[Marxism] To everything there is a shell game

["OpenSentence Type Foundry" <typefoundry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 22:56:20 +0100
> From: "Jurriaan Bendien" <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Marxism] It's a big, long road
> To: "Marxmail List" <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID: <000701c3b531$4b2bea20$fd81e3d5@jurriaan>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I was thinking more of Peter Sellers starring in "Being There" (1979).
> Remember that quote, "I like to watch."

I was referencing a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song about the New Jersey
Turnpike, and in context the iterated "big" is very important; my point is
that said context is indeed to be avoided, though perhaps not at any cost.
But apropos of Chauncey Gardiner, I think most people miss the point of
*Being There* and I'm gonna get all ethnicky again |( to give my take.
Jerzy Kozinski was not so much, but he was Kozinski enough and the point of
a lot of 20s-30s Polish philosophy (worth thinking about, although not much
of it is available to read) is that there is a sort of *union sacree*
between words and ideas which individuals (are allowed to) trespass on, much
of it inspired by Frege's discovery that all true sentences name the same
thing (The True).  This is massively misrepresented at the present time by
analytic philosophers who hold Alfred Tarski (the most formally-inclined of
these fellows) up as a paradigm of "deflationism".

In *Being There* Chauncey Gardiner is not a fraud; insofar as we know, he is
retarded.  However, there's nothing wrong with anything he says: some of his
*dicta* are passable transformations of widely-acclaimed deep sayings
("springtime is for planting") and he's not doing anything contrary to what
he says.  The point is more about all the people around Chauncey Gardiner,
and that they seize on what is not obviously there (a profound subjectivity)
instead of attempting to seriously engage with the experienced profundity
"what is said" in the context of their own works and days.  But the usual
way with *Being There* (frauds aplenty, hold on to your ego-wallet) is far
too short, as is often the case at the present time.

> I just saw Bush on television addressing the troops in Iraq. He didn't have
> a military train, but a plane. Hilary Clinton is off there tomorrow.
>
> J.

I think I would support the occupation more if we didn't have to send Iraqis
all our favorite people.  They might not understand.

Jeff Rubard