[Nettime-bold] RE: HORST MAHLER: THE ROLE OF A SAD SACK

[s|a|m <sam@media.com.au>]

> > this is exactly what i meant a while ago.
> > anti-capitalism is likely to grow exactly in times of economic depression.
> > like in the 'bleierne zeit' of the mid 70ies was the time of the oil
> > crisis.

I don't know ... there's a lot of people I know who were involved with S11 
and also Seattle who aren't 'economically depressed' - infact - they are 
highly skilled and wouldn't have too much trouble getting a high paid job 
anywhere. And the people S11 specifically attracted were ordinary people 
who were simply "pissed off" about corporate led government and the growing 
evidence that quality of life was decreasing and cost of life was increasing.

I belive many of these people seek a new way - outside the corporate 
industry. Outisde the captial 'P' Party and towards the little 'p' party.

About the content below, history and its context is no doubt important - 
but perhaps sometimes we need to escape it in order to create a different 
future - which is not guided by history. Perhaps you'd call me naive.

Adios, Sam.



> > i would not say that extreme anti-capitalism is wrong at all, but one
> > has to have good arguments that it doesn't turn into anti-semitism, or
> > some kind of short-cut, or chauvinist ersatz hatred, some kind of
> > jugendbewegung which militarizes in its desperate isolation. what has been
> > left of the left shifted to the middle or is still licking its wounds.
> > organized right wing grassroots extremism is popular especially in
> > euro regions were people feel lost, have no work, etc. austria and
> > east germany are at the fringe of the "middle" class euro zone...
> >
> > kosovo showed how easy it is to militarize public discourse and shut up
> > even the brightest intellectual brains and light in them the
> > fire of war frenzy and moral panic similar to the first world war.
> >
> > what will happen if this potential shows up around another
> > conflict line within a larger political context or economic downturn?
> >
> > i have no big hope in our public intellectuals, not even the positive
> > effects of mailinglists within an extended media war after the model of
>kosovo.
> > singular figures like mahler might have impressivly strange biographies,
>but
> > do not count as they are just representing the tip of an iceberg.
> > cut it off, climb on it, and shout loudly, the ice will still be there.
> >
> > such playing with the signifiers, just adds up to a special kind of
> > media activist simulacra, a kind of poser-activism which just operates
> > on the symbolic and simplifies thought around mass symbols and
> > sloganomics.
> >
> > an effective critique has to go to the roots, become more radical, maybe
> > theoretical, which means it has to think about the conditions and not
> > harmonize them with the means of science, state and perception
> > management, like schroeder or blair obviously try to do.
> >
> >
> > best
> > /pit
> >
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