Re: <nettime> HORST MAHLER: THE ROLE OF A SAD SACK

[Pit Schultz <pit@klubradio.de>]

hi richard,

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 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
mediaactivist 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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