There was nothing depressing about this image: The Zombie is a cute metaphor but a bad theory of history, subjectivity and language.
Nowhere did I object to the picture of people enjoying themselves. What I objected to was your mirror image alternative to the mechanics of subjectivity inherent to the crisis/imperialism line of analysis. And I was glad you took it on even if you failed to get out of its logic. See my response to Bond, perhaps it will help clarify the matter.
I enjoyed having the opportunity to converse with you about your article.
Thanks
Travis
On the metaphor, it's Ulrich Beck's not mine. He meant that people are often prisoners of ideas handed down from the past, and that these categories are something like the living dead walking the night, only because they haven't been replaced by other categories.
I don't see this as depressing as Travis does. That people should enjoy some well being does not seem so awful. I don't think there is a need to invent problems when there are real ones in the here and now to address - such as the war in Iraq, or the assault on civil liberties, or the promotion of personal insecurity by states.
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