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>Mark, > >I was merely making the point that Zizek makes about how the symbolic order >(not to be confused with the "electric media environment") becomes >oppressively closed through being at the same time radically open to >manipulation - a paradox in true Zizekian style. He gives the example of >filling out the unspoken silences in canonical texts: Jane Eyre (see Jean >Rhys' Wide Sergasso Sea), Star Trek hacking and so on. Electric media >environments accelerate the potential of filling out the gaps, the lacks, >the silences which the symbolic order depends upon in order to structure >reality. (The virtual symbolic castration threat which controls the real >penis). In this circumstance of having 'infinite choice', the function of >desire on which choice depends is foreclosed. How can you want something >when having something amounts to clicking one button for yes and another >for no, seemingly without conflict or consequence. Zizek quotes Lacan's >reversal of Dostoyevsky's famous statement, which becomes "If there is no >God, nothing is permitted." http://www.m9ndfukc.com/botz/solaris.html !t = takez 0+1 !nf!n!t amount ov pakag!ng 2 ztore `noth!ng` !f 0+1 god = ecz!ztz 0+1 != ud knou 0+1 knouz 0+1 god = ecz!ztz. !f 0+1 knouz 0+1 != knou 0+1 god = ecz!ztz 0+1 = prevntz 0+1 4rom poztulat!ng 0+1 god = ecz!ztz 1 2 3 4 5 6 / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 each universe is constructed of 2 universes. may notice 1 = splits into 1 and 2 2 = splits into 3 and 4 3 = splits into 5 and 6 4 = splits into 7 and 8 n = splits into 2n-1 and 2n. one may continue splitting any given universe indefinitely thus obtaining one infinite number of components in any bit of matter http://www.m9ndfukc.com/botz/bit_revolution_0+1.html >I think the question is somehow where the radical potential lies - if at >all - in a frictionless symbolic order. Does it have to signal a psychotic >collapse or should we read it as a transitional moment of symbolic >transformation? In a sense, is it possible that the symbolic order could >ever cease to function and to resist if we are to remain being human? > >Dunno. > >J >> >>Is nettime itself "timeless"? >> nettime = !tzelv = simple equal-temperd tuning utensil > >of the death of the Master (text/signifier) that occurs in cyberspace; > >>Josephine: >> >>Maybe this isn't such a new situation. >> >>What you refer to as the "symbolic order" is really just the "electric media >>environment", isn't it? And, this has been going on for, oh, 150+ years or >>so. Ever since the introduction of the telegraph and its spawn . . . the >>newspaper. >> >>Afterall, the "Symbolists" are hardly a new idea . . . are they? >> >>Pit Schultz posted a longish essay on some of this a while back. "The >>Whatever Intellectual." Or, whatever. >> >>In PoMo language this essay merely repeated what has been said a thousand >>times (better and shorter, much of the time) about the decline of the >>capacity for anyone to think and for anyone to speak and for anyone to create >>art and for anyone to . . . simply be a human being. For, oh, 150+ years or >>so. >> >>It's interesting that you identify the "symbolic order" with a "tart." I >>presume that you mean the "prostitute" meaning and not the "sweat-cake" >>meaning of the term . . . right? >> >>How about exploring the connotations of "SELLING-OUT" as "tarts" are fond of >>doing? Is that a reasonable translation? When did the problem of >>selling-out -- in particular selling one's own mortal soul -- become a widely >>noticed problem? >> >>Could Goethe have anything to inform us about all this? Is "Faust" at all >>relevant? >> >>And, what are we to make of the fact that Thomas Mann's "Faust" is all about >>the characters of the Frankfurt School? With Adorno as "Faust" himself! >>Hmmmm . . . >> >>Wyndham Lewis' 1926 extended-"pamphlet" titled "The Art of Being Ruled" is >>very informative on all these matters. So is his 1934 "Men Without Art." In >>fact, all of Lewis' work could be brought to bear upon these problems. >> >>And, more expansively, the problems of nettime itself. >> >>In "The Art of Being Ruled", Lewis mentions: >> >>"Everything in our life today conspires to thrust most people into prescribed >>tracks, in what can be called a sort of TRANCE OF ACTION. Hurrying, without >>any significant reason, from spot to spot at the maximum speed obtainable . . >>. how is the typical individual at this epoch to do some detached thinking >>for himself?" >> >>Could this possibly relate to the need to get your information in "motion." >>Or, to the need to DO SOMETHING, about which so many of us appear to be >>deeply hypnotized. >> >>McLuhan (in an essay first published in 1944) describes what Lewis was up to >>when he says: >> >>"The particular means by which Lewis has extricated himself from the >>ideological machine of our epoch with its inevitable labelling process -- >>'liberal,' 'socialist,' 'reactionary,' 'fascist,' 'individualist,' 'realist,' >>'romantic,' 'extrovert,' etc. -- is that of the painter's eye." >> >>Ah, yes, ART. As in "The ART of Being Ruled"? >> >>Could it be that participating in the "ideological machine" is itself a form >>of SELLING-OUT? Selling out one's own mortal soul? For "winning" the >>certainty of one's own personal ideology . . . what is the price that you >>have to pay? >> >>And, what is the relationship between wanting to move our information and >>earlier rituals of the worshipping of the machines? >> >>Are we, once again, "Futurists" in search for our Mussolini? >> >>If we can't think anymore, if we can't speak anymore . . . are we still >>human? Are we to blame all this on the "symbolic order" >> >>McLuhan (in his 1944 essay on Lewis) uses the old-fashioned term "Zeitgeist" >>and he offers: >> >>"This sort of revolutionary simpleton, this beaming child of the 'Zeitgeist' >>is precisely the sort of ruler the modern world cannot afford to have at the >>head of is enormous machinery. Lewis presents a massive documentation and >>analysis of the art and science and philosophy which manufacture the >>'Zeitgeist' -- the 'Zeitgeist' being the force which manipulates the puppets >>who "'govern'" us . . . As a preparation for intelligent action. Lewis >>advocates self-extraction from the ideological machine by an arduous course >>of detachment, -- the scrutiny of the philosophy of the past four centuries >>as well as of the art and science which that philosophy has engendered. For >>success in this task very few are well equipped today . . . So with the >>ordinary artist and politician -- they are immersed in matter, in their >>'Zeitgeist', and they call it "'timelessness,'" or they appeal to the >>relativity notion of all human action as an excuse for sinking deeper into >>the brainlessness of matter." >> >>Are we not ourselves to blame for the "symbolic order," for the "Zeitgeist," >>for being "revolutionary simpletons." >> >>Is nettime itself "timeless"? >> nettime = !tzelv = simple equal-temperd tuning utensil _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold