Banality, lack of culture, and vulgarity do not have the same meaning here as they have in Europe. Or perhaps this is merely the crazy notion of a European, a fascination with an unreal America. Perhaps Americans are quite simply vulgar, and this meta-vulgarity is merely something I have dreamed up. Who knows? But…
The protest demonstrations following the May murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis have waned. Demonstrations have waned in other cites, except for Portland, Oregon. There demonstrations have continued for 55 consecutive nights against police brutality and other grievances. Last night, Mayor Ted Wheeler who joined the lawful demonstration was tear gassed. Portland has given…
SPECTACULAR ORGY (FREEDOM AMERICAN STYLE) But this is precisely the point:the high point of liberation, it’s logical outcome,is to be found in the spectacular orgy, speed, the instantaneity of change, generalized eccentricity. Politics frees itself in the spectacle,in the all-out advertising effect;sexuality frees itself in all its anomalies,and perversions; mores, customs, the body, and…
This morning I read part of a story in the NYT of a grandmother on the way to the hospital, dying in the arms of her grand daughter after receiving her diagnosis of covid-19. This was a Florida story illustrating the difficulties of testing, and the consequences of back up of lab results, in…
20 Stop thinking, and end your problems.What difference between yes and no?What difference between success and failure?Must you value what others value,avoid what others avoid?How ridiculous! Other people are excited,as though they were at a parade.I alone don’t care,I alone am expressionless,like an infant before it can smile. Other people have what they need;I…
15 The ancient Masters were profound and subtle. Their wisdom was unfathomable. There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance. They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream. Alert as a warrior in enemy territory. Courteous as a guest. Fluid as melting ice. Shapable as a block…
We are seeing at the moment that the pandemic can’t be fought with lies and disinformation, and neither can it be with hatred and agitation, Angelica Merkel told the European Parliament on Thursday, according to French news agency France24. “Fact-denying populism is being shown its limits,” she added. — Business Insider July 9, 2020
Admittedly, the irony of community is missing here, as is the playfulness of social life. The charm to be found in social graces and in the theatre of social relations is all transferred outwards into the advertising of life and lifestyles. This is a society that is endlessly concerned to vindicate itself, perpetually seeking…
Americans believe in facts,but not in facticity.They do not know that factsare factitious*, as their name suggests.It is this belief in facts,in the total credibility of what is done or seen,in this pragmatic evidence of things and an accompanying contempt for what may be called appearancesor the play of appearances –— a face does…
It is by an act of force,or coup de théâtre*geographical exile of the Founding Fathers of the seventeenth centuryadding itself to the voluntary exile of man within his own consciousness –that what in Europe had remained a critical and religious esotericismbecame transformed on the New Continent into a pragmatic exotercism.The whole foundation of America…
