[csaa-forum] FW: ::fibreculture:: The politics of emotion / Aspirations in the suburbs

Mon Oct 11 15:57:00 CST 2004

sorry to flood your inbox - but the Goebbels quote is seriously scary 
because it is so apt.
...obviously still very depressed :(
I wonder what Meaghan will have to say about it all!!!

Nicholls, Susan wrote:

>Shock is right. Profound melancholy is another emotion today. Thanks, Danny, for posting Brett's most interesting analysis. Here is further food for thought. 
>
>'By simplifying the thoughts of the masses and reducing them to primitive patterns, propaganda was able to present the complex process of political and economic life in the simplest terms. ... We have taken matters previously available only to experts and  ... hammered them into the brain of the little man.' - Josef Goebbels 
>
>Also known as: 'It's the economy, stupid', plus that peculiar amalgam of 'you've never had it so good' (appeal to greed) sitting cheek-by-jowl with 'we'll all be ruined (if you choose the other mob)' (appeal to fear).
>
>It's the Family First party that is the dark horse here - they came from nowhere to (probably) holding the balance in the Senate. Ye gods.
>
>Susan
>_____________________________
>Dr Susan Nicholls
>School of Professional Communication
>Division of Communication and Education
>University of Canberra
>
>Tel 02 6201 5720
>_____________________________
>
>  
>
>>----------
>>From: 	Danny Butt
>>Reply To: 	CSAA discussion list
>>Sent: 	Monday, October 11, 2004 2:54 PM
>>To: 	csaa-forum
>>Subject: 	[csaa-forum] FW: ::fibreculture:: The politics of emotion / Aspirations in the suburbs
>>
>>
>>Hi all,
>>
>>I can imagine most of the Australians on this list are in a state of shock
>>:7, but nevertheless I'd be interested to hear the on-the-ground reactions
>>to the, uh, "commanding" performance by Howard over the weekend, and what it
>>means for Australian culture or its study. I hope Brett doesn't mind me
>>forwarding this from Fibreculture, but it was one of the most insightful
>>discussions I've come across - relevant to this group, and worthy of wider
>>exposure. There are also some parallels to be drawn in the prevailing
>>political mood perhaps with the terribly sad news of Derrida - I'm thinking
>>of the awful attacks on his work from Chomsky, the Cambridge people etc.
>>that seem motivated by a similar register of fear that Howard plays upon so
>>ruthlessly. Being good, or right, is obviously less important than being
>>familiar.
>>
>>------ Forwarded Message
>>From: Brett Neilson <b.neilson at uws.edu.au>
>>Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 11:48:46 +1000
>>To: <fibreculture at lists.myspinach.org>
>>Subject: ::fibreculture:: Sad news overnight
>>
>>Sad news overnight, the death of Jacques Derrida.
>>
>>On that other altogether more tired and predictable business, I'll post a
>>piece (written a few days back) that was published in the Italian newspaper
>>_Il Manifesto_ yesterday, 9 October.
>>
>>Available in Italian at:
>>http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/09-Ottobre-2004/art42.html
>>
>>
>>There's another sum-up piece that I wrote last night, but I'll post that
>>when it's published in a few days time.
>>
>>
>>
>>The politics of emotion.
>>Aspirations in the suburbs. And ours?
>>
>>BRETT NEILSON
>>
>>It would be foolish to believe that an election in Australia could alter
>>the current course of global power. Nor does anyone in Australia seriously
>>expect that a change of government would change life on the ground much at
>>all. Yet, at the international level, the contest between Howard and Latham
>>(due to be decided on 9 October) could have effects as significant of those
>>of the Spanish election of March 2004. If the Labor Party candidate, Mark
>>Latham, wins, the 800 or so Australian troops in Iraq will be withdrawn by
>>Christmas. This would be the first withdrawal by a coalition-of-the-willing
>>country that has been in Iraq since the beginning of the current U.S.-led
>>invasion. But nobody in Australia is discussing this possibility, least of
>>all Latham himself. Rather, the talk is about the traditional issues that
>>divide the political parties in Australia: health, education, taxes,
>>interest rates, and economic management. Like the question of refugees and> 
>>border control, which virtually decided the last election, the issue of war
>>has disappeared in the last days of the campaign, overshadowed by domestic
>>issues and cynical attempts to micro-reward swing voters.
>>
>>The reticence of the Labor Party to advertise its policy on Iraq, like its
>>kinder approach to refugees, stems from its attempt to win back a number of
>>marginal seats, usually located on the fringes of Australia's cities. These
>>largely working class areas had always voted Labor, at least until 1996
>>when they voted for the conservative John Howard, who has maintained a
>>stronghold on national politics ever since. Often dubbed the 'aspirational
>>classes,' the populace of these areas is typically disinvested in the
>>processes of representative democracy, concerned about their opportunities
>>for social and economic betterment, susceptible to the affective claims of
>>nationalism, and harsh in their attitudes to refugees (although many were
>>migrants to Australia themselves). The moderate Latham, 43 years-old and
>>Australia's closest answer to a third-way politician, himself grew up in
>>one of these areas: the vast suburban sprawl of Western Sydney. And his
>>predominant rhetoric, which speaks of erecting a 'ladder of opportunity'
>>for all Australians, appeals to these 'aspirational' values. Tuned to the
>>findings of focus groups and opinion polls, Latham's message has gradually
>>been stripped of all reference to the war, border control, or contentious
>>issues such as gay marriage. And the result is boring politics, a campaign
>>of social engineering (with the promised expenditures carefully matched by
>>Howard at every step) that has failed to capture the attention (let alone
>>the imagination) of the voters.
>>
>>The problem for Labor is how to win back the 'aspirational' suburban seats
>>without alienating their other base: the middle class, university educated
>>constituencies who generally live closer to the city centres. These groups
>>also deserted the Labor Party in the election of November 2001, fleeing
>>mainly to the Greens (a party allied to the likes of Daniel Cohn Bendit and
>>Joshka Fischer) when Kim Beasley, the former Labor leader, attempted to
>>match Howard's rhetoric on security and border control in the wake of 11
>>September. But this time around, the desertion to the Greens is unlikely to
>>affect only the Labor vote. There are also many people who live in affluent
>>conservative seats who are threatening to vote Green to protest Howard's
>>pro-Bush stance on the war, refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol, and brutal
>>treatment of asylum seekers. Derisively labeled 'doctors' wives' by
>>conservative spin doctors, these voters are unlikely to shift the balance
>>of power in the lower house. But they do threaten to give the Greens more
>>leverage in the upper house, a factor that would make life difficult for
>>the major party that wins office (so much so that Howard has struck a deal
>>with the Christianity-based party Family First to minimize this effect).
>>
>>It is at this level that the contest in Australia is most interesting. Not
>>because the policies of the Greens, which often take the form of an
>>anti-Americanism with strong nationalist/protectionist implications, are
>>particularly novel, but because the hate that circulates for Howard, and in
>>particular for his position on Iraq, is the strongest emotional force that
>>traverses the electorate. Such feeling is unlikely to pierce through the
>>elaborate apparatus of image construction, swing vote capture, and focus
>>group policy-making that has become the disease of majoritarian politics.
>>But it carries a lesson, even for those of us committed to a
>>post-representative democracy that does not take the seizure of political
>>power at the level of the nation-state as its primary objective. If Latham
>>is unlikely to win, it is not because his message fails to resonate with> 
>>the 'aspirational' voters he has targeted. Rather it is because, in a media
>>saturated culture, the emotional modulation of voters tends to outweigh
>>their openness to arguments of truth and falsity. Fear, insecurity, and
>>precariousness are the order of the day. And this is what the conservative
>>side of politics, in Australia as elsewhere, has manipulated through a
>>skilful exploitation of the relations between sense and sensitivity. If the
>>left is to respond, it must find something more than a leader who can win a
>>debate but is unable to win an election.
>>
>>
>>
>>Free Trade in the Bermuda Triangle ... and Other Tales of
>>Counterglobalization
>>http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/N/neilson_free.html
>>
>>  
>>
>>
>>::posted on ::fibreculture:: mailinglist for australasian
>>::critical internet theory, culture and research
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>>::please send announcements to separate mailinglist:
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>>
>>------ End of Forwarded Message
>>
>>
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>>
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>>    
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