Jun 17, 2009 21:35
Why should we yearn to resist American hegemony? I heard a recent interview with Slavoj Zizek where he was asked, "If you were President, and you only had one day in office, what would be the one law you would pass?" He said, (Brilliantly) "I would change the election process. Instead of having only Americans vote in the American election, I would have only the rest of the world vote and have Americans live with the end result." He then continues by saying, "I think this would make America better even for Americans."
I know he was joking, but he makes a beautiful point here. That American hegemony extends to all corners of the globe, but it's the decadent American consumers (and yes, we are consumer-citizens Al) who degrade the concept of democracy by only obsessing about "The Economy." The rest of the world, living in abject poverty, looking to America as the Land of Opportunity, the land of Freedom, the beacon of hope, will actually know more about these basic principles because they lack all of these things in their societies.
And hence, Zizek's point was a Lacanian one (We wouldn't want Zizek any other way now would we) what is denied in The Real, always comes back to haunt the subject in reality. I think Lacan makes this point while discussing Psychoses in his lectures from 1955-56 of the same name. The point being, we know more about what is denied to us than we know about what we have. And once we have something, the object of our affection, the lustful fuck buddy, the principles of freedom, so on and so forth, we become bored with it, and no longer yearn for it. This point is quite apt, as think about how tantalizing the steak is to the Tiger when it is placed just beyond his grasp outside of his cage. And now think about how tantalizing "Freedom" must be for someone living in a despotic society, forced to work in squalor for pennies a day, yearning to come to America and purchase a $1 cheeseburger from McDonald's with a Coca-Cola.
While I'm not a huge fan of believing America is a "Free Nation" as our politicians lead us to believe, I am optimistic that outsiders, coming to America, yearning for a better life, can actually maintain a level of discourse that enobles the better angels of our nature (hard work, desire for freedom, respect for higher education, moral well-roundedness, worldly knowledge, etc.).
I think this optimism might be born out of pure rage and disgust that I harbor toward the typical Native Born American. The middle-class slob who expects a college diploma, expects to drink hard and be rewarded with a $40,ooo a year desk job, a mediocre set of sheep who have lost touch with their animalistic side, yet channel this repressed desire into mindless Internet Banter, and the infinite discourse of chauvenism that encompasses the vast majority of illiterate bastards running around in this Jungle Capitalist Country.
Am I mad? Yes. Does anyone actually care? Probably not. Will teaching change anything? Definitely not. Are we basically fucked (I.e. even John Turner can't kill the machines in time to stop Judgment Day?) Absolutely. It's only a matter of time before the BIG Crash happens. And boy it ain't gonna be pretty. If this Bailout Fails, and I think most people are torn on just how much enthusiasm they should show about Wall Street getting the bulk of the money, I think that things will get ugly before they get better. Like riots, gangs roving through the suburbs ransacking houses, children being decapitated, pillaging and plundering that will make the Vikings look civil. It's all on the verge of happening. Soon.