LEFT CURVE NO. 18 EDITORIAL
In trying to describe some of prevalent sensations about "the way things
are" during these waning years of the 20th century, words that come to
mind are (in no particular order): confusion, chaos, bewilderment, numbness,
crises, disorientation, groundlessness, anxiety, stupor, vexation, helplessness,
foreboding and the like. Such words, obviously, whirl out of an attempt to give
a subjective sense to today's life-world. Irrespective of the vagueness
or, better put, objectlessness of such words, they do issue from within
a social space in which some very formative objective processes are occurring.
The very schizophrenia resulting from the wide divergencies of the two spheres,
subjective and objective, may be what constitutes the bewilderment: a sense
of end, not so much a definitive finality, but a kind of a felt-sensation of
running into some inexorable boundary.
All of a sudden, in the midst of a frantic race, one smacks into an invisible
force field and is
thrown back, reeling and dazed. Something has come to an end. And nothing
much, other than a vague, discomforting lack has filled the void left in
the wake of what, for want of better words, had been called "modern
civilization." In the meantime, the decade and a half or so of alternately
wallowing or being held in a fixated, frenzied, irritating reverie by the
"post-modern condition" has become as useless to any real-life
understanding (much less action) as its central metaphor, "simulacra,"
undoubtedly was all along.
But throughout all the talk about the death of modernity, one objective development has relentlessly "progressed: hi-tech, the communication, computer, or information revolution. This exponentially rapid technological transformation stands in stark contrast to the disorientating subjectivity that has been its accompaniment. So in trying to make some sense of things, much of this issue tries to address, if necessarily only partially, some of the meanings and implications of the ever-accelerating technological development leading to what some have called cyberspace.
The lead article by Jim Davis, "The Information Economy" lays out
some basic groundwork about the technological processes that have radically
altered much of daily work, modes of communication and "entertainment."
In so doing, much helpful light is shed on why so many of us experience life
these days in words such as used above. However Davis' speculation on the emergence
of "a new property-less class" being in formation that would "need
to fulfill its historical role of reshaping productive relations" may be
premature and too reductive. For one thing, being structurally removed from
concrete productive relations would not increase but greatly decrease a class'
influence and hence transformative power in society as a whole. Such a position
would merely repeat the same mistake that orthodox marxism made in pinning its
hope for anti-capitalist revolution on the old industrial working class. Nevertheless,
as Davis says the need "...is to envision and struggle for social forms
that can not only accommodate new technologies, but can also unleash them for
the benifit of all." Exactly how that may be accomplished, I think, is
completely up in the air, which greatly contributes to the disorientation
mentioned above.
Throughout the modern (and postmodern) period, a reoccurring theme has been to place humanity's salvation in the realm of technological development per se. The new "information age" has also spawned such techo-utopias, a most recent version of which has been "Virtual Reality." X-acid heads, like Timothy Leary, now presume that the "ultimate high" will be brought about by VR: direct machine-mind interface will transform consciousness itself. The article by Julian Bleecker, "Virtual Reality and the Politics of Technology" is a good critical summary of this new technology and its accompanying cyberpunk, Mondoid-hype. Michael Filas' evocative writing, "Principles of Technoppression," lays out much of the down-side of the new info-techno world and its numbing de-personalization that is spinning all around and in us. More down-side stuff is presented by Rocco Lo Bosco's satiric "story", "Resume," whose comic-irony describes some unfortunately not uncommon realities in today's hi-tech workplace.
The article "A Computer and Information Technologies Platform" is a reprint of a pamphle put out by the Berkeley Chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility,The pamphlet is a very useful summary of the social issues concerning Information Technologies and presents some very positive suggestions of what it would take to deal with the main critical and vexing problems facing today's world.
The radical socio-techno-economic upheavals of the recent past, quite expectedly, have also had reverberations within the areas of artistic creation. More often than not, the reaction of artists have been confused, chaotic and varied. Responses have ranged from benign acceptance of the increasingly closed reified world of "culture" to frenzied experimentation often leading nowhere. Confusion has, perhaps, been most noticeable within the traditional area of visual art. The crises of representation that hit full force in the late 60's, remains with us today. With the exhaustion of formalist art ,"solutions" to the question of object-depiction have ranged from attempts to find "grounding" in technologically mediated processes (video, telecommunications, computer art, etc.), ironic parodies of the dominant culture of commodification, sociological documentation (ethnic, minority cultures, issues of sexuality, etc.), to political activist art -- much of the latter two trends has now become institutionalized under the current rubric of "multiculturalism." In the process, it seems that something has been left out: namely the struggle for the liberation of creativity itself, the principled search for means to free artistic creativity from the shackles of the market and instrumental rationality, and in so doing harness the suppressed force of the imagination. A notable exception to this trend has been the art and writings of Elizam Escobar. His essay in this issue, "The Feigned Battle: Echo-Narcissism, or Transfixion" tackles such issues with refreshing energy, authenticity and uncompromising commitment. Equally, forcefully, critical of both the "easy solutions" offered by the hustle of market, commodity art as found in the dominant art world, and of the subordination of art to social or political ends (what he terms the "sociologization of art"), he calls for "the definitive liberation of art and the artist [from] any doctrine or ideology."
The photo essay on Hungary, by Juliet Stelzmann, is a sensitive and rare portrait (for a westerner) of a country not very well understood in the west. Though the negative, and often alarming, trends unfolding in the former socialist bloc are undeniable (most obviously in the Bosnian atrocities, the dangers of neo-fascism, the crass materialism unleashed by the "free market", crime, etc.) a positive aspect of the process is that perhaps for the first time in modern history these peoples have the opportunity to take their place within the world community according to their own cultural specificities, rather than those imposed or defined by external dominant powers -- as has been the case for some 500 years. The essay by John O'Kane is also useful in this regard.
We are also pleased to present many fine works of poetry in this issue. The sensitive honesty found in work of Errol Miller is a noteworthy example of U.S. regional writing that rises above localism to universal issues facing us all. Jack Hirschman's poem, "The Dybbuk Arcane" is another example of his tireless energy over so many years in confronting our historical predicament and search for the "light of/ free-form/ horizoning/ mind." We also hope that readers will take the time to thoughtfully read the poems by T.F. Tietchen, Helen Tazgologg, Alejandro Murguia, Maya Khosla, and the promising 17 year old writer, Ben Baxter.
The three poems from Israel, by Siham Daoud, Amira Hess, and Bracha Serri translated by Helene Knox and Smadar Lavie, published here are, apart from their fine crafted quality, of interest in hinting at the unique voice that perhaps is emerging in Israel and how much more in common it has with general mid-eastern culture, rather than the exclusivity and chauvinism of Zionism. This potential unique voice may, hopefully, be a sign in how the slow, torturous "peace process" between Israel and the Palestinians may eventually find some kind of resolution. The terms within which the rapprochement is currently being pursued -- dictated by the U.S. and Israel might be better put -- however, has some serious problems, as the article by Hussy Al-Kurdi indicates.
The thoughtful and committed article by James C. Wilson, tackles the very important issue of the health care crises. Dwelving deeper than the nuts and bolts issues of health care reform (single payer system, "managed competition", etc.) Wilson points out that the whole assumption (and presumption) of western scientific "objectivity" is at stake. Just as the technological revolution has further extended and deepened instrumental reason through the exclusive application of conceptual-digital thought processes at the price of subjective dislocation and disorientation, the crises in health care points to the need to find a revolutionary re-assessment of the one-sided dominant paradigm "...by tearing down the mind-body barrier and creating a vast network of 'patterns'" to replace linear causality and see that health is depended on a holistic relationship to our environment, emotions, mind and society -- much of which is not quantifiable by objective measurements.
Finally Peter Laska's contribution, "Modernism and Utopia: The Dilemma of Brave New World," is a well thought-out re-evaluation of the Enlightenment Project and its failures in light of the dystopias such as Huxley's Brave New World. Laska's attempt to argue for the need to preserve and extend the positive goals of Modernity and relate their failures to the continued presence of capitalist domination and the absence of a compelling ethics of ecological stewardship is well worth considering in light of the dangers of an irrational retreat from basic progressive goals of social and economic equality implicit in much of dominant post-modernist dismissals of the Enlightenment.
As always we encourage people to get in touch with us and offer your contributions,
spiritual and/or material.
- the editor