Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 10:24:22 +0000
From: "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk>
Subject: politics


Hugh/all

The boundaries of the political realm do not have to establish a precise 
or even current reality.  It begins at the edges of the known world - 
for us in the moment of the  establishing of the indo-european 
families,  probably at the moment of the Tiber and ends at the moment 
when actual existing democracy  has become the sole threat to our 
existence.  Our empirical politics, which is the terribleness of  the 
fact of our democracies (well at least in Europe it is terrible in the 
US you may believe that it is still possible that 'democracy' is the 
site of political struggle worth engaging in...) - begins with the curse 
of  Greek democracy the exclusion of the populace from the process,  
democracy being as Ranciere puts it "the democratic assembly of the 
imperialist city..." (no change there then). 

Trying to rethink the boundaries of the poiliticial - should start from 
the personal simply because it was the clarion call of reentrance into 
the sites of the political of social and cultural groups who had been 
denied.  It's the moment when the question of "...coexistence between 
gender, races, between generations, but also between religions, 
cultures,  political parties or regimes, compels us to interpret what 
used to constitute the parameters within which we moved with no 
awareness of the laws that govern them."  was reinvented.  It should be 
clear that democracy, as understood through the fact of parlimentary 
politics  is not currently part of that interesting process. To change 
direction then, of course we know that these issues are not necessarily 
'personal' but they are like ones own existence in that they are political.

The interrogation to make of Lyotard is not whether politics can be 
understood as a genre (differend 190) but whether it can be reduced to a 
differend, to phrases. The concept of a ' phrase universe' seems to be 
more constraining than even Ranciere and Badiou allow for in there 
refusal of Lyotards position. As an afterthought it is worth stating I 
think that it is possible to imagine reading Lyotard's representation of 
parlimentary politics that the disagreements between groups are 
'differends' this is not so - for they are merely disagreements within 
the same discourse, the recent parlimentary political disagreement over 
university funding or the Iraq war are good examples of this. In the 
extended regime of politics something else is at stake - perhaps the 
inhumanity of  democracy, the inhumanity of the human, much in evidence 
as the bombs fall and the phantasies continue that the empire must be 
supported.

regards
steve

hbone wrote:

>Steve,
>
>My favorite definition of political is the allocation of power.  It's a
>personal struggle for politicians, as in
>Parliaments.   I understand your "personal is political" .  The "personal"
>relations between parents, grandparents
>and their children, grandchildren and other loved ones is sometimes a
>struggle for power, sometimes ends in
>mayhem and murder, but is not the vocation of politicians.
>
>Words as they are understood by addressor, may or may not have the same
>meaning as the same words are
>understood by addressee, says Lyotard.
>
>Hugh
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>  
>
>>Hugh/all
>>
>>Hugh said...
>>"What is political changes with time.  Popes once conferred divine rights
>>on Kings, burned heretics, but not lately."
>>
>>This could be said to relate accurately to "parlimentary politics"  but
>>    
>>
>does
>  
>
>>not allow for the  understanding of politics as it relates to our
>>contemporary everyday lives - specifically it presumes that  the
>>    
>>
>'personal'
>  
>
>> is not always already political. Including  such things as a person
>>changing their surname,  gender, the act of walking down the street.
>>
>>What the statement the 'personal is political' assumes is that everything
>>    
>>
>is
>  
>
>>political... though not necessarily in the sense of parlimentary politics.
>>Which is after all an extraordinarily constrained notion of the political
>>
>>regards
>>steve
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>  
>


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