I live in Binghamton and the shootings that happened here today reminded me of D&G (mostly Derrida and Bataille's concept of Restricted to General Economy
( Read more... )
hmm... I've been told to read Steigler, specifically Technics and Time (I think that's what it's called)... Steigler is quite the rebel robbing banks and the like.
Well, my reading of Capitalism and Schizophrenia is that this idea of a stable self (as Ego) is becoming something akin to a hallucination. Perhaps as a result of the fluidity of the ideological superstructure the concept of "Ego" is breaking down. Remember Marx said something along these lines in the Comm. Manifesto - in capitalism all that is solid melts into air. I interpret this as an erosion of pre-existing moral traditions, but it may also include ontological presuppositions such as the "Ego" being broken down.
Also, I think the whole concept of the schizo-subject having a "Breakdown/Breakthrough" (Which comes from R.D. Laing's The Politics of Experience) is a big theme in Anti-Oedipus. Also, at the end of ATP, in the section where D&G define De/Reterritorialization they are careful to stress the fragility, precariousness, and dangerousness of this de-territorializing process. De-constructing the self can lead to de-coding and violence, which I see as a result of a general social field of schizophrenia that encompasses all of us within capitalism. In many ways nobody is "Sane" in the sense that you can be immune to a disease... capitalism infects us all at the level of being "Thinking, Reasoning" (Ideological) subjects. As Marx pointed out in the German Ideology, ideology functions at the level if ignorance capitalism (dys)functions "For they know not what they do" precisely because we go on living without questioning and resisting. Violent outbursts might be a sign of this breakdown in ideology of primitive accumulation (the "Sane" i.e. state-sanctioned violence of profit mongering and colonialism)
My point was that we all have dirty hands on some level. We are all accountable for these violent outbursts. In the case of the Binghamton shooting, the suspect was a Vietnamese immigrant who was ridiculed for his inability to speak English. this might have been symptomatic of his inability to incorporate into "American Capitalistic Values" he wanted to become a part of America, but he failed, so he lashed out at his tormentors violently.
Well, my reading of Capitalism and Schizophrenia is that this idea of a stable self (as Ego) is becoming something akin to a hallucination. Perhaps as a result of the fluidity of the ideological superstructure the concept of "Ego" is breaking down. Remember Marx said something along these lines in the Comm. Manifesto - in capitalism all that is solid melts into air. I interpret this as an erosion of pre-existing moral traditions, but it may also include ontological presuppositions such as the "Ego" being broken down.
Also, I think the whole concept of the schizo-subject having a "Breakdown/Breakthrough" (Which comes from R.D. Laing's The Politics of Experience) is a big theme in Anti-Oedipus. Also, at the end of ATP, in the section where D&G define De/Reterritorialization they are careful to stress the fragility, precariousness, and dangerousness of this de-territorializing process. De-constructing the self can lead to de-coding and violence, which I see as a result of a general social field of schizophrenia that encompasses all of us within capitalism. In many ways nobody is "Sane" in the sense that you can be immune to a disease... capitalism infects us all at the level of being "Thinking, Reasoning" (Ideological) subjects. As Marx pointed out in the German Ideology, ideology functions at the level if ignorance capitalism (dys)functions "For they know not what they do" precisely because we go on living without questioning and resisting. Violent outbursts might be a sign of this breakdown in ideology of primitive accumulation (the "Sane" i.e. state-sanctioned violence of profit mongering and colonialism)
My point was that we all have dirty hands on some level. We are all accountable for these violent outbursts.
In the case of the Binghamton shooting, the suspect was a Vietnamese immigrant who was ridiculed for his inability to speak English. this might have been symptomatic of his inability to incorporate into "American Capitalistic Values" he wanted to become a part of America, but he failed, so he lashed out at his tormentors violently.
Reply
Leave a comment