File spoon-archives/avant-garde.archive/avant-garde_1995/avant-garde_Dec.95, message 9


Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 03:02:27 -0500
From: ostrow-AT-is2.nyu.edu (Ostrow/Kaneda)
Subject: Re: France


>You are right, Saul. I just spoke to my ex-wife in Paris who
>lamented specifically the divergent meaning of these strikes from
>those that propelled what they call "soixante-huit." Belt-tightening
>it is and, just as our Republican Congress re-examines Medicare,
>Social Security et al, so doeth Chirac's Government. The mood in
>Paris, as it has been for a long time, is glum. And without hope,
>you are going to have a difficult time projecting an idea that could
>actually mobilize this stratified society out of its lethargic
>self-interests. In any case, there is no idea: these strikes are
>about the bottom line and are as far removed from the idealism and
>excitement of their '68 precursors as any strike in the US today
>would be.
>
>-Eric
 In keeping with the subject of this list: we should consider how the
period of 1962-74 marks the end of the ideal of a political avant garde,
that strove for  autonomy. We find now those ideals only upheld by the
extreme right or those who constitute those forces so defined by their own
confusion and isolation as to participate in terrorism as an end in itself,
eg the notion of a war against the State.  In both these cases th notion of
leadership is abandoned for that of example. What is desired is to
demonstrate the physical  weaknesses of this institution, while ideological
surrendering to it.

Saul Ostrow
Art Editor Bomb Magazine
Co-editor of the Journal Lusitania
General Editor for the book series "Critical Voices"




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