From: "Lowe Laclau" <lowelaclau-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: development of propaganda.......
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 06:36:40 -0500
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<P><BR>Neil. </P>
<P>We have to see that the "irrationalism" that US foreign policy projects is an important aspect of what makes them successful in carrying out their business. When you wield the kind of power that the US does (both economically and militarily... and perhaps we can include the type of power the US has over its own domestic situation (which I would chartacterize as a generalized apathy and indifference from the majority of the pop.)) then the range of options of force that you have at your disposal is not limited to its actual use. Much of what the US military and defence department works on is not simply potential of the actual use of military force (war, terrorism etc) but <EM>deterrence</EM>, as you can readily see when you go through the dossiers of the intelligence sectors of their various militaries. Our perception of the USīs irrationality and coldness is a deterrent for acting against their interests. Ones perception of US spending, new military projects in space, acquiring new biological and chemical weapons, also functions as a mechanism to help passify opposition (real and potential). The real problem isnīt with the neo-liberal and US domestic identification with this irrationality, because such identification with this extreme is actually not too great of a positive for the US gov... a little moderation and margin of nonidentification is always desired. (I think this is something that Slavoj Zizek often rights about). I think thart the problem that the alternative globalization movement has for itself (with respect to propaganda) is with creating an equal if not more powerful means of propagandizing against that fear and passification that the US invests so much in. When one looks at what Cuba is doing with respects to promoting the slogan "An alternative <EM>is </EM>possible" or with its Batalla de ideas that they iniciated about 3 years, dedicated to throwing away the ideas of old and institutionalize the necessity for novel thought, there are examples of the positive use of propaganda devoted to motivating the populations against what the US is doing. </P>
<P>I think your issue of the success of capitalist appropriation of labor is in part related to the issue of propaganda, but it is also related to the underdevelopment of the civilian classes (if one is unfamiliar with the experience of self-administration, self-valorization, of liberation and these values are not taught or nurtured, and if instead one developes only knowing being dependent upon the state, dependent upon familialism and subordinance, then logically one wonīt strive for those values); educationally (and informationally) is only one aspect, another is of course economically (with obvious factors such as fear and risk-aversion playing I would think the largest part). Perhaps someone else could think of other factors involved... but these are all areas that I think communists and leftists of all sorts should attack.</P>
<P>Lowe </P></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>>But we see today as world capital goes deeper in crisis-
<DIV></DIV>>bourgeois 'rationality' ( never really all that rational in the
<DIV></DIV>>modern/present epoch) is fast making room for a big comeback
<DIV></DIV>>of the irrational and superstition and mysticism -
<DIV></DIV>>You can see this better - esp. in the USA ( the #1 imperialist
<DIV></DIV>>state) , even the euro imperialist bosses are starting
<DIV></DIV>>to blush and chafe under the deluge of the "We fight with aid of God
<DIV></DIV>>against Evil" malarky coming not only from Islamicist reaction - but from
<DIV></DIV>>the
<DIV></DIV>>chiefs of State of US capitalist 'democracy' with NO serious criticism
<DIV></DIV>>of
<DIV></DIV>>this anti-rational and anti- scientific gibberish by the corporate
<DIV></DIV>>owned media , liberal or conservative , at all!
<DIV></DIV>>Even the 'left' (of capital?) cannot deal with this well at all!
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>As Islam bosses and US bosses collide, all their massacres for the
<DIV></DIV>>building
<DIV></DIV>> of their respective capital and profit making will be buried under the
<DIV></DIV>>deluge of "Gods will be done" -- whichever god serves their capital better
<DIV></DIV>>at the given time -and can rope in the gullible/naive to 'sacrifice' more.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>But i think the communists have to deal much better with why the
<DIV></DIV>>bosses are able, 98% of the time, to get the workers to shed their
<DIV></DIV>>blood/sweat/toil
<DIV></DIV>>for the accumulation of wealth by parasites and their hangers- on ?
<DIV></DIV>>And is not part of this task developing better propaganda against
<DIV></DIV>>the rulers ideological hegemony existing like an albatross tied
<DIV></DIV>>to the necks of workers in the actual struggles?
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Neil. .
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>
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