[lbo-talk] U.S. in Israel's corner; IS is US

Gail Brock gbrock_dca at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 9 08:40:08 PDT 2010


The follow-up to "Century of the Self" is "The Trap", available here: http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheTrap

as well as at a number of streaming sites. I don't think it's as good as "Century of the Self", but it traces the failure of so-called third way politics to neoliberal models of individual psychology.

________________________________ From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Tue, June 8, 2010 8:49:51 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] U.S. in Israel's corner; IS is US

Homo Indeterminatus wrote:
>
>>
> Someone posted links to the "Century of the Self" doccie on the "legacy" of Freud's nephew Ed Bernays a few weeks ago. It's four fairly hefty downloads (~165MB each) but well worth watching for anyone who hasn't. I think it's also pretty devastating to any attempts at keeping the psychological and the political distinct.

Perhaps, if by politcs one means _merely_ academic or discussion groups viewing politics as mere information.

But for practical politics the distinction is absdolute. I saw a headline or subject line the other day, large numbers of Israeilis were demonstrating against the blockade of Gaza.

In other words, the Israeli population consists of at leas three 'secotors':

a. What is a majority in any collective: the indifferent

b. Those who are part of whatever it is that this thread is discussing

c. Those actively opposed to Israeli policy

Probably they all can (as I say, in a merely academic or chat context) be 'reuced' to or explained by the psychology of the members. But that explanation won't go much beyond attaching labels and affirming the importance of psychology. Tautological.

But if one is engaged in organizing, one cannot analyze (or know anything whatever about) that bloc who agree or are sympathetic to one's positon. One can only know what probably will appeal to their conscious convictions. And that requires political analysis undistorted by psychological guessing.

Carrol ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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