, a hallucinated community that they get to define in their own image. its basic structure is narcissism. that is the weakest possible approach to the spectacle of power, unless you presuppose total control over the dominant media, which you reduce to a relay system for particular political messages that are presented as descriptions of the world. well, the right had it for a while--right after the 9/11/2001 attacks---but they fucked it up. now it's over and they cant face it. narcissism doesnt allow for it. the ideology doesnt allow for it. since they cannot adapt, the best the right can hope for is another attack. but another attack would obviate everything that they have been doing since 9/11/2001 to prevent another attack. so it would seems that they are fucked. every advantage they had has turned out to be a weakness. of course, because we the people are only politically free one day every four years, the story isnt over-----so this is only how things look now. but isnt machiavelli fun? __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 05-11-2007 at 09:48 AM..