Paranoia

[Serial_Apologist]

like my favourite zen master said when asked why he was digging the garden ..."no work no food"

in our case it's no work = no£ = no food ...and that little bit in the middle is just full of opportunity innit

It's just that I don't think exchange value automatically implicates - depends what the opportunity is *for*

[handsomefortune]

omg - i thought you were going to hit me with a new idea then calum da jazbo, but no.

personally, i don't connect marcuse specifically with 'free' this, that & the other ..... or how ever you imagine factions of the left interpreted marcuse's varied subject matter, apparently to the nations' detriment.

A selection from the papers today ...

they are all at it ..... outrage as commodity ... discourse as spectacle .... rub in the impotence is what it all does

> the CORPSPEAK SQUADDIES say it all .... <


from your (hideous) 'join a union link'

Labour has not yet matched the epochal tone captured by Mr Barber, let alone dared to say that the indefensible criminality of the riots does not excuse “blatant double standards [under which] someone who steals a bottle of water goes to jail while there are second chances aplenty in the corridors of power”.

up the commodification of outrage.


> all their arguments mask other purposes ... <

who's 'all their'?

is it yahoo's commodification of outrage in carrying topshop story on front page today?

or, topshop's manipulation and commodification of political correctness, as though returning to chauvinism is fun?

i refuse to believe that 'joe and joanna' are stupid tbh.......... but logically, i guess some are.

btw what were marcuse's supposed 'other purposes' in your view calum da jazbo? do you not think that marcuses' ideas may have been subverted by political opportunists? you surely don't have contempt for his whole range of ideas.... or maybe you do, and see no application for them personally maybe? (but then this thread is about 'commodification')?

i've read your link to 'democratic micro entanglement' now, but whilst it makes convincing criticisms of 'blue labour', and of 'democracy' itself - what does the author, runciman, actually propose as an alternative strategy? might runciman himself be a commodifier of outrage..... rather than 'thoughtful' as you suggest? although the after sensation of reading that link was good - a new broom, tidy....spacious ...to the point of empty. so, perhaps runciman's himself is more like kant, than he might care to admit.

it occurs to me, that runciman might not grasp the 20th c history of community activism, in its various forms, which is a shame, and neither does glassman. but why let generalisations get in the way of the commodification of outrage in journalism?

paradox alert:

'the left, predicated on failure as it is, is as hooked on success as liberal neocon merchant bankers only more ruthless when in power'

contradictory, but rings true. certainly a massive generalisation about the left simultaneously.

i'm not convinced nulabour were as ruthless as the bankers ...but they did mirror stateside, in allowing stuff that clinton inherited to also happen here.

> tenure to get books to sell big man status <

imo the problem with this idea is that if leaders of 'micro entanglement' were actually identified, then surely, by your own prognosis, they'd need to hide in a cupboard, and keep their thoughts secret? otherwise, they'd risk 'big man status' themselves presumably, ... if i've understood you correctly.

runciman writes "As Glasman admits, he is harking back to an earlier period in Labour history, when the movement was centred on local struggles and community organisation, before it fell into the hands of Oxford-educated do-gooders who wanted to set the world to rights. There is more than a whiff of nostalgia about it."

that things fell into the hands of an educated, self serving, elite is unfortunate - but this isn't imo the actual reason for the demise of community activism; besides, clement attlee went to oxford, and arguably did a lot of good. attlee won 'most popular politician ever' posthemus award, 2004.... while bliar n bush were devil worshipping.

attlee remains relevant, (and of course his side kick, bevan, set up the nhs):

"Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help
the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim'.

attlee went on to write:

'In a civilised community, although it may be composed of self-reliant individuals, there will be some persons who will be unable at some period of their lives to look after themselves, and the question of what is to happen to them may be solved in three ways – they may be neglected, they may be cared for by the organised community as of right, or they may be left to the goodwill of individuals in the community. The first way is intolerable, and as for the third: Charity is only
possible without loss of dignity between equals. A right established by law, such as that to an old age pension, is less galling than an allowance made by a rich man to a poor one, dependent on his view of the recipient’s character, and terminable at his caprice'.[3]


surely, to be 'nostalgic' about the above message, is excusable on the grounds that the same remains relevant today. threads on this forum reflect this fact.

fwiw, the demise of community activism pre dates the arrival of nu, blue labour, or the coalition. though once in power, nulabour helped crush community dissent, and if some oxford grads had been around, this might not have been such a push over.

as with nimby-ism, and community activism against eg planning depts, it helps enormously if you have someone handy who definitely can't be discretely run over. a lord, or earl is really handy to know, and since huge £££s is at stake, today's nimbys often take high risks to their own personal safety unwittingly.

lastly, the idea that 'commodification' might not be linked only with consumer commodities, is presumably a leftfield idea ..... so this might mean that you're hoisted by your own leotard calum da jazbo! there's no escape - but that was a nice try, back to the straightjacket now! don't watch my curtis link btw - it's got traces of left & right in it.

up the commodification of outrage

'when the bread disappears then the circus fails at distraction'

is sooooo cynical but true. but there's a difference between reassessing, and damning all ideas willynilly, or denying their importance, and different interpretation by others.

[eighthobstruction]

Bloomin Nora....

[Serial_Apologist]

Bloomin Nora....

Have I sold out, then?

[eighthobstruction]

I wouldn't know i only came in here to read the gas meter....

[Serial_Apologist]

Here mate - glad I was in - underneath to the right of the kitchen sink. Wasn't it you last time? I'll just pull out the tumble drier so you can get to it. Need a torch, mate? Er... a flashlight? Time for a cuppa?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

opportunity for all kinds of mischief eh ....

there are no new ideas

there is only new experience

there are no believable beliefs

paradox. paradox. it's all paradox ....

exchange value does not entail £, work for work .... now an impossibility ....

how can we know what the reading of the gas meter means, if anything, and is this just another interpretation that privileges elementary mathematics to take £ ....

if a £10 note burns, what is it that burns and what is it that disappears? if a body is cremated what was burned and what has disappeared to legitimate the flames?

i used to get entanglement in my hifi and computer wiring and connections, full of constraints entanglement is .... micro small macro big .... is £ an entanglement? is a £ a wire?

shoot gangsters ... now that may be a good idea

how do we 'pay' for the fire and the bullets?


for all [work=£=food][f.non-reciprocal]=violence required

violence and distraction are intimates

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.

If you aren't rich you should always look useful.

Louis-Ferdinand dit que

[handsomefortune]

a pop 'sensemeal-ia'

(if you can successfully ignore the (unhelpful)? references to jazzy woodbines), i think, as pop songs go, the lyrics to this tune accurately sum up the sheer power and yet personal impotence generated by current paradoxes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkKktRrAqAQ

arguably, it's the paradoxes themselves which get you 'drunk', or 'high' ....either way, result: many are detached from sense, or logic?