On Nov 12, 2005, at 9:49 PM, lbo-talk-request at lbo-talk.org wrote:
> The US ruling class is in disarray, it seems to me. An indication of
> this are the various tergiversations, the Stiglitzes and Krugmans and
> Sachses -- and even Colin Powell, a loyal servant of Empire if there
> ever was one, spoke a very clear and resounding "don't" in the runup
> to the Iraq war.
>
> May the term _blowback_, so often heard after 9/11, can be used to
> diagnose the situation. It means that from now on every new challenge
> to the US will and must be a consequence of US actions in the past.
> This is a critical moment for a polity that likes to think of itself
> as living under the wide open sky, and on the Open Frontier.
>
> I entertain the notion that the collapse of the Frontier, and its
> consequent internalization into people's inner lives, is the recurring
> theme in David Lynch's work. (Curiously, as I just realize, he is
> currently completing a film with the title "Inland Empire" ... it
> turns out to be the name of a slipshod trailer park, of course.)
>
>
> cheers
> AN
I don't know if you were paraphrasing Hardt & Negri intentionally there, but they attempt to make this point, more or less, in Empire. US imperialism, they argue, was the direct result of the closing of the frontier. Similarly, neocolonialist (and ultimately, Empire-related) expansion (ranging from Guatemala to present-day Iraq) displaces, to some extent at least, domestic labor issues, as well as the well-being of the proletariat. Tired as it now is, this is supported by the dozens of pundits and columnists who, in the wake of Katrina, claimed that the visibility of the "real" America--of "underclass" America--has "brought the war home." Of course, Americans are quick to forget, and likewise view these shifts merely as narratives (as opposed to exclaiming, "Yes! We must reinvigorate the labor movement!"), but I agree that there is a direct connection between the closing of the "frontier" (be it spatial, or in this case economic) and the re-opening of that very frontier in wars of attrition and expansion. __________________ Zachary Levenson Radiation Effects Research Foundation Hiroshima Laboratory 5-2 Hijiyama Park, Minami-ku Hiroshima City, 732-0815 Japan
levenson at rerf.or.jp Zachary.Levenson at gmail.com http://rebenson.blogspot.com
"Latter-day capitalism. Like it or not, it's the society we live in. Even the standard of right and wrong has been subdivided, made sophisticated. Within good, there's fashionable good and unfashionable good, there's formal and then there's casual; there's hip, there's cool, there's trendy, there's snobbish. Mix 'n' match. Like pulling on a Missoni sweater over Trussardi slacks and Pollini shoes, you can now enjoy hybrid styles of morality. It's the way of the world--philosophy starting to look more and more like business administration." ~Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2989 bytes Desc: not available URL: <../attachments/20051112/1abeca07/attachment.bin>