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Old 12-28-2007, 12:43 PM   #12 (permalink)
roachboy
 
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this presupposes total political incoherence on the part of the public, though: a purely reactive posture driven to action, such as it is, by the accumulation of a particular type of stimulation. it presupposes the absence of any co-ordinating mechanisms in how people think about politics---dimension is separated from dimension, linkages disappear with the result that each situation isolated--and so what counts as cumulative data, the sort of thing that would push someone to the point of thinking systematically or acting politically would rely on the operation of a kind of abstract family resemblance between isolated situations...it makes sense to argue, but is really depressing if you think about it----the fragmentary characteristics of information streams are internalized (for example) and their consequences acted out.

if that's true concerning the outline of political thinking that is being imputed to some public here, then maybe in such a context there is no tipping point at the collective level--the best one can hope for is something like peter finch's outburst in "network"--yelling out the window, trying to get others to yell out the window as well. if lots of people yell out their respective windows, then it is a political action. but that's also all a political action can be: yelling out your living room window into the street that you're snippy as hell and aren't going to take it any more.

meanwhile time passes, the yelling dissolves and everything continues as it had been.
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