Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 16:20:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: andrew robinson <ldxar1-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: AUT: Re: More on Fascism (Immanence/Contingency Distinction)



Hi again Lowe,

 

OK, thanks – that explains the difference between the concepts – I can see what you’re getting at now.  Although, isn’t the point to do away with the master-signifier rather than just to keep it in check?

 

I know EXACTLY what you mean about molecular fascism!  It’s everywhere in Britain at the moment – I know loads of people who think that way, so that the problem is always the “criminals”, the “anti-social”, the immigrants and whoever, rather than capitalism – always an exercise in a terrible ressentiment, and often more vitriolic than anything the state would dare come up with.  I was in a debate in the Nottingham local paper not long ago which pitted me against some of these people first-hand as well… I could go on forever about that, but it actually worries me more how often it comes up among people who should know better – Marxists, anarchists etc.

 

Poujade was a French populist/quasi-fascist active in the 50s – kind of like an earlier Le Pen.  Barthes gives him a bashing in a couple of essays which are available in English in the collection “The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies”.  In my view this is some of the best stuff written on molecular fascism, especially as regards its semantic structure.  I’ve got first drafts available, by the way, of a paper I’m co-authoring with Catherine Fiesci on the subject of the discursive structure of populism- as before, too long to post, but I’ll email it to anyone who’s interested (any readers of this, send me an email on ldxar1-AT-yahoo.com if you’d like me to email it to you).  

 

You’re quite right about Derrida, I can’t keep up either.  So much depends on what you’ve read, and what you read into it as well, that his work can mean so many things – which might of course be intentional.

 

Best wishes,

Andy


		
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