From: "Glen Fuller" <g.fuller-AT-uws.edu.au>
Subject: RE: Numbers Game Question
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 11:00:54 +1000


Pierre Bourdieu discusses what he calls the "Saddam Hussein Rule" in the
book Acts of Resistance (lots of little chunks of Bourdieu, probably an
example of the genius of capital being able to reterritorialise the
residual, ha! highly ironic... it has funny little chapters like "The
Myth of Globalisation and the European Welfare State"; "The Abuse of
Power by the Advocates of Reason"; "Neo-liberalism, the Utopia (Becoming
a Reality) of Unlimited Exploitation"; etc). I have been trying to find
the exact reference, however, I can not, which is bloody frustrating for
the book is only very little, ARGHHHH! I might read it again today, as
it is Sunday, and I need a break from work.

Anyway, it is a form of governing concerned with limits, Bourdieu was
speaking about the 'Second Oil War' (as Tarik Ali puts it), and how the
UN and Bush Snr (and later Clinton) did not demand certain specificities
of Hussein rather placed limits around 'his' behaviour (like a speed
limit while driving (my example, not Bourdieu's)). 

So the 'Third Oil War' (or is it up to number 4? Maybe it is a prequel)
could be seen as an enforcement of the 'limit' (In a double sense,
limits broken by Hussein and reinscribed by US imperialism). "He has
already gone against a prior resolution, we have just cause... "

Glen.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
[mailto:owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu] On Behalf Of shawn
wilbur
Sent: Sunday, 13 April 2003 5:34 AM
To: lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: Numbers Game Question



Don Socha wrote:

> Shawn writes:
>
> >Back when the buzzword of choice was "neoliberalism," it was pretty
> >generally understood that although capital was to have no borders,
> >borders were proliferating for most of us. The random checkpoint is
> the
> >new boundary, criss-crossing everyday life. Endocolonialism and
> >globalization are not in conflict, practically speaking.
> >
>
> Would you care to provide an example or two of what you mean
> by 'random checkpoint,' or 'new boundary, criss-crossing
> everyday life'?
>
> While I'm not in favor of them, of course, I would like to
> sharpen my awareness of their existence, if possible.
>
> Are there any such borders, for example, that someone as
> critically aware, if not simply as interested as yourself,
> might not recognize as such?

I'm finding that i have two rather different sorts of responses to the
question, given the changes in daily life in the last few years. Once
upon a time, we talked about random roadblocks - to test for drunk
drivers in the US, or to screen for drug smugglers and political
activists in Mexico. (Friends who travelled to Chiapas tell amazing
stories about random stops and harassment, well outside the boundaries
of the "conflict zone.") For some time we've been living in both the age
of NAFTA-style "free trade" and the age of intense border anxiety in
north america. After 9/11 the contradictions are only more pronounced.
Think, too, of practices like random drug testing in the workplace -
clear border patrols of an only somewhat different sort. But i'm also
aware now that, with the advent of "data-mining" operations online and
off, both by governments and by non-government powers such as
corporations, there are an increasing number of points at which one may
be called upon to stand and account for oneself, perhaps even without
your own knowledge.

-shawn

> Of course, I don't disagree that they're there, I just have a
> certain personal curiosity about margins and feel like I
> might get some impetus from you to explore something in
> particular.
>
> Sorry if my motives sound vague.  Please try to indulge me if
> you can afford to, however, and I'll see what I can do with
> it.
>
> Best,
> Don Socha