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Old 06-16-2011, 09:49 AM   #56 (permalink)
roachboy
 
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there's several things that are maybe interesting.

first is that even the lamest instruments of the mainstream corporate press in the united states are coming out against this dissociative version of what once was neo-liberal orthodoxy.

second is that the transposition into metaphysics that we see performed at great tiresome length by comrade ace here seems mostly an identity politics move. it's as if in this post united-citizens political climate, the right has opted for straight machine politics. so the metaphysics are about drawing a line around the in-group. the ideology seems to operate as a continuous generator of a sense of crisis (because without total reactionary control, things do not operate along a logic that is comprehensible) and the media-space the right can live in simply reinforces that sense.

if that's the case, then it would follow that the idea is simply to be able to mobilize bodies around a largely negative space, politically speaking. you see this reflected in the manner in which the right is conducting itself in congress.

and for way way too long this dissociative horseshit that's at the core of what contemporary conservatism is has been treated as if it represented a coherent alternative to something.

this sits inside the still-larger problem of 40=odd years of neo-liberal hegemony in a centralized corporate media environment (particularly over the past 15 or so) that has almost uniformly assimilated neo-liberal doctrine into the baseline assumptions that are used to process infotainment.

the problem with that is simply that it makes anything beyond tactical quibbles about applications of an economic policy logic (which leans on a broader ideological worldview) almost impossible.

and that's what we're seeing in the u.s. of a. today.

it's a central feature of the collapse of empire, one of the major space in which you can see what i think is a characteristic inability to confront reality that accompanies the slide away from hegemony of a (once-)hegemonic power.

in this, ace is little more than an annoying symptomatic actor, one who is doing what he's told as he's told when he's told but is able to convince himself, using his charlie parker-like skillz in the one area i suspect they exist, that the whole thing is his idea.

but whatever.

the persistence of neo-liberalism as anything remotely like a viable frame in other contexts that are less corporate-authoritarian in terms of media model is difficult to explain, except to the extent that it's also become an institutional lingua franca. if that's the case, what we're seeing is the inability of those heroic institutional actors in both private and public spheres to deal with crisis, particularly of a type that requires a basic political shift to address.

and that's where we collectively are.

so there's reasons to be a little maybe optimistic that a socio-economic group representing wealthy interests in germany can at least assess the situation that confronts germany (and the eu) and propose **something** that can be done to ameliorate some aspects of the consequences of neo-liberalism itself that strays outside the tedious, stupid orthodoxy that in the main explains the crisis in the first place.

not much like that happening in the united states, where you get the ideological worldview you pay for.

and in this post citizens united situation, the people who bankroll contemporary neo-fascism have a LOT of money to spend.


aside: if you want to see just how entrenched this neo-liberal lunacy is, take a look at the reports just emerging about the "deal" struck by the european union and imf to "rescue" greece---assuming that exactly the nutty "austerity" measure that have caused the general strike there get passed:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d2702...#axzz1PSk4jDbb

this is what ideological paralysis looks like.


a little background on the greek situation, fyi:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...tions-answered
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Last edited by roachboy; 06-16-2011 at 10:00 AM..
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