File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2003/lyotard.0303, message 31


Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 20:17:55 +0000
From: "steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk>
Subject: Re: leotard - in vain


Eric

as an afterthought - a fellow worker in the USA says he is terrified 
that after the war Bush will be re-elected - is this also your fear ?
I sympathise with the below, and hope that on this side of the atlantic 
we will eradicate Blair...soon


steve

Eric wrote:

>Steve,
>
>I also bought the book, but haven't looked at it in some time. Thus, no
>comments for now, but maybe we could talk about some of the essays
>later.  I agree the essay on Emma alone is worth the price of admission.
>
>I read an interesting short essay by Zizek recently where he talks about
>the current Bush administration in the context of the film "The Minority
>Report."  I don't know if this should be construed as modern or
>postmodern, but the interesting thing about the movie is that it is all
>about being pre-emptive, resolving crimes before they even occur. In
>this it resembles the Bush administration, attempting a pre-emptive war
>against Iraq because they have the 'potentiality' of developing and
>using weapons of mass destruction. The Bush regime says, like Tom
>Cruise, that we must stop now their possible future contingent acts.
>(and just like the movie, Bush himself is accused of murder.)
>
>What is interesting about the movie is that the clairvoyants may
>sometimes disagree, creating a 'minority report.' Isn't that exactly
>what is going on right now?  The Bush administration continues to assure
>us that everything will be fine - after the regime change, democracy
>will blossom like Southern magnolias in the Middle East, but all these
>other voices still continue to mutter and strangely these minority
>voices cannot be kept silent.
>
>What is most frightening about the Bush regime is the fact that they
>seem to lack the imagination to envision any other future than the one
>they want to sell us; theirs is a world where faith and macho strength
>become of form of hubris. I am fearful of what these men who believe in
>God will do to the world today and perhaps this very doubt and
>skepticism is the best form of postmodernism. 
>
>Unlike Bush, I can't conceive of the future as a series of discounted
>cash flows ushering in the pre-millennial Apocalypse and the return of
>Jesus with a flaming plutonium sword. 
>
>Thus, I urge the dissident clairvoyant voices be listened to. The
>minority report tells us that the future need not be what the Masters of
>War tell us it must be.  In the crack in the void where strange futures
>dissipate another world may yet emerge.  Let the weirdness in....
>
>eric
>
>  
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>[mailto:owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu] On Behalf Of
>steve.devos
>Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 1:35 PM
>To: lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>Subject: lyotard - in vain
>
>All
>
>I bought a copy of a text 'Lyotard' - edited by Hugh J Silverman's - 
>mostly because it had a translation of Lyotard's 'Emma. Then today, 
>whilst drinking espresso in Dean street I read the first paragraph of 
>the Introduction. In which Silverman draws together the words American, 
>beautiful, modern into...  a hysterically funny mess?
>
>(Bizarrely he thinks the WTC was a modernist endaevor - post Baudrillard
>
>I thought everyone understood there postmodern status)
>
>Has anyone read this text and any reason to believe its worth finishing 
>- given my non-american status?
>
>regards
>steve
>
>
>
>  
>



   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005