Return to Left Curve no. 21 Table of Contents
We begin this issue with a poem, Who Cares, by Jack Hirschman, which in many ways encompasses the dilemmas that we face at the end this, the most chaotic and revolutionary century in human history. Charles Ives (com)posed the "Unanswered Question" at the beginning of this century. And now, at its end, the "answers" that the century gave, whether artistic, political, philosophic, or scientific have proven inadequate. As Ives inscribed at the head of his score concerning the end of his composition: "'The Question' is asked for the last time, and 'The Silences' are heard beyond in 'Undisturbed Solitude.'" We are caught betwixt a failed modernist revolution, now floating aimlessly as a "postmodern" play of groundless "signs," and a reversion by default to (re)constructed "traditions" of mutually exclusive "identities." In the meantime, the oppressive domination of the irrationalism of an unbridled consumer-society of "free-markets" (war of all against all) made ever more rational and efficient by the exponentially growing giga-hertz technology of computerization has left us befuddled. And despite the vain belief by latter-day Dr. Fausts who see a promise of liberation from all that formed our species through a digitalization of the body set adrift into an ethereal world of electronic networks, the need remains to know how to "receive authentically sounds from deep within the wilding stillness..."
One of the more interesting fall-outs from the collapse of "really-existing socialism" has been the injection into contemporary discussions of a distinctive point of view coming from those who experienced that system from within. To many Western Leftists this has not been easy to take, as whatever hopes may have been harbored that all the set-backs to the communist revolution were a result of "imperialist conspiracy" or a "deformed worker's state," and once the ossified bureaucratic system was removed a "genuine leftist opposition" would emerge, has simply not turned out to be the case. Rather, internationalist became narrow nationalists, reform-communists turned into technocratic social democrats and dissidents transformed into free-market speculators. The article "Hyper in 20th Century Culture: The Dialectics of Transition from Modernism to Postmodernism" by Mikail Epstein offers some clues to the reasons behind this development. The author, having been trained within the parameters of Soviet Philosophy, has come up with a distinctive interpretation of "modernist revolutions." In the meta-historical processes of the 20th century, it could very well be that the bi-polar confrontation between "West" and "East" had been not so much a struggle between two antagonistic systems, one of which would eventually "win", but, rather, it has been a unitary historical process of modernist revolution against all prior and existent tradition. Epstein posits the dialectics of the 20th century revolutions as a movement, not to an ever-more "true, pure" reality, but through phases of "hyper" to "super" and finally the"pseudo." There is much food for thought in Mr. Epstein's thesis, as we try to make sense of this fabricated "pseudo" world in which we live. However, noteworthy also are omissions in his arguments: for example, the lack of reference to the role of fascism or (de)colonialization (i.e., the place of Third Worldism) within the "dialectics of transition from Modernism to Post-modernism." A further point of contention, in the scientific field, may be his overly relativistic view of Quantum Theory. Regardless of how abstract the equations of Quantum Theory may be, the theory still is based on concrete verifiable experimental data based on classical scientific method and not simply a speculative construct of pure idea divorced from matter.
The work, "As Above, [So Below], [As Above], So Below" by Faith Wielding and the Critical Art Ensemble provides another distinctive slant on our current dilemmas. In a way, the article can be read as an up-dated application of the principles utilized by Carl Becker in his 1932 book, The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth Century Philosophers. Wilding and CAE's piece is a finely structured and argued presentation on the issue of reproduction/sexuality wherein the mythology of the traditional ("Above": spiritual, religious, feudal) western construct is juxtaposed to the mythology of the modernist ("Below": material, scientific, capitalist) position. The authors' conclusion, that the contrary modalities ("spiritual vs. material") employed by the contrasting mythologies in fact serve the same function of insuring immortality (to the soul [medieval version], the genetic Code [modernist version]) is an important reminder that. no matter how much "scientific objectivity" is assumed, each era ends up constructing it own delusory (transitory) mythologies.
Bálint Szombathy's review of the exhibit of East European mail-art is another example of an internal critique from within the defunct socialist system. It is interesting to note that the necessarily oppositional stance of East European experimental art became depoliticized overnight with the end of the old system. The trend there now has become, as has been the case in the west, an indifferent contest between a substanceless aestheticism and a hoped-for salvation in the new computerized technologies (e.g., the Internet). In either case a vibrant, purposeful creative community of direct human contact would seem to have been abandoned.
Much of the rest of this issue can be seen as various examples that originate external to the bankrupt modernist or postmodernist) project. The moving and profound article by John Berger and the exchange of letters between Mr. Berger and Elizam Escobar is of interest on several levels within the problems mentioned above. There is an affirmation of direct, free exchange (collaboration) between two creative individuals as they work to forge substance through the creative process: to confront, as Berger says, "...the everlasting, fearsome, and occasionally beautiful, struggle of living with Necessity, which is the enigma of existence..." And there is an affirmation that such "timeless" confrontation with humanities' historical dilemmas are dealt from within specific, individual lives -- rather than assuming that some external (technological/sociological) system can fill the void during our brief lifetimes. Within this context, the last sentence in John Berger's article is worth noting: "To paint now is an act of resistence which answers a widespread need and may instigate hope."
In the selection of writings from England , "A Jotherum of Tungs," put together by Jack Hirschman we see, on the one hand "native" English (Anglo-Saxon) writers basing their work on the spoken word of their respective local (mostly working-class) traditions; while, on the other hand, the new work of recent immigrants (or their off-spring) from former colonies have forged their own distinctive voice within contemporary British culture. Such "cross-culturalization", which some have referred to as a "new internationalism," is also evident -- though in a more overtly (traditional leftist) politicized form -- in the article, also from England, "Fun^Da^Mental Politics: The New Asian Dance Music and its Revolutionary Antecedents," by Virinder Kalra, John Hutnyk and Sanjay Sharma. Out of the matrix of former British Colonialism there has also emerged new visions from indigenous cultures, such as the Aboriginies of Australia. Nikos Papastergiadis' "Aboriginality and Its Audience" is a good over-view of the problematics of such developments, and the work of Michael Riley is a good example of such work.
Similar processes are at work in the U.S. among Native Americans, though the historical legacy of the genocidal oppression to which they have been subjected has by no means been removed, as the photographs of Michelle Vignes and text by Matt Catman on Eugene Bear Lincoln testify. That such conditions still exist in a supposedly "progressive" community, such as Mendocino County in California, testifies to just how deep-seated such oppressions still are.
Ralph Coury's contribution, "Neo-Modernization Theory and Its Search for Enemies: The Role of the Arabs and Islam" is a well-argued summation of one of the theoretical means by which the post-Cold War hegemenic powers are trying to re-legitimize their domination in their search for another "bad Other," now that the Soviet system is no more.
The politics of "race" is more alive than ever in the U.S. today, the most recent example being the spectacle of the O. J. Simpson case. And, as has been true through much of U.S. history, the plight of African-Americans are at the crux of the issue. Though a sizable and influencial Black middle-class has emerged since the Civil Rights movement of the 60's, a much larger segment of African-Americans have not progressed [DEMO]n be said to be in even a worse situation than prior to the 60's. Under and/or unemployment, disintegration of family structures, sub-standard housing, crime and drugs plague many African-American communities. Predictably the response from the dominant sectors of society has been to cut-back on government subsidies, increase police powers and to build more prisons. The work published in this issue of devorah major, Leboriae P Smoore, Charles Curtis Blackwell and Keith Antar Mason offer different prespectives concerning such problems. Another relatively new cultural development in the U.S. is the increasing effect of Asian-Americans. E. San Juan, Jr.'s article, "Asian-American Literary Studies and Its Discontents: From the "Melting Pot" into the Fires of Los Angeles," is a good polemical survey of Asian-American history, with a focus on literature.
Worth mentioning also is Joe Napora's review, Cyberia or Cyburbia, which forcefully demonstrates the many inequalities that exist in the world, despite, or maybe because of, the effects of the so-called "Cyber-World." Peter Laska's review of recent books on the Philosophy of Ecology addresses the all-important problem of the looming ecological crises and points to the necessity of finding an alternative to the "existing criterion of abundance enjoyed by the elites of global capitalist monoculture" through "...revisioning a less complex meaning of abundance," bringing the human world into a more harmonious, sustainable relationship with the biosphere.
Much more in this issue worth commenting on, but because of lack of space, I encourage readers to make their own discoveries. Finally, I just want to stress that nothing in this publication is cast in iron (or based on pre-programmed codes). As always, we encourge a critical response from our readers. So, please let us hear from you with your ideas, submissions and contributions.
-- the editor
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