Re: <nettime> Obama and the dawn of the Fourth Republic

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

another short point (belch) I would risk making -- I think there is a real
danger in this stage of Empire to focus on personalities rather than structural
relations of power.  That is, the "Office of the Presidency" has changed
greatly during the Bush regime, mostly not as a result of Bush himself but
because a convergence of forces (okay, Cheney, Rove, embody the forces
perhaps.. etc etc) -- a convergence of forces that are structurally evolving at
this moment in the Empire.  Of course, those concentrations of power can simply
wane during the Obama regime, or, more likely in my mind, is that they will
increase, given the intense desires and energies and attentions projected at
(the) Presidency.  Given Obama's awareness of media, this will be a 'natural.'
But this evolution, whatever happens, will not be THAT closely tied to Obama,
IMHO, but simply the trajectory of Empire...  I am hopeful for a kinder and
more intelligent Empire, but what else is a kinder Empire than one which is on
the way down, unable to brutally control the sources of it's power;  add
intelligence to kindness, and is that akin to beautifully playing the fiddle
while Rome burns?  Or simply more intricate and obscured warfare on less
suspecting victims?  Watch for some interesting machinations of power in the
next 4 years...  I have decided, personally, that I will have lived during the
(first) peak and subsequent decline of the (first) American Empire.  All's to
do is to document that life and find some humor among humans.

doh...!

jh


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org