Screwing the System

Gregory Geboski ggeboski at hotmail.com
Sun Nov 26 13:00:12 PST 2000


<< It's not the selling of anything which is the problem, that's just exchange; it's unequal exchange which is the issue. >>

"Just" exchange? And to think of K. Marx just wasting all those years in the British Library...

----Original Message Follows---- From: Dennis R Redmond <dredmond at oregon.uoregon.edu> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Screwing the System Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 17:11:23 -0800 (PST)

On Thu, 23 Nov 2000, Peter K. wrote:

> The big mind-fuck was seeing Burroughs in product advertisements, i.e.

> Burroughs and all he represents being used to sell some commodities. I think

> the Baffler touched on this episode.

But artists *shouldn't* represent anyone or anything else, on any level. That's the job of politicians and political activists. The mission of an artist is to create something meaningful out of whatever materials are at hand. It's not the selling of anything which is the problem, that's just exchange; it's unequal exchange which is the issue. I think Burroughs earned his ad money, personally -- he should've got a Nobel Prize for literature, considering what he achieved (invented cyberpunk, media/info guerilla activism, the cyborg). To paraphrase Willie Brown, there's no shame in taking their money and then screwing 'em.

-- Dennis

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