Re: my column

[abc170@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

There are a lot of problems with contributing to anarchist journals.  While 
Gary's
column has the trendy passing reference to 'authority' there is also a more 
global
problem of anarchism generally - its theory, its practice, its politics.  It's 
not
clear whether this was intended for Irish anarchists or our sorry lot of 
Brisbane
anarchists.

I for one would not be 'seen dead' contributing to overt anarchist journals - 
but this
is a personal call.

The Irish anarchists are amongst the worst.

Chris Warren



On Sat, 05 February 2000, Gary MacLennan wrote:

>
> Comrades - this is the first of my 2000 columns which I write for the local
> anarchist throwaway.  I have been mightily encouraged by some kind comments
> from list members and so have been emboldened to post this.
>
> regards
>
> Gary
>
> 1. The experience of returning from wintering out in Ireland to the
> excruciating rigors of a late summer heat wave has been an exhausting and a
> disorienting one for me.  Not even the copious amounts of cold beer that I
> have consumed can disguise the realization that this land is for the
> European a strange and peculiarly unreal destination. The nagging question
> that must have so haunted the first white settlers, persists  what are we
> doing here?  There have of course been many attempts to create myths that
> would provide an answer or to be more accurate to shore us up against
> doubt.  The most successful of these was that this was a great white nation
> founded as a god fearing civilization  an isolated but still blessed
> bulwark against the heathen hordes of alternatively Asiatic barbarism or
> Russian communism.   However capitalist modernity has ruthlessly and
> brutally destroyed this myth. The bulwark has been battered down by the
> forces of globalization.  The erstwhile hordes are the eagerly sought after
> customers of today.
>
> No new myth has been forged to endear us to the vicissitudes of
> late-capitalist modernity.  Regularly commentators on the Right such as
> Michael Duffy, bemoan the fact that John Howard cannot come up with a story
> which will have us all eagerly striving together. This is what right wing
> commentators mean by the ?vision thing?. Not only has Howard been unable to
> articulate a vision, worse in his opposition to the Republic he murdered
> the only possible alternative myth.  This was that we had grown up as a
> nation and now no longer needed the mother country Britain. We could now
> become an adult nation  a new republic.  By and large middle class
> Australia bought this myth.  It seemed to reconcile us to capitalist
> modernity and globalization while at the same time give us our own niche.
> However in a fit of resentment against the modernizers the working class of
> Australia voted down the republic. So now we are adrift and all the social
> surveys show that we are plagued by insecurity, anxiety and depression.
>
> But the dialectic never dies.  As Holderin pointed out where there is
> danger there too the remedy begins to grow. I was immensely buoyed up by a
> seemingly trivial incident. In the one day cricket game against Australia
> the Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar came on to bowl.  He had been
> labelled as a thrower by a committee of the International Cricket
> Council.  Thus Authority had designated him as a pariah.  His whole career
> and way of life had been threatened. However his country had pulled some
> strings and although under a cloud he had been permitted to participate in
> the one day series.
>
> How would Australians respond to his presence against their own
> team?  Would they go with Authority or would they side with the outsider,
> the Asian, the foreigner?  No one knew.  The answer when it came was truly
> beautiful in its sincerity, spontaneity and unpredictability. The entire
> Southern Stand at the Gabba cricket ground rose at the end of Akhtar?s
> first over and gave him a standing ovation. The people had spoken.
> Authority had been rejected.  The most noble of all human
> emotions  solidarity with the underdog, the outsider, the victim - had
> manifested itself.
>
> For there is another Australia.  One that is seen all too rarely but is
> nevertheless still there.  It is an Australia which holds faith with the
> knowledge that this nation was forged in the fires of slavery and genocide.
> It is an Australia which knows that beneath the smoothly efficient mask of
> Authority is the  reality of cruel and brutal domination and exploitation
> of the people.  It is an Australia which still feels the pulse of freedom.
>
> 2.  Lest it be thought that I am suffering from nostalgia for the Old
> Country I have to report that the dominant impression I received of Blair?s
> Britain is that of an enormous dumbing down of the popular culture.  This
> finds its clearest expression in the activities of the paparazzi in the
> Murdoch Press.  The issues that dominated public attention were the Queen?s
> refusal to link arms with Tony Blair for the singing of Aul Lang Syne,
> whether soccer star David Beckham wore his wife, Posh Spice?s underwear,
> and the divorce traumas of Scarey Spice. The Daily Mirror had a headline
> ?Ma?am was right? defending the Queen?s refusal. I almost puked at the
> sight of that.  The paparazzi then outdid themselves and succeeded in
> producing a photo which revealed Beckham was wearing white y-fronts.  We
> were subsequently innundated with photos of Scarey Spice grieving topless
> in the surf in Phuket and photos of her husband?s career as a dancer in the
> gay bars in Amsterdam.
>
> Meanwhile the slaughter continues in Chechnya, hundreds of thousands die of
> starvation in Sub-Saharan Africa, and as a species we humans continue
> recklessly on the path of eco-suicide. Yet these facts seldom figure in the
> media. Noam Chomsky in his book Manufacturing Consent argues that popular
> media works  to distract the working class from the political process.  It
> serves above all to hide the fact that their citizenship is only a hollow
> mockery. A month in Blair?s Britain has reminded me all too forcibly of how
> accurate his analysis is.
>
> 3.      Finally back to the happy couple Posh Spice and David Beckham
> Manchester United?s Golden Boy. When he was sent off in the World Cup he
> was renamed as  ?Stupid Spice? by the British media.  Every week he is
> endlessly mocked and ridiculed by the soccer fans. The revelation about him
> wearing his wife?s underwear has spawned a thousand jokes about David
> finding life a drag etc. When he was sent off again in the tournament in
> Rio De Janeiro the tabloid media had a feeding frenzy.  He is of course one
> of the most brilliant of contemporary soccer players and has been crucial
> to his team?s success.
>
> As for his wife Posh Spice, she made millions from her career as a Spice
> Girl. Over the New Year British Television showed a program which was to be
> the beginning of a new career for Posh as an interviewer of the rich and
> famous.  The quality press urged us all to view this program so we could
> see how empty the lives of the pop stars were and how stupid and inept Posh
> Spice was .  I tuned in at the end to see her interview with her husband
> David.  This was seemingly the worst interview and viewing it was supposed
> to confirm our intellectual and cultural superiority.   Now like most
> academics I am more than prepared to feel superior to others, however my
> experience of watching the program was radically different.  These may not
> have been the brightest of young people, but they were both beautiful and
> moreover had patently discovered the ignoble truth that lust is greater
> than love, or if you like Eros is more powerful than Agape. I thought of
> the lines from Keats? Ode on a Grecian Urn:
>
>          Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
> Though winning near the goal  yet do not grieve;
> She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
> For ever wilt thou love and she be fair!
>
> ?
> More happy love! More happy, happy love!
> For ever warm and still to be enjoy?d
> For ever panting and for ever young;
> All breathing human passion far above,
> That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy?d
> A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
>
>
> So for once I resisted the allures of intellectual snobbery and I wished
> Posh and her hubby well.  Life will no doubt hunt them down. Nothing
> against time?s scythe can make defence. Moreover Keats was right when he
> described this world as one
>
>          Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
>          Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow.
>
> All too true, but I will never rejoice in that.


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