Radical media, politics and culture.

Theory

March 27, 2004 - 8:37pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

"Reversion of History"

Jean Baudrillard

Somewhere in the course of the eighties of the twentieth century, history took a turn in another direction. Once it passed its apogee in time, once it reached the peak of the curve in its evolution, its solstice of history, a sliding back of events set in, an unfolding of inverted meaning. As in the case of cosmic space, historical space-time would also have a curvature. By way of the same chaotic effect in time as in space, things go faster and faster as they approach their culmination, just like the flow of water speeds up mysteriously as it approaches the waterfall.

March 27, 2004 - 6:41pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

"Radical Thought"

Jean Baudrillard

The novel is a work of art not so much because of its inevitable resemblance with life but because of the insuperable differences that distinguish it from life. — Stevenson

And so is thought! Thought is not so much prized for its inevitable convergences with truth as it is for the insuperable divergences that separate the two.


It is not true that in order to live one has to believe in one's own existence. There is no necessity to that. No matter what, our consciousness is never the echo of our own reality, of an existence set in "real time." But rather it is its echo in "delayed time," the screen of the dispersion of the subject and of its identity — only in our sleep, our unconscious, and our death are we identical to ourselves. Consciousness, which is totally different from belief, is more spontaneously the result of a challenge to reality, the result of accepting objective illusion rather than objective reality. This challenge is more vital to our survival and to that of the human species than the belief in reality and in existence, which always refers to spiritual consolations pertaining to another world. Our world is such as it is, but that does not make it more real in any respect. "The most powerful instinct of man is to be in conflict with truth, and with the real."

March 25, 2004 - 8:14am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

"Zizek is not a Radical?"

Andrew Robinson and Simon Tormey

In the world of radical theory, Slavoj Zizek has
attained the status of intellectual superstar. Terry
Eagleton claims Zizek "provides the best intellectual
high since Anti-Oedipus", and with good reason. (1)
Zizek's work is passionate, exciting, funny,
frustrating, all-consuming, interdisciplinary and
paradigm-shaking. Further, he endorses immediately
"political" positions and claims that seem
uncompromisingly "radical" when compared to rivals
such as Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith
Butler. He relentlessly unmasks those he sees as
closet liberals in his enduring war on the terrorism
of political moderation, from "radical democracy" to
multiculturalism, denouncing all attempts to improve
liberal capitalism from within its own horizon. (2)

Moreover, Zizek's radicalism seems refreshingly
original and relevant whilst daring to confront the
existing socio-symbolic system. But is this
appearance of a radical break with a flawed present
sustainable?

March 24, 2004 - 2:33pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

Francisco Trindade writes:

"On the Confederation, or the Proudhonian Federal Structure"

Francisco Trindade


Proudhon ignores completely the characteristics of the political model that permits [estender] the State of right to the relations between the nations. For more on this, and on the technical responsability for the totality of the site, please visit:

http://www.franciscotrindade.com

March 17, 2004 - 2:29pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

"The Limits of Networking"

A Reply to Lovink and Schneider's "Notes on the State of Networking"

Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker

The question we aim to explore here is: what is the principle of political
organization or control that stitches a network together? Writers like
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have helped answer this question in the
socio-political sphere using the concept of "Empire." Like a network,
Empire is not reducible to any single state power, nor does it follow an
architecture of pyramidal hierarchy. Empire is fluid, flexible, dynamic,
and far-reaching. In that sense, the concept of Empire helps us greatly to
begin thinking about political organization in networks. But like Lovink
and Schneider, we are concerned that no one has yet adequately answered
this question for the technological sphere of bits and atoms.

March 15, 2004 - 6:57am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

ringfingers writes:

"Political Notes: Anti-Streaming Activism"


Arthur Kroker

In the same way that the early hegemony of the
capitalist bourgeoisie called into existence its
necessary objective political antithesis - the
industrial proletariat - so too, the swift emergence
of the virtual class from the ruins of the industrial
economy marks the beginning of a new cycle of
political economy. Lacking a definitive name but not a
definite historical presence, this "anti-virtual"
class takes to the streets and to the net in
spontaneous forms of struggle that quickly resemble a
Paris Commune rebelling against the digital mode of
production.

March 8, 2004 - 12:09am -- nolympics
Announcements
Theory

Momentum Journal writes MOMENTUM
ANNOUNCING A NEW JOURNAL OF RADICAL POLITICS


          In the years since the WTO demonstrations in Seattle, there has been renewed interest in radical politics. A movement has emerged that is seriously engaging with questions about our understanding of how the world operates, the kind of world we’d like to see, and what strategies we might use in our struggles. Yet there are very few spaces, aside from cyberspace, in which these discussions can take place in a focused and ongoing manner. We feel this void prevents our movements from actually moving, from thinking and reflecting on the words and deeds that animate our political work. This is why we have decided to generate Momentum.

         

March 7, 2004 - 11:01am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

For those who would like to see and hear a recent talk on the "Dance of the Dialectic" that
Bertell Ollman gave at the Rethinking Marxism conference last fall in Amherst, Massachusetts, check out Cultural Logic at this URL:

Ollman

March 2, 2004 - 8:40pm -- nolympics
Theory

mikebrig writes The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx's Legacy to Humanity (with an introduction by Paula Allman) - Edited by Carmel Vassallo & Clare Thake Vassallo (Malta University Press 2003; ISBN 9909-45-34-09) has been published recently and is available for sale. Anyone interested in Marxism in relation to the social sciences and the arts will surely enjoy reading this book. Contributors include Noel Agius, Rene Camilleri, Peter Mayo, Anthony Spiteri, Stella Borg Barthet, Ivan Callus, Joseph Paul Cassar, Vicki Ann Cremona, Clare and Thake Vassallo.


I have fifty loose copies of my essay 'Global Dominance / Global Resistance' , which forms part of this book, in official format.


If you would like a copy of this essay, I wil be pleased to send it you. Just let me know.


Mike Briguglio
mikebrig@maltanet.net

February 28, 2004 - 10:18am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

"A Comment on the Question of Human Rights"

Alain Badiou

[During August and September, Christoph Cox and Molly
Whalen interviewed the French philosopher Alain Badiou
for Cabinet magazine. Shortly before the attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Cox and
Whalen asked Badiou to clarify his conception of human
rights. Shortly after the attacks, Badiou offered the
following response.]

Take the nearest example: the terrible criminal attack
in New York, with its thousands of casualties. If you
reason in terms of the morality of human rights, you
say, with President Bush: "These are terrorist
criminals. This is a struggle of Good against Evil."
But are Bush's policies, in Palestine or Iraq for
example, really Good? And, in saying that these people
are Evil, or that they don't respect human rights, do
we understand anything about the mindset of those who
killed themselves with their bombs? Isn't there a lot
of despair and violence in the world caused by the
fact that the politics of western powers, and of the
American government in particular, are utterly
destitute of ingenuity and value? In the face of
crimes, terrible crimes, we should think and act
according to concrete political truths, rather than be
guided by the stereotypes of any sort of morality.

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