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roachboy · 05-24-2007, 08:23 AM

ace: you're being obtuse again. get a grip.

more generally: if the war in iraq is not a legitimation crisis for the system itself, then what could possibly be one?
if there is no possibility of legitimation crisis, no possiblity of reconsideration of what we do and how we do it at the fundamental level, then the simple fact of the matter is that such political "freedoms" as we have mean nothing because, when it gets down to it, we have NO POWER to change ANYTHING when a situation arises like this--one that demonstrates the incompetence of the actors that make up that system, their lack of judgement, their incapacity to think in ways that do not take their own institutional position to be an a priori.
if the war in iraq is not a legitimation crisis for this political order, then i submit that there is no possible legitimation crisis for this order because the nature of this order is to not acknowledge any fundamental challenges to it, not even those that result from ineptness within the order itself.
so we live in a type of authoritarian bureaucratic system the principle quirk of which is that the internal discourse within that system is geared around the rhetoric of freedom and popular sovereignty. but the fact is that this discourse is nothing but words. it means nothing. it is a management tool.
people only have power if there exists the possibility that they can collectively act to change the existing system.
our collective actions are limited to faction rotation within that system.
we have no access to the structure of that system.
we can do nothing about it.

how many peope have died in iraq as a result of this fuck up?
hwo many more will die as this incoherent system operates to protect itself as such, dicking around, offering idiotic pseudo-solutions to a crisis of its own making?
is it the fact that iraq is far away and inhabited by folk we have been conditioned to not like that prevents it from being a fundamental crisis for *THIS* political system, the one that is wholly and solely responsible for teh disaster that has been unfolding there?

05-24-2007, 08:23 AM	#42 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	ace: you're being obtuse again. get a grip. more generally: if the war in iraq is not a legitimation crisis for the system itself, then what could possibly be one? if there is no possibility of legitimation crisis, no possiblity of reconsideration of what we do and how we do it at the fundamental level, then the simple fact of the matter is that such political "freedoms" as we have mean nothing because, when it gets down to it, we have NO POWER to change ANYTHING when a situation arises like this--one that demonstrates the incompetence of the actors that make up that system, their lack of judgement, their incapacity to think in ways that do not take their own institutional position to be an a priori. if the war in iraq is not a legitimation crisis for this political order, then i submit that there is no possible legitimation crisis for this order because the nature of this order is to not acknowledge any fundamental challenges to it, not even those that result from ineptness within the order itself. so we live in a type of authoritarian bureaucratic system the principle quirk of which is that the internal discourse within that system is geared around the rhetoric of freedom and popular sovereignty. but the fact is that this discourse is nothing but words. it means nothing. it is a management tool. people only have power if there exists the possibility that they can collectively act to change the existing system. our collective actions are limited to faction rotation within that system. we have no access to the structure of that system. we can do nothing about it. how many peope have died in iraq as a result of this fuck up? hwo many more will die as this incoherent system operates to protect itself as such, dicking around, offering idiotic pseudo-solutions to a crisis of its own making? is it the fact that iraq is far away and inhabited by folk we have been conditioned to not like that prevents it from being a fundamental crisis for THIS political system, the one that is wholly and solely responsible for teh disaster that has been unfolding there? __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite