Deep throat or shallow press?

Dennis R Redmond dredmond at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU
Sat Sep 12 22:17:12 PDT 1998


On Sat, 12 Sep 1998, Paul Henry Rosenberg wrote:


> It seems that we're packing at least a century of the decline & fall of
> the Roman Empire into a few short years... or is that months?

Adorno once said that decadence was the Fata Morgana of a progress which had not yet begun (an essay entitled "Progress"). He was talking about the late 19th century, of course, but I'd argue that El Presidente's spermatic doings are the Fata Videoana of the rise of the new superpowers (our old friends, East Asia and the EU, still fumbling their way towards hegemony). All the basic tropes of video Victorianism are there: young temp intern, a boss who's a rentier stooge, hidden handshakes, breathless appointments, work-pleasures and the pleasures of work, with the discourse of a molecular biology (a.k.a. the dress-stains) locked in public embrace with Starr's contribution to late 20th century culture, "indict-o-porn". Yes, it's ressentiment in the worst way: deep down, 90% of Americans want to say, "Fuck the American Empire". Looks like Monica took this repressed mass-cultural wish a little too literally.

-- Dennis



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