the New Sincerity

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Peter to Carrol:
>I meant "deal with" as in "cope with." These people - Quayle, Gore, Clinton,
>etc. - have contempt for us, the average citizen not just the left, so I see
>no reason not to reflect it back. It would be masochistic not to.
>Unfortunately, the point is our relative weakness. I think it would have
>been better if Clinton had faced serious reprecussions for his Wag the Dog
>bombings, rather than "Make Love Not War" or "No Blood for Blow Jobs"
>protest signs.
<snip>
>You've studied irony a lot more than I have, so I'm all ears. A time or
>place where irony has significantly affected the political practice of
>reasonably large numbers of people? Would the fall of communism in Eastern
>Europe count? It is noticeable when irony's absent, for example in the cult
>of personality phenomenon, war hysteria or in certain leftist groups whose
>admission policy seem to go as follows: new members have to listen to the
>ten funniest stories in the world and, if they don't smile once, they're
>admitted.

Well, if I were to become a citizen of Cyber Yugoslavia, I'd propose to
appoint myself as Secretary of Epigrams (if that were not taken already).
I have long admired _Sweet Movie_ (1974) and _WR: The Mystery of Organism_
(1971) by Dusan Makavejev, so I think I am entitled to a CY passport.  (The
divine Pierre Clémenti plays un Marin du Potemkin in _Sweet Movie_.)

Anyway, check out the threads titled Cyber Yugoslavia and Cyber Yoshie, and
listen to our 'ironic' Post-It non-conversations among Elena, Wojtek,
Michael Hoover, & yours truly (what a combination -- the most exotically
cosmopolitan mix of 'nationalities' possible on lbo!).  You put it best
when you said: "cope with" our relative weakness.

Meanwhile, noone has responded to my post titled Yugoslavia.

Yoshie