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Okay 6 in a row ...more or less on topic....thus one off topic indulgence....
ON the BIG PICTURE.....
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Point 1, Issue #1
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Re: 1996 Vice Presidential Debate
Did anyone else notice that Kemp, a "conservative", used the word liberal affirmatively when he extolled "liberal democracy".
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Issue # 1 Labeling
A "conservative" using the dreaded 'L' word AFFIRMATIVELY?
Kind of defies this whole penchant for classification and categorization plus points out how in linguistics connotations and signifiers easily shift even though the signs remain the same..
Signs and signifiers????? Let y'all figure that one out for yourselves....Any literary majors out "there" feel free to join "in"...
Now personally, I've been "LABELED" all of the following by different people sometimes at the same time......
"liberal". AND/or.."conservative"
"gay"....and/or... "homophobic"... and/or..."flaming" heterosexual
"open minded" ....and/or..."fascist"
"democrat"...and/or..."republican"
"humble"...and/or..."arrogant"
"imbecile"...and/or...."genius"
Now aside from being neither a genius or gay (not that there is anything wrong with that)...I have been, at times, accurately described as all of the above...
What's my point?
The limitations of "neat" categorization....in spite of the Western Aristotelian disposition to do so?....Yes...
And the reason for doing so (categorizing) is to quickly demonstrate perceived "control" i.e. pseudo "knowledge" of subject matter or over people instead of true and deeper understanding?...Yes...
But also the limitations of Hegelian dialectics...i.e. setting up and limiting debate to thesis and antithesis...or in plain freakin' English....limiting conversation to the two polar "opposites" or extremes "defined" by prevalent culture and at any precise moment in time. (Note per Feuderbach (sp?)...every action and thought has to be viewed in the context of it's time...So , therefore, I don't really, for example, diminish T.Jefferson for his racist points of view as perceived at this time (my time) because as a Southern slave holder during his time...he was "liberal"...though certainly not as liberal as many other contemporaneous Northern political figures).
Thus as for myself, for whom I can only truly attempt to speak, I don't like being labeled...and usually take offense when I am...because many of my expressions and thoughts don't easily fit into the "neatly" defined and limiting dialectical "categories" or "camps"....
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Issue #2...Cultural Hegemony
After watching the testimony of Ken Starr in front of the House Committee (gavel to gavel) and the all white middle age men (except for Sonny bono's wife...who happened to be clueless) on the "Right" side of Henry Hyde...and the bouillabaisse of democrats...black men, black women, Jews, whites, and even Barney Frank......on the "left" side, I found the whole proceedings i.e.. THE BIG PICTURE...not really to be one about sex, lies and video tapes....BUT rather one about the loss of a perceived order and nostalgic longing for that order that never really existed...
Now, the following is what I wrote in my thesis almost 15 years ago....Please pardon the intellectual pedantry...I actually enjoyed intellectual bs back then ......Now regarding what has just transpired in our Nation...I find my words extremely prescient.
"The inclusion of the previously subjugated, of non-European minorities and women, into the global and domestic economic marketplace and into political sectors, severely alters the foundations of the white phallocratic society. These inclusions drastically effect the dominating society's legitimization; they cause crisis; an inability to sustain and persuade "truth" i.e. a Platonic verisimilitude. These inclusions also help undermine the dominating melting pot homogeneity, replacing it with greater heterogeneity. This heterogeneity permits a pluralistic and "anything goes" permissiveness. Consequently people, who desire to retain their hegemony or to re-establish a more "truthful", clear and "safer" order, evoke nostalgia for times of certainty and periods of unified vision. The former include fundamentalists like "...a new philosopher...discovering what he drolly calls Judaeo-Christianity, and intends to put an end to impiety which...[is] supposed to have spread...." (Lyotard)...."
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Anyway...enough about this STUFF....time we all moved a few seats back from the screen and realize that the BIG PICTURE described above actually in a sort of obtuse way reflects upon the Macro and micro-economies of today where disparate cultures are coming into even greater contact VIA the NET.....and through ProNetLink
Guess I really wasn't that far off topic after all.......
Now I knew I could tie it ALL together SOME way...LOL
:-D
brought to you by the Ph.D. of SPIN....
ztect |
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