Re: <nettime> Not One

[Keith Sanborn <mrzero@panix.com>]

Again the "always already.”

What if fascism is not a mask? The voices of the dead should be listened to.

What if it is? 

I will not take a revisionist line, but there is a qualitative and quantitative difference between bourgeois democracy and fascism. They are not identical. In the larger picture or the smaller picture, either wholesale or retail. The problem is that they are in the process of merging: as Debord observed about China and elsewhere: the concentrated and the diffuse spectacle are in the process of merging. They have merged already in China. Internally and externally, the synthesis created in China is a formidable example, NOT to be followed. It should be stopped by any means necessary. But don’t take the sucker punch. The heads of state command much greater resources of physical and psychological violence.

Keith 

> On Oct 10, 2020, at 2:30 PM, mp <mp@aktivix.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On 10/10/2020 16:37, Brian Holmes wrote:
>> 
>> So in the end, I agree with Zak a lot more than I thought at first, but
>> still not entirely. You ought to post more often, Zak.
>> 
>> Solidarity, Brian
> 
> I don't know what Zak meant exactly and there are certainly immediate,
> good reasons to vote for Biden (and hope his health won't last Harris be
> presidenta) - and if for nothing else, then for the joy of seeing Trumps
> face in defeat.
> 
> Zak made me think about the system as such.
> 
> What does left and right represent other than a legacy of the spatial
> room distribution of the two elitist groups that constituted the
> National Assembly that killed the French Revolution?
> 
> If we suspend disbelief about higher powers at play - beyond agency and
> conspiracy - and think of the political system known as liberal
> democracy as an intelligent (gaia like?) beast that tends towards an
> equilibrium in order to sustain itself and continuously distribute power
> and privilege disproportionally. [For that is its purpose and intent,
> right?].
> 
> Then what could fascism be?
> 
> Imagine fascism as a mask that the elite puts on when the forces of
> exploitation and extraction have spawned too much unrest and rendered an
> otherwise obedient body of people unruly. When the rate of dispossession
> becomes unpalatable, when the addictive and soporific effects of grain
> (bread and beer) and circus no longer can contain the domesticated
> masses, something has got to give. It seems.
> 
> Instead of liberalism giving in, however, the fascist mask comes on.
> 
> Fascism "presents itself" as a threat, as a far worse proposition, and
> even some rebels who used to operate outside of society, and of course
> everyone within the political spectrum not consumed by fascist
> fantasies, including academics, now favour a return to liberal democracy
> - how else can they keep their jobs and their cushioned existence?
> 
> "Look, I know liberalism/capitalism is bad, but don't be insensitive,
> this is worse, we must return".
> 
> Captured, then, we are in a pendular swing of things. No transcendence.
> 
> Fascism as a mirage. Liberalism as a clear-sighted response. Forth and
> back. So history goes and ensures repetition. Fascism makes liberalism
> sustainable. Desirable.
> 
> So, "they" - the Trumpists -  might intend to bring the system down, as
> it was suggested, but they might effectively just be recalibrating it.
> 
> Even though he was awarded the Nobel prize, I still like him, so here goes:
> 
> "...Oh, but you who philosophize, disgrace and criticize all
> fears,
> 
> Bury the rag deep in your face, for now's the time for your
> tears..."
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