File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2003/lyotard.0307, message 10


Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 10:55:41 +1000 (EST)
From: "Glen Fuller" <g.fuller-AT-uws.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Counter Reformation...


G'day Steve,

> Your understanding is clearer could you clarify a bit further in what 
> you mean by 'sloganism'  and 'avataristic' - as it is not clear what 
> this might mean. Esepcially given that it suggests that elsewhere the 
> politics might be different than this - perhaps you could clarify 
> exactly would this be ?

I was summising Bourdieu when he said the below:

Bourdieu: In official politics it appears in any case only as theatre. 
Freedom, equality, fraternity are all invoked, but these are slogans. 
In reality politicians have given free rein to globalization. They 
shamelessly avail themselves of a vocabulary of freedom and well-being 
for all. Thereby they submit themselves and their citizens to economic 
powers which have been freed from their fetters.

However I was twisting it slightly to suggest that social issues (I 
said 'left politics', I meant the politics surrounding those issues 
that have traditionally been seen as 'left') are played out through 
recourse to the slogans sprouted by conservatives (of the 'centre' 
parties) who are mere avatars. They are virtual politicians, in the 
sense that they are able to induce affective responses in people (yeah 
freedom! yeah equality! yeah fraternity!), but such induction doesn't 
translate into a politics that gives such avataristic sloganism any 
extension into the actual. Such 'slogans' are like over night branded 
products cooked up by speech writers so that the punters can 'buy' into 
the sensibility that best suits them. Like two cogs, or better, like 
the branded slogan is the ground that comes up to meet the running foot 
of the populace. This is where the ground is! The ground has to be in 
the right place and must have the right texture to compliment the 
runner. Feel good virtual politics! Where is the feel bad actual 
politics? 

A classic example would have been the 'boat people' 'issue' that was 
staged during the last Aussie federal election. I think both the major 
parties were interested in seducing voters by informing the voters what 
they 'wanted' to hear and then giving it to them. It was a bloody 
farce! 

Ciao,
Glen.


-- 
PhD Candidate, Centre for Cultural Research
University of Western Sydney


   

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