[lbo-talk] Re: Know your enemy

[joanna bujes]

At 08:03 PM 04/17/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>The simple answer is the whole package, its ideological
>representation, represents their material interests in the world.
>
>The neoconservative understanding of democracy is the democracy of
>business and capital. That is, when they write about democracy and
>freedom they are thinking about the freedom of the high bourgeois and
>managerial elite, and of course themselves, the class intelligencia to
>pursue their personal and therefore class interest to make money,
>enjoy life, control all social cultural and discursive parameters, and
>keep the clambering masses at bay---safely on the other side of the
>iron gates to the well coiffured estates. That is the Good Life, for
>the Good People.
>
>So, they have written up the Patriot Act for example to turn the
>entire US public infrastructure into a series of linked panopticon
>gated communities---some strange architectural morph between an
>Shopping Mall and an Israeli Settlement. Consider what entering an
>airport or a large office building really resembles.

A cross between a shopping mall and an Israeli Settlement. Yeah. That nails 
it Chuck. Jesus Fucking Christ!

The question is how long can a society survive which is split between a 
European graveyard and Jerri Springer? What kind of vitality will such a 
society have? Who would fight and die for such a society? Where will its 
art come from? How strong would the "individuals" of such a society be? Can 
you say "decline and fall of the West."?

Joanna