[lbo-talk] On vandalism and violence

Dennis Redmond metalslorg at gmail.com
Sun Nov 6 20:26:11 PST 2011


On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:15 PM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:


> Fuck violence. This is clearly a testasterone laden discussion.

Hear, hear. Speaking as a guy, the dominant imperial masculinity of the US (coded in countless television series, Hollywood superhero movies, politicians' speeches, everyday body language) is drenched in layers and layers of violence. Very hard to struggle against, because this often turns into a ritual self-victimization or blaming of oneself, which just perpetuates the violence all over again.

One proviso: we need to struggle against physical violence, which is horrible, whatever its form, but certain depictions of symbolic violence which have narrative form -- films, music, games, narrative -- can have radical potential, if they ground that violence in history, show how and what triggers it.

-- DRR



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