You make fun of it and so on, but somehow we act as if it works. It’s a very strange situation, because there are—some of us old enough still remember them, old days when the public face of power was dignity, belief. And privately you mocked it, you made fun, and so on, no?
Now we are, I think, approaching a very strange state, where the public face of power is becoming more and more openly indecent, obscene. Look at Sarkozy in France. Look at Berlusconi in Italy, who is systematically undermining, for over five years now, the minimum of dignity of the state power. I mean, you are again and again surprised how is this possible. You know, after those sex scandals, two weeks ago, his lawyer, Berlusconi’s lawyer, made a public official statement, where he said that the claims that Berlusconi is impotent are lies and that Mr. Berlusconi is ready to prove this in court. Now, how? How—what did he mean?
You know, there is a level of obscenity, but this shouldn’t deceive us. We really live in cynical times, not just in this cheap sense they don’t take themselves seriously, but in the sense that—how should I put it?—the ironic self-undermining, making fun of yourself, is in a strange way part of the game. It’s as if the system can function even if it makes fun of itself.
Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts -Jean-Philippe Pastor
1 comment:
Moral relativism is not simply fun. Nor is it simply dangerous. It is fun, dangerous and scandalous. Like a game of truth a la Foucault.
How can we expect virtue (any virtue that you think that you like) in government, governance or the private life of the politicians - if we do not hold ourselves to the same standard? And why should we have such great expectations if we do not endeavor ourselves in the personal struggle to be virtuous.
Berlusconi boasts that his fatal attraction to little girls is preferable to homosexuality. It belongs to the Italians to denounce him, chase him with pitch forks and burn him at the stake. Because that's what people should do to monsters. Didn't you read Shelley's Frankenstein? Or see the movie?!
Is multiculturalism a failure? Or does prejudice have a deadlock on the human soul? Neither should be allowed to put the common good at risk. Nor oppress civil rights and the dignity of the human person.
If we cannot agree on absolute values that can be applied generously to both State and Man, the course of Freedom has been swept far off-course. If we can not agree on the values that will contribute to our public and private character, we have undermined The Dream (tm by Martin Luther King, Jr.) everywhere.
Stan Faryna
Bucharest, Romania
Agree or disagree. I welcome comment on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/faryna
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