[lbo-talk] cynicism, opportunism and fear (was lefties, fulfillment)

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Wed Jan 26 06:04:36 PST 2005


Tom Walker

Well, as Marcuse put it, "Civilization has to defend itself against the specter of a world which could be free."

Put in it's full frontal Freudian context, it's not a story about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the stars up above and a thing called love but about the primal horde, the despotic patriarch, the rebellious sons, parricide and ultimately the internalization of guilt and repression in order to forestall an endless cycle of violence. Personally, I think the original Sophocles is clearer on the primal political myth than is Freud.

^^^^^^ CB: Sophocles was closer in time to the actual origin of the family, private property and the state ( swivalization and its discontents) than Freud was.

^^^^^

But the consenus is still that there's some weird shit that got us as a species to where we are today and if we don't deal with it, well that's o.k. too because it's sure as hell going to deal with us. Mercilessly. Now it comforts some of us to forget that folks like, well, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld are the same damn species that we are. And it comforts the followers of W. and Rummy to forget that Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and homosexuals and liberals are the same damn species that they are. And it comforts... well, you get the picture. But the truth is it isn't gorillas or chipanzees doing this war and _abstract_ domination jive, it's us and only us.

The Sandwichman



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