Welcome to Central Industrial (We are the future in containment)
At the Anarchist Bookfair in London recently, I picked up a copy of Jean Barrot’s Fascism/Antifascism, about which there are lots of good things one could say (for example, check out the section in the appendix on the way ideologues of ‘anti-fascism’ characterise anti-capitalists as ‘objectively’ pro-fascist, and then think of the stream of spurious Orwell-quoting bullshit we’ve been hearing from Hitchens, Nick Cohen, etc).
In particular, though, I want to mention Barrot’s point that bourgeois liberalism constructs fascism as an absolute other, rather than a tendency within capitalism (so any application of the concept to the present situation is prima facie illegitimate, even offensive); and to mention this report from Iraq. As Lapsed Modernist says:
> I mean…how are we even supposed to TALK about it? It’s like the only possible analogies for this are reserved for something SO monstrous that they are, like, reified to never be invoked … except this IS not LIKE camps, this IS camps and what do you do when you INVOKE, and it just does not register with people because that particular analogy is so endlessly deferred, when activated it will produce a negative hallucination? I mean, I read that article correctly, right? they are going to bio-ID people and put them in a forced labor camp within Fallujah?
It’s increasingly clear that Agamben is right when he says that the camp is now the organising logic of capitalism. Not that this is something that has suddenly come to being with this development in Iraq, of course — apart from anything else, I’ve been trying to come up with a way to use Agamben to figure out a way to respond to what’s happening in Iraq for some time now, but unfortunately I’ve come up with a blank so far. There’s some interesting articles on Agamben in the new issue of Contretemps, but I can’t say they’ve given me the key to revolutionary strategy yet, either.
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i’m in the middle of moishe postone’s paper on anti-semitism and nazism, and it’s pretty interesting in places. specifically, he sees positivist bourgeois science and romantic anti-capitalism as two responses to the antinomy of commodity fetishism. the first, which marx deals with at length, is the tendency to see capitalism ahistorically, thereby rendering it a permanent state of affairs. the latter, much less discussed, also mistakes the present for the permanent, and thereby can only respond with an organic appeal to “nature” (and capitalism as a violation of nature). hence concrete labour becomes associated with nature, and thereby is positively valorized, whereas finance is negatively valorized, and this leads to anti-semitism in its classical form. proudhon, then, is the first anti-semite. marx never makes this sort of mistake (but comes close to doing so earlier on, in german ideology and the jewish question), as he defines productive labour from a capitalist perspective (but we know that he didn’t endorse it as such, mostly from the grundrisse). nevertheless, i am trying to write a paper as we speak arguing that the very distinction of productive/unproductive is capable of morphing into a racist naturalism (via fusion with nation) or a nationalism (via fusion with state), and as such needs to be abandoned for radical politics.
Comment by geo @ 12/7/2004 11:58 pm
An excellent pamphlet, though you should also read his later
clarificatory remarks on same (the text file is in my collection, under
“leftcommunists”).
Mind you, things look a bit bleak from his point of view, no? Consider
that what Dauvé would call communist militants probably number a couple
of hundred world-wide, max. Spontaneity or bust, I suppose.
Comment by Sarcy Fenian @ 12/7/2004 11:59 pm
The ‘appendix’ I refer to in the post is that clarificatory letter - I particularly like his point about racism being a symptom, more than a cause, of working-class weakness. I should thank you, by the way, for bringing the pamphlet to my attention in the first place; I wouldn’t have known that it was worth buying if I hadn’t seen an extract on your blog a while back.
You’re right that his position is bleak, but then, thinking about Iraq tend’s to make me feel that things are pretty bleak, too, so it fits with my purpose rather well.
That article sounds interesting, geo - but I would have imagined abolishing the productive/unproductive distinction was too latter-day-Negri for your tastes.
Comment by Tim @ 12/8/2004 4:21 pm
ha! no. really, my only big gripe with latter day negri (under the insidious influence of monsieur hardt) is the role of immanence and it’s tendency toward universalization. but even i can be convinced of that.
hmmm… racism as a symptom - this is precisely the opposite of the BTR analysis…
Comment by geo @ 12/8/2004 4:36 pm
upon reading that, i’m not sure how right he is. firstly, his argument that racism is a symptom is clearly rooted in the french experience (i.e. of a slow immigration). it cannot possibly apply in a situation as in the united states, where racism predates the working class and has always been integral to it. secondly, i think his own example of south africa also undermines this claim: why did the white workers riot? if racism and militancy go hand in hand, how can racism be the result of class disintegration?
incidentally, i got a letter from barrot/dauve a while back (a real letter, in the mail, no less). i had asked someone at antagonism for permission to reprint his essay “eclipse and reemergence”. very nice guy, with funny handwriting tho.
Comment by geo @ 12/8/2004 4:45 pm
>> I’ve been trying to come up with a way to use Agamben to figure out a way to respond to what’s happening in Iraq for some time now < <
via lenin:
“Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times.”
Comment by bat020 @ 12/9/2004 11:30 am
Sorry, that got snarled up - try again:
“I’ve been trying to come up with a way to use Agamben to figure out a way to respond to what’s happening in Iraq for some time now.”
via lenin:
“Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times.”
Comment by bat020 @ 12/9/2004 11:31 am
Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Mafia (evil) aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere (On planets where they approved evil.)
Terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
Many Muslims are being used like the Germans and Japanese of WWII::being used to hurt others and envoke condemnation upon their people.
I wish I could find a source to educate many Muslim fundamentalists. Muhammad is alive. He is a man chosen like Jesus Christ and, due to his historical status, will live forever.
They can affect the weather and Hurricane Katrina was accomplished for many reasons and involves many interests, as anything this historical is::
1. Take heat off Sheenhan/Iraq, protecting profitable war machine/private war contracts
2. Gentrification. New Orleans median home price of $84k is among the lowest in major American cities, certainly among desirable cities.
Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying “He has more money than god.” There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says “I’m too old and rich for this.”
This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.
god is evil because of money.
I don’t want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.
But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil won’t help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only good could help me.
The clues are there which companies are good and which are evil, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.
I offer an example of historical proportions:::
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil.
Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals. Malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they “decided” who they didn’t want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren’t their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.
Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. These seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god.
And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
Simpson’s foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. “Last one you ever suspect.”
“You’ll see lots of nuns where you’re going:::hell!!!” St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.
Jews maim the body formed in the image of “god”, and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people. I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians who attack “god’s” most favored people will pay for it dearly one day.
Comment by Ewxploited @ 10/24/2005 4:01 pm
Crickey! An I thought my head was screwed!
Comment by Paranoid Android @ 6/29/2006 3:43 am