<nettime> Obama and the dawn of ...

[CJ Hopkins <cjhopkins@cjhopkins.com>]

Andrea wrote, "Your line of thinking remind me the Douglas and Wildawsky 
functionalist analytic tool, the grid-group scheme. ... The argument 
while is a valid tool to get rid of deterministic interpretation of 
social life, and by that I mean costs-benefits, biased perception 
analysis that still rule in the main stream media explanation of social 
dynamics, is quite useless if the aim is to reach, by discussion and 
social critic, a common ground to unify an anti-systemic movement and 
improve the self-consciousness of the ideology behind this movement."

Absolutely right. As a guitar is quite useless if the aim is to fry two 
eggs. (This is not to suggest that I subscribe to D&W's scheme.)

Wade wrote, "By making this division, it seems you are implying a Real 
Democracy beyond the (real) Democracy as Simulation. Can reality and 
simulation be separated?"/
/
No, of course there is no separation, nor any beyond. Looking through 
this lens, the simulation doesn't falsify or conceal the Real. It is the 
Real, or, in this case, the Democracy that conceals the fact that 
Democracy does not exist.

Wade also wrote, "This is a dangerous line of thinking ... It implies 
that things must get worse until we reach a breaking point at which 
point everything can be rearranged (sort of like disaster capitalism)."

I think the implication attributed to what I wrote is a bit of a 
stretch. I don't think either line of thinking is any more or less 
dangerous than the other. Except, of course, if one's aim is to 
unify/homogenize perspectives and objectives. In which case, yes, the 
(other) blind men will definitely need to be convinced, or forced, to 
perceive the same (your) elephant.

Thanks, all best,
CJ


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