RE: [-empyre-] Bare Life, Ghost Detainees, Exclusion and Performance

["Nicholas Ruiz" <nr03@fsu.edu>]

Greetings GHH/all:

Yes, of course, on both counts.  The discourse and praxis of war has always
been formalized as a formidable image; a reign of terror and deterrence, all
the way back to Lascaux, Altamira and beyond. One can see this in the
painted 'envelopment' formations on the walls of the caves... even though
today such an ancient reign masquerades as ethical war, responsible war,
wars for freedom as a response to acts of terror and so on.

As for Debray's 'superscreens,' Baudrillard's 'l'ecran total' and other
characterizations of the mediasphere--few can adequately consort with the
mass media, or initiate a conversation as we do with one another here (we
all know that the mass media channels are somewhat locked and policed),
without the appropriate tele-currency; so what circulates is mostly a
function of the largest Capital flows. Alas, the largest flows of Capital
are representative of only an aristocratic sliver of all bare life--a
minority which has taken it upon itself to represent the world.  

Borrowing from Agamben, we say that most of bare life is excluded
'inclusively', as currencies in Capital circulation--human rights and world
famine agendas, ribbons and bows, etc.  Perhaps this is beneficent progress,
relative to ancient times...

We ask ourselves: is this better than before Progress--or 'same as it ever
was...'?  A political choice, no doubt.

At any rate, the net is still somewhat available to bare lives that can
purchase access and manage to connect--our conversation is proof of
that--but then, this does not mean that we do not remain docile bodies, in
the Foucauldian sense, since the undecideable has been decided, for us.  

The world has made its offer and the representatives of bare life have
accepted it on our behalf, no? 



NRIII



Nicholas Ruiz III
ABD/GTA
Interdisciplinary Program in the Humanities
--Florida State University--
Editor, Kritikos
http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~nr03/

-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-bounces@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
[mailto:empyre-bounces@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of G.H.Hovagimyan
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 1:43 PM
To: 'soft_skinned_space'
Cc: soft_skinned_space
Subject: [-empyre-] Bare Life, Ghost Detainees, Exclusion and Performance

"...The question is this; do my  
actions and that of terrorists constitute normal political discourse in  
a global techno society? Furthermore is expulsion or bare life negation  
created by denying access to or recognition of a perso in the web and  
internet and mass media?"

homepage -  <http://nujus.net/gh_04>
with Peter Sinclair <http://nujus.net>

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