[MD] Neopragmatism isn't pragmatic.

[MarshaV]

Hi Gav,

This post is very interesting, but I somehow missed your initial 
reading list?  I didn't know where to start, so I ordered, "The 
Conspiracy of Art" Jean Baudrillard.  Which book would be a good entry point?

Marsha








At 05:39 PM 10/30/2006, Gav wrote:
>hey dave,
>
>Baudrillard's 'perfect crime' is a book about (to use
>MOQese) the murder of primary reality by intellectual
>reality (which he likens to a mirror i seem to
>remember) which then usurps its position, hence no-one
>knows its been murdered: 'the perfect crime'.
>
>the situationists i could talk all day about. in fact
>i need to add another book to that lit list i knocked
>out last week: 'the revolution of everyday life' by
>raoul vaneigem.
>
>the situationists were reacting against 'spectacular
>society'. spectacular society is that mode of being
>when one is but a subject gazing at objects,
>spectating upon rather than participating in life.
>alienated existence. they tried to see things
>differently: life as a series of open-ended
>situations, integrating the individual.
>
>the situationists were definitely not postmodern.
>indeed postmodernism, it could be argued, arose
>because of the failed revolutionary project of the
>situationists. may 68 was really a purely existential
>rebellion...which makes it all the more interesting.
>
>in a way the existentialists were a precursor to the
>sits. the sits were trying to get past the ethical
>vagueness of the existentialists and they realised the
>problem was a metaphysical one. they were still stuck
>in SOM though because they reacted against the
>'objectification' of the world with a call to a return
>to the 'subjective', by which they acually mean
>immediate experience.
>
>'the society of the spectacle', by guy debord, uses
>the words of other philosophers only, rearranged to
>convey his own meaning. the sits came up with
>'detournement', the idea of using the language and
>imagery of the dominant (spectacular) paradigm against
>itself, hence 'adbusting'.
>
>other key concepts include:
>psychogeography: the effects of environment on
>consciousness, intended or otherwise.
>
>recuperation: the tendency of the spectacle to rapidly
>appropriate novel cultural/intellectual developments
>under a reductive label (eg as  another '-ism'), which
>is then added to the rest of the spectacle....naomi
>klein almost understood this in 'no logo'.
>
>as far as power goes there is that vaneigem quote from
>them that starts my 'student life' paper: "oppression
>reigns becasue men are divided, not only among
>themselves, but also inside themselves. what separates
>them from themselves weakens them and is also the
>false bond that unites them with power, reinforcing
>this power and making them choose it as their
>protector, as their father."
>
>this 'power' is the giant pure, and simple.
>to me power is usually a social level thing, along
>with fame, money, status, etc.
>
>so what we have is a metaphysical/epistemological
>situation which suits the giant nicely: the spectacle.
>the alienation implicit in such a view of the world
>leads to fear and a general belief that the giant is
>necessary in a hobbes-ian kind of way to protect us
>from each other.
>
>i guess nietzche's 'will to power' is a need to
>disengage from the giant and direct our own lives. i
>think the giant is a problem because it is so huge.
>remember the giant is the social level and the social
>level of the west is one relatively homogenous culture
>that probably feeds off more than a billion people.
>
>in the past social levels ended at cities or
>relatively recently at countries. incorporating maybe
>thousands or millions of people, but billions! in the
>past the giant would have been more manageable, but
>the modern western giant feeds off the insecurities of
>so many... it is a mega-obese paranoid control junkie.
>
>culture needs to be developed and directed by
>individuals, rather than being commodified and added
>to the spectacle for passive consumption. we are
>talking about the intellectual level guiding the
>giant, not the current reverse situation. to do this
>we need to weaken the giant: to cut him down to size.
>and as i said before: community is intellectually
>guided society. decentralize!!
>
>nice one on the dirty three! here's hoping you will
>see em live soon. i am off to brisbane's first
>alt-country music fest next month. i have a new fave
>genre!
>
>later bro
>gav
>
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