[csaa-forum] Re: wanting to be effluent

Andrew Murphie a.murphie at unsw.edu.au
Thu Oct 14 13:47:05 CST 2004


Thanks Di

yes ­ it¹s worth just pointing to as many of these examples as possible just
to bring them out into the open and the ABC seems a textbook case. Perhaps
the next step would be to think through the complex machines of cognition
and affect involved (thinking here of something like a machining of a
complex and general political unconscious ­ I think Massumi even called this
the manipulation of the ³pre-vital² or something like it recently). I know
some people are thinking in a Latourian manner about exactly such issues.

I mean, I love theories of affect, but I¹m also a great believer in thinking
through things technically ­ of course, these two things need not be
separated. So what are the specific technics of affect/fear in such
situations? How are they to be re-assembled. This is the big political
question for me ­ we¹re great at analysing but politics is more about
synthesis ... and its the questions of contemporary synthesis that need
answers. 

An example that is perhaps too cute ­ the linking of budgets to
international students in universities and the whole complex machinery
surrounding this, with all the affect/fear produced ­ including the idea
that this ³market² is now threatened for various reasons. Anything to
counter the threat to this market is deemed unquestionable?

best, Andrew




On 14/10/04 1:37 PM, "Diane Powell" <dipowell at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> Hi Andrew, on spreading fear, Howard sure pushes the buttons of the 'E' team
> currently running the ABC. I read in the Oz this morning that at MD Russell
> Balding has been insisting that journalists and programmers declare their
> political allegiance and declare what political party they belong to, if any,
> in their annual performance reviews.
>  
> Di
> -----Original Message-----
> From: csaa-forum-bounces at darlin.cdu.edu.au
> [mailto:csaa-forum-bounces at darlin.cdu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Andrew Murphie
> Sent: 14 October 2004 13:29
> To: csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [csaa-forum] Re: wanting to be effluent
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I must admit I wonder if many of these ³reasons² aren¹t, despite their reality
> as phantoms, phantoms nevertheless.
> 
> Perhaps it is difficult to talk about the current economies of fear (all
> concerning ³security² - economic, territorial, the family ­ I would add
> ³cognitive security²) because this fear stalks the academic world as much as
> anywhere and we could no longer point fingers elsewhere in blame, but would
> have to challenge ourselves at this level. Fear ­ and a whole complex
> machinery surrounding its production and maintenance - seemed to me to be the
> clear election winner, the milieu of the election, and Howard¹s singular
> achievement in office. I mean he¹s made himself the button to push whenever he
> likes, and the content is just an afterthought. Fear provides the reasons most
> things were said or not said, done or not done ­ or maybe I¹m just a scared-y
> cat and everyone else is thinking clearly ...
> 
> If it¹s not just me, ...  the importance of new, alternative economies of
> affect that some in the list have mentioned ­ Bifo mentioned ³love² recently.
> I must say I was shocked.
> 
> A
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 14/10/04 12:41 PM, "Brett Neilson" <b.neilson at uws.edu.au> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> >Yes francis - I see no necessary direct link at  all - things are
>>> >Incidentally my comment re houses was about people in  general be they in
>>> >Liverpool,  Balmain,  Bankstown or  wherever - after all  people are just
>>> >trying to make lives for  themselves, and why shouldn't they? ( and I don't
>>> >believe they are all  'dupes' ( or dopes)).
>>> >Jeannie
>>> >BTW I have the latest Freedom  catalogue if anyone wants a quick rundown
>> 
>>> >---- Original Message  -----
>>> >From: "Francis Maravillas"  <Francis.Maravillas at uts.edu.au>
>>> >To: "CSAA discussion list"  <csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au>
>>> >Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004  6:54 PM
>>> >Subject: Re: [csaa-forum] RE: wanting to be  effluent
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >I agree, Jeannie. There seems to be a  perception that people who have nice
>>> >a house can't be critical,  progressive or 'leftish'. Class/cultural
>>> >capital distinctions do not  necessarily correlate with political
>>> >positionalities (or voting  behavior) - and even Bourdieu acknowledges
>>> that.
>>> >
>>> >Francis
>> 
>> 
>> Hey Jeannie,
>> 
>> I agree with  Francis too and strongly so. But shouldn't this point be
>> pushed a little  more to say that class cannot be reduced to consumption,
>> taste, or  cultural capital. Not that anyone on the list has made that
>> conflation but  the discussion did drift immediately to consumption, an
>> important topic  but not the only one at stake.
>> 
>> If the category 'aspirational' has any  analytical grip in the wake of the
>> election (and I'm open to the  suggestion that we have to invent new
>> concepts) it is in the intersection  between complex processes of social
>> recomposition (based partly, as  Melissa notes, in the changing relations
>> between work and non-work) and an  ossified geography of political
>> representation. Where are the marginal  seats? That is a key question in
>> analysing the election. And, at that  point, there is a need to reintroduce
>> an argument about the spatial order  of the city (recognising the passage of
>> that order beyond simple  centre/periphery distinctions). Not to isolate the
>> processes of class  recomposition to certain areas but to understand how
>> they intersect the  zero-sum game of representative democracy.
>> 
>> I am impressed by what  Amanda says about the need for a politics of
>> empathy/affect within and  between changing class relations/conflicts. For
>> me the starting point for  this would have to be the distrust of politicians
>> and the disengagement  with representative democratic processes (watching
>> Idol instead of the  debate, etc.). Perhaps there is room for opening and
>> dialogue with those  of us trying to understand how democratic processes
>> might operate beyond  (or even underneath) representation. But this will
>> have to involve  multiple engagements, through ethnic communities perhaps or
>> everyday  practices on particular sites.
>> 
>> Often this may be prepolitical but it  can also involve a different kind of
>> politics, a politics of relation.  Either way it is important to understand
>> how the political emerges. And  how it functions in a complex media
>> environment with a multiplication of  channels and possibilities for
>> connection. But here I feel we are reaching  the limits of cultural
>> analysis.
>> 
>> Brett
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________
>> 
>> csaa-forum
>> discussion  list of the cultural studies association of  australasia
>> 
>> www.csaa.asn.au
> 


-- 
"I thought I had reached port; but I seemed to be cast
back again into the open sea" (Deleuze and Guattari, after Leibniz)

Dr Andrew Murphie - Senior Lecturer
School of Media and Communications, University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia, 2052
web:http://media.arts.unsw.edu.au/homepage/Staff/Murphie/
fax:612 93856812 tlf:612 93855548 email: a.murphie at unsw.edu.au
room 311H, Webster Building

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