Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 17:28:04 +1000
From: "dr.woooo" <dr.woooo-AT-nomasters.org>
Subject: [postanarchism] matrix, the left reloaded



my mate nik had this to say in response to zizek's recent piece on the matrix 
reloaded.

26-06-2003
the Left reloaded 

its gratifying to know that zizek didn’t really have much more to say on the 
matrix than my friends (for some reason ive decided – without really reading 
anything he’s written – to foster a strong dislike for zizek. Maybe its all the 
z’s in his name). there was one thing he said though that we didn’t – the 
whole “lesson for the Left” thing… 

"The filmmakers have thus dramatically raised the stakes of the Matrix series, 
confronting us with all the complications and confusions of the politics of 
liberation. And they have put themselves in a profoundly difficult spot: They 
now confront an almost impossible task. If the forthcoming part three, The 
Matrix Revolutions, is to succeed with anything like a happy ending, it will 
have to produce nothing less than the appropriate answer to the dilemmas of 
revolutionary politics today, a blueprint for the political act the left is 
desperately looking for. " 
- zizek 
http://inthesetimes.com/print.php?id=220_0_4_0

one of the reasons I think that my friends didn’t come up with the same thing 
is because im not so sure that we have the same faith in the existence of “The 
Left”. Well, maybe I’m not so sure about hat – but I definitely am a Leatheist. 
I don’t believe in the existence (or non-existence) of The Left (or the New 
Left, Ultra-left, the ‘Melbourne Autonomists’, etc).. 

What is the Left? 

I’m tempted to say that its just bad theorising. At the last screening steve 
and I held, the point was made that the concept of the multitudes was a clumsy 
solution to a non-problem. If the point of the concept is to create a category 
to bring together (and in some sense unify) bodies-under-capitalism so as to 
enable both the ability for those bodies to see their commonality and to enable 
the development of political theory, the question has to be, why bother? Why is 
such a unifying category necessary? Who does the category serve? And what 
irreconcilable differences and singularities does the category flatten in its 
rush for its place as a master narrative of the oppressed? Cant bodies connect 
themselves to together bodies, in assemblages and networks of their own 
creation? Cant they remain nameless, or name themselves. Cant self-identified 
groups and entities connect (disconnect and dissolve) themselves? Whats the 
fucking point of a really extensive (and vacuous) category? 

As far as I can tell, it just seems to serve the self proclaimed intellectual 
leaders on “The Left” – it lets them recuperate a diverse and non-unified set 
of events, bodies and organisation under a single banner that they can then say 
they represent, or lead (or should lead..)…. 

(and I'm tempted to say that the category Capitalism can serve exactly the same 
function vis-à-vis social relations and economic functions and forms) 

But what does the above mean if there is no Left? What if the multitudes is an 
illusion piled upon an illusion. The Left doesn’t exist – to the pile I’ll add 
the anti-globalisation movement, the anti-war movement, the environmental 
movement… take your pick. They are all names spoken to draw together a series 
of events and bodies that are arrayed across a previously existing conceptual 
field. Take the History of the Left, put the ideas into motion, then let them 
die – the corpse is then re-integrated into The Left as a member of 
movement. “The movement is the memory of the event (and the meeting is the 
memory of the scene)”. The Left is the memory of a series of actions, events 
and bodies – it’s a wake for that which has passed. But its also an attempt (by 
those that name) to claim ownership over the past desires and processes of 
various bodies and events, and all that set those desires into motion. It’s a 
naked grab for power. -- 
sig/
http://www.infoshop.org
http://www.reclaimthestreets.org
http://www.ainfos.ca
http://slash.autonomedia.org
http://www.agp.org