From "The Pleasures of Authoritarianism" by Jacqueline Rose (The NY Review of Books).
October 26, 2020
"We are witnessing a new sexualization of politics, something quite other from 'repressive desublimation,' the term made famous by Herbert Marcuse in the 1960s..."
"... to describe the way an advanced industrial culture uses a mix of technology and partially satiated consumer desires to neutralize any potential working-class revolt. We might call it promiscuity in its psychotic mode. Brazenly, it displays itself without apology to a world excited and repelled in equal measure by unconscious forces—lust, greed, hatred, and rage—that no one readily admits to and that are being harnessed on behalf of everyone.
No point, therefore, asking how bad it can get, how far they are willing to go, or how on earth they can get away with it all. Going too far is the point. The transgression is the draw and the appeal—transgression always carries a sexual tremor even when it is not manifestly about sex.... It is a truism of psychoanalysis that the law always nurtures the possibility, indeed the likelihood, of its own demise, because the super-ego, the agent of the law inside the head, is too tyrannical to be obeyed with any consistency...."
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That’s some world class projection. I mean I knew it was gonna ba an attack on Trump by where it was published, but the part you excerpted could have been written by Glenn Greenwald about the cabal that is running the media and controlling the FBI, CIA, FEC, IRS, etc. Which I know is your point.
We have the video released in China of sexual abuse of Hunter BIden’s niece and Rudy turns it over to the State Police ,and they call the FBI because they say that Rudy is giving them Russian disinformation. Hunter calls her by her name and nickname and the case on the girl’s phone matches a public picture of her. It’s not fake. This is a crime, Kafka was writing satire, not a how to.
I am reading a collection of stories about life in Ukraine before and after the fall of the Soviet Union called “Good People Need Not Fear.” It rings kind of true, except the shortages. We haven’t gone socialist yet, so no shortages yet. I went over the jacket before I bought it to make sure that there were no glowing reviews from the Washington Post or the New York Times before I would buy the book, as the easiest way to make sure that it wasn’t some kind of attack on Trump using the kind of projection cited above. What a bizarro world we have found ourselves in. Of course the only praise was from fellow writers, no media outlet would touch a book that mocks communism.
It’s stupid I suppose to ask oneself how somebody so completely lacking in self awareness gets published in the “prestige” magazines. And the part that capitalism buys off the working class by feeding, clothing, and housing them too well is classic communist spin. I used to hear this from my brother when he came home from college in the ‘70s. The promise being that socialism will “fully satiate” the desires of the working class. Sure they will, after they get done defining those desires.
But good people need not fear.
Most transgressions are saying what you really think.
Trump wasn't mentioned in this excerpt, but I bet it's about Trump. The left is amazing in its failure to recognize itself in its own analyses. It's ability to spew absolute horseshit with complete assurance of its own rightness. It's always somebody else. Tyranny consists of refusing to go along with the left's tyranny.
You know who drinks deeply of the pleasures of authoritarianism in these comments? Howard most of all, I was actually going to write that yesterday about his comment about Trump supporters in pickup trucks looking for a waffle house. Readering too, however, as he takes a perverse pride in the power of the people who decided that Biden was going to be the nominee and not Sanders, and who have asserted control of true information to keep in from the electorate. I bet readering is getting a little frisson of pride and a dopamine rush just reading this comment about the untrammeled power of these people, kind of like a ho gets turned on when her pimp beats somebody up, vicariously feeling the power.
Worth clicking to original article if only to read this amazing 149-word sentence:
If Trump wins, if Johnson hangs on in defiance of those who are predicting that he will be out of his job within months, the long-term consequences of this sinister allegiance between the two men will be dire, first in the symbolic permission it will have granted to the worst of masculinity without restraint, and then more practically in the promised trade deal, vaunted by Johnson, that will bring chlorinated chickens from the US to UK tables after they have been cleansed of the sewage on which they nest; in the likely sell-off of the UK’s National Health Service, which, in the teeth of reckless government incompetence, has been the only savior during Covid-19; not to speak of the vicious anti-migrant policies in both countries, and, more generally, the exacerbation of inequality, the accelerating climate catastrophe, and the continuous police harassing and killing of black citizens on the streets.
In other words, the End of the World As We Know It
For example, Trump’s campaign manager from 2016, who was subject to a smear based on a made up ledger out of Ukraine published in the New York Times in August of that year now rots in prison for breaking this law:
Hunter Biden Sought To Avoid Registering As Foreign Agent In Chinese Business Venture, Text Message Shows
And the New York Times has zero interest in the story, but good people need not fear.
In other words, playing with the legalism of sexual immorality is the spice of life.
It looks like China bought the New York Times as easily as wealthy Democrat donors bought the Drudge Report. Does anybody know what business Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who owns the New York Times, has in China?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! To ask it is to answer it. Nobody has the least curiosity.
I think that the reason that Russia has been made the villain in this propaganda play is because Russia is relatively powerless and does not have the money to buy off western mass media the way China does. China just displays it’s huge markets for them like an Amsterdam window whore, and the media come to them drooling. Who cares about the Russian market for Hollywood movies? Russia is poor! Like Trump supporters!
What a bore, dahling.
Yeah--I look at Google and Facebook and Twitter and the corporate media trying to squash Trump and the GOP, and I say there is no point, therefore, asking how bad it can get, how far they are willing to go, or how on earth they can get away with it all. Going too far is the point.
I truly thought the article would be about cancel culture. About the censorious ways of Twitter, Facebook, the modern university. About the ways BLM protesters riot and harass people while having dinner forcing them to raise their hand in support. I mean, these are brazenly and unapologetic forms of authoritarianism we are seeing literally every day. Primarily from young people with some power that certainly gives them a rush to exercise. But no, it was about the incompetent authoritarian in the White House. The one whose authoritarian actions are mostly hypothetical and primarily inferred from nonsense he spouts on Twitter that results in no, you know, actual authoritarian actions (because the White House still has a lawyer or two with power to explain that he can't do anything).
As a white STEM guy I'm lost trying to read this and find any meaning.
Pseudo-intellectual blather. Or a parody.
So not a rejection of authoritarianism but a distaste for the people doing it.
We might call it promiscuity in its psychotic mode.
We might also call it theorizing in its psychotic mode. I suspect what she's describing is what Marcuse was talking about, only with an extra jolt of fresh scare rhetoric to produce the desired effect (Marcuse, if I recall correctly, also overdid the rhetoric, but that stuff loses its power over time).
If what Rose and Marcuse are saying is true, it's something that applies to the whole trend of modern civilization -- something that applied even more to the more highly sexualized days of the 1970s than to today. But she tweaks the formula to direct it at current political trends and today's enemies.
What is more striking now, is that so much of the sex is virtual, like everything else, or streamlined by various apps that deliver the product with less mess than in the past.
"As a white STEM guy I'm lost trying to read this and find any meaning.”
You will learn the meaning too late then. I studied both STEM and rhetoric, I almost wish I hadn’t, but the meaning is plain as day.
The Twilight faith (i.e. conflation of logical domains), a Pro-Choice quasi-religion, liberal ideology and notably the rationale for the fifth choice. Affirmative sublimation under color of freedom; shared, shifted responsibility, instant gratification, a Peter Pan syndrome normalized in post-normal societies. Not novel, but a progressive condition.
"As a white STEM guy I'm lost trying to read this and find any meaning.”
Don’t you worry your pretty little head, good people need not fear.
Sexualization as in coupling, incestuous relations, or pedophilia (e.g. infantalization of adults)? Feminism? Was masculinism ever real or just an illusion?
"transgression always carries a sexual tremor even when it is not manifestly about sex"
No, sometimes you just get banned from the local grocery store for pooping in the dairy aisle, without any sexual tremors at all.
Reading that transported me back 60 years, it was like news of a hidden stone age tribe just discovered in the Philippine jungles. I thought the Freudian cult extinct.
'repressive desublimation,' the term made famous by Herbert Marcuse in the 1960s..."
I'm sorry, but if repressive sublimation had actually been made famous, then someone like me, reasonably well educated and reasonably well read would have heard of it and have at least a vague idea of what it meant. Like McLuhan "The Medium is the Message" This willful obscurantism is deliberately designed to never be 'famous', but it is designed to provide cover for those who want to destroy our civilization.
As a white STEM guy I'm lost trying to read this and find any meaning.
I agree with you, but of course Tim gets it. Tim also thinks people are afraid to wear masks, rather than simply opposing authoritarianism; so yeah, Tim would get it.
"Herbert Marcuse"... Ha ha ha. That name is a blast from the past. All the smart people were reading and discussing his bilge when I was in High School.
The NY Review of Books seems to have a long memory for burned-out Freudian claptrap like this.
2020 is the year of transgressions. Very real ones and totally imagined ones, but both were in service of political power. We will see if our people give a shit about that. I see lots of Americans everyday who don't seem to care at all, because they think they have a good excuse for being cowards and sheep. If the excuse is removed they will still be cowards and sheep.
I like sex more than the next guy, but is it really part every fucking thing? I like steak a lot too, but I don't look for a way to make everything about juicy thick luscious meat.
"Repressive desublimation" is a famous term? Where?....I wouldn't want to travel in those circles. From the desublime to the duh ridiculous is but a step.....Did you know that when Dickens said "Dead as a doornail" in a Christmas Carol he was quoting a term first used by Shakespeare? That's a famous term and much punchier than "repressive desublimation".
Over at National Review Online Rich Lowry writes the following true statement:
“If Trump wins, it will be as a gigantic rude gesture to the cultural Left.“
Yeah! And an overdue gesture at that.
We haven’t gone socialist yet, so no shortages yet.
@tim, you didn’t go shopping for toilet paper, facial tissues, Lysol wipes, or a host of other products any time between March and September, right?
We are observing a transition from a “post-Christian Nation” to a Democrat Nation: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:22.
"the long-term consequences of this sinister allegiance between the two men will be dire, first in the symbolic permission it will have granted to the worst of masculinity without restraint"
Gee, who knew Billy Jeff Clinton was still in charge. Oh, wait, Trump once said a rude word about a female body part, a word the no other politician has ever, ever, ever said.
The lefty freak-out rolls on. I hope Trump wins because it'll be better for the country to have lower taxes, no green nood eel, a turning back from full on socialized medicine, etc. But I confess I am just as interested in a Trump victory because the lefty freak-out will reach unprecedented proportions. I expect steam and sulphur to start shooting out of the ears and nostrils of people like Cher and the ninny who wrote this piece. That's entertainment!
The lefties have drifted into a realm beyond satire, where their typing has stopped have even the remotest connection to tangible reality.
what gibberish. I suppose the point is to somehow support Biden and the Democrats. Because it always is.
Tommy Duncan said...
"As a white STEM guy I'm lost trying to read this and find any meaning."
Same here. Usually, after the first sentence or two of beguilingly pretentious but inscrutable phrases -- "We might call it promiscuity in its psychotic mode" (Wut?) -- these academic con artists will emit something that gives you a clue where they are headed, but this one is completely opaque to me. You say she's not on our side? I guess that's good, but damned if I can see where she gave it away.
BTW, I readily admit to lust, greed, hatred and rage, especially -- well, especially all of them!
" like steak a lot too, but I don't look for a way to make everything about juicy thick luscious meat.”
I thought you were changing the subject from sex.
"Tim also thinks people are afraid to wear masks, rather than simply opposing authoritarianism”
I do, the masks are a symbol of the pestilence and you prefer to live in denial. Read the comments and the subtext is all that this is so overblown and if we stop wearing masks, everything will be back to normal. Its cargo cult thinking, which you are quite able to recognize when somebody says something like "every kid should get a diploma regardless.” And heaven forbid that anybody should engage in signaling human decency! That’s so foul that the negative of it clearly outweighs the benefits of wearing a mask!
Making us pay for seat belts, head rests, and air bags and chlorinated and fluoridated water are all creeping authoritarianism, am I right? What about laws against drunk driving? Speed limits? Next step after speed limits is midnight knocks by jackbooted thugs!
"but of course Tim gets it. “
This kind of thing is why I don’t get why people like you and Drago read this blog. You are like the color blind guy at the necktie exposition.
Speaking of Drago, there is bad news
DNA variation in a gene called ROBO1 is associated with early anatomical differences in a brain region that plays a key role in quantity representation, potentially explaining how genetic variability might shape mathematical performance in children
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-genetic-variation-differences-mathematical-ability.html
It’s genetic and there is no hope for a cure.
Is she hot, the authoress?
Narr
I bet not
Is she hot, the authoress?
Narr
I bet not
---I'm sorry, but if repressive sublimation had actually been made famous, then someone like me, reasonably well educated and reasonably well read would have heard of it [WhoKnew]
Quite correct. Someone has probably already pointed out that Marcuse's famous term was "repressive tolerance." He couldn't stand that he and others were allowed to say revolutionary things and they were perfectly well tolerated by a society that had no interest in what he was peddling. So he criticized society's tolerance, too.
the people who are closing down schools and churches, say we are authoritarian,
The entire paargraph was gibberish.
But I confess I am just as interested in a Trump victory because the lefty freak-out will reach unprecedented proportions. I expect steam and sulphur to start shooting out of the ears and nostrils of people like Cher and the ninny who wrote this piece. That's entertainment!
I talked to my daughter this morning and suggested she and her family might not want to be in Santa Monica on election night or even a few days after. Her husband's family live in the Valley. She was a Bernie voter in 2016 but now has a child and seems more adult. She might be safer in the Valley.
After 16 trimesters of witch hunts, warlock trials, and protests, it's evident that the political coitus has been mostly incestuous and friend with "benefits"-style politics, with a hope and dream to place the People and our Posterity, second.
That said, to mitigate progress, we can Make America Great Again through a return to the American dream: Pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness under a constitutional framework (less the Twilight Amendment).
transgression always carries a sexual tremor even when it is not manifestly about sex
A state or process of divergence from normal.
Jeffrey Toobin is pretty far along in the desublimination process. With the possible exception of Weiner, no one has desubliminated his sexuality more than Toobin.....I had hell's own time subliminating my libidinal urges, but if you want to succeed as a classical violinist, that's the price you have to pay. Toobin was more into the organ than the violin. That's what happens when you desubliminate too rapidly. You can get the bends in your libido if you desubliminate too rapidly.
If Trump wins, if Johnson hangs on in defiance of those who are predicting that he will be out of his job within months, the long-term consequences of this sinister allegiance between the two men will be dire, first in the symbolic permission it will have granted to the worst of masculinity without restraint, and then more practically in the promised trade deal, vaunted by Johnson, that will bring chlorinated chickens from the US to UK tables after they have been cleansed of the sewage on which they nest; in the likely sell-off of the UK’s National Health Service, which, in the teeth of reckless government incompetence, has been the only savior during Covid-19; not to speak of the vicious anti-migrant policies in both countries, and, more generally, the exacerbation of inequality, the accelerating climate catastrophe, and the continuous police harassing and killing of black citizens on the streets.
That is one problem with academics writing about politics. BoJo isn't going to sell off the National Health Service. I doubt he's given any sign or expressed any intention to do so. But professors think they know more about everything than other people so they don't bother to verify these things. Johnson's opponents may tell you that he wants to get rid of the NHS, but to figure out whether that's true or not, you have to pay more attention and do more work than most lit professors are willing to give to politics.
The other problem with academics writing about politics: the sentences are too damned long.
Also, I don't know if Jacqui is using "continuous" correctly.
It's old.
Trump's an authoritarian who somehow couldn't muster the power to put a stake through Obamacare's heart.
Big Mike said...
We haven’t gone socialist yet, so no shortages yet.
@tim, you didn’t go shopping for toilet paper, facial tissues, Lysol wipes, or a host of other products any time between March and September, right?
...
Try buying fishing gear. I’ve been waiting 6 months.
Try buying an upright freezer. I’ve been waiting 4 months.
"We are witnessing a new sexualization of politics"
Huh? Sure, Melania is pretty sexy, but Donald? Joe? Jill? Kamala?
"to neutralize any potential working-class revolt"
True, the MSM and progs everywhere tried to neutralize the working-class revolt that took the form of a vote for Trump in 2016, but I don't think "sexualization" played much of a role.
"The Pleasures of Authoritarianism"? Well, finally! The Left comes out of its S&M dungeon at last! I've long suspected that all that bloviating about "the Common Good," "helping the poor," etc., was so much smokescreen for what really gets the Left off: the jackboot in the face, the whip, the gun to the head, etc. At least someone's finally being honest about it.
I do, the masks are a symbol of the pestilence and you prefer to live in denial.
That reads like someone in a cult explaining the symbolism of a pentagram. Wear your symbol if that makes you comfortable, but it is not fear when someone rejects your symbol.
This is the time when we find out which stores are basically outlets for the Chicoms. West Marine’s shelves are basically bare. There is no reason this stuff can’t be made in the US.
tim in vermont said...
"Its cargo cult thinking, which you are quite able to recognize when somebody says something like "every kid should get a diploma regardless.”
Exactly, although a better example would be, when some clown on the internet tries to tell you that no one will get Covid if only everyone ties a filthy rag to his nose.
"This is the time when we find out which stores are basically outlets for the Chicoms."
Have the ChiComs gone out of business? News to me. They are still selling all kinds of stuff on e-bay.
Just so you know, the psychologists who deal with actually ill people haven't talked like this for forty years. They learned that the psychoanalytic view doesn't have anything to do with getting better. It is only those who enjoy the game of therapy and therapising, and speculating on the psychoanalytic meanings of the actions of whole cultures who still think this has meaning.
I understand there are still academic psychologists who talk this way. I wouldn't know.
No evidence is needed. It would be cool if this were true, so let's talk about it as if it were.
The book referenced by the thoughtful and incisive tim in vermont is called Good Citizens Need Not Fear, and it is written by Maria Reva.
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