[-empyre-] networks of catastrophe + terror/capital

[sdv at krokodile.co.uk]

Interesting as far as it goes. But limited by the extent to which it 
ignores the way in which fear and terror pervaded pre-capitalist 
societies. (for example -Virillo's prized catholic religion was founded 
on fear, terror and politics. ) If we now recognize that terror is 
something endemic to capital, which in our times I think it must be, 
then it should be more explicitly identified with the ever-increasing 
depth of the class hierarchy within global capital. It's difficult to 
always remember that it is now deeper then ever before in human history.

It is not then that capital encodes terror,  rather that capital now 
produces terror as a by product of it's increasingly globalized network 
structure. The consequence of the network society is the increasing 
mediaevalisation of human relations, from personal to working and 
beyond. This reappearance of serfdom and slavery, the bonds of vassalage 
which place free human beings at the beck and call of lords - is why 
their has been an increase in sheer terror. The current global economic 
crisis will make the the structures even more global.

The events of Mumbai are not just a circus but the consequences of  the 
new serfs building Dubai and because the network society is a catastrophe.

steve



Verena Conley wrote:
> Excellent point. Of course, terror is endemic to capitalism. Though we 
> still have to define it.
> Also, since earlier we spoke of catastrophes, it seems fairly safe to 
> say that free market capitalism the way it was practiced since 1989 
> but especially 2000 is the real catastrophe.
>
> Verena
>
> On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 5:05 PM, simon <swht at clear.net.nz 
> <mailto:swht at clear.net.nz>> wrote:
>
>     Does this mean - the following - the following (too late), which my
>     earlier post was an attempting to articulate: that capital encodes
>     terror? makes use of it in its flows of symbolic exchange? as if
>     having
>     reached a critical velocity, the accident of history is given to
>     returning endlessly?
>
>     Or conversely has there been some sort of symbolic phase shift whereby
>     the simulacrum, the coded world, that Image of
>     thought-as-representation, now only runs by circulating, through the
>     circulation of, acts/networked nodes of terrestrial and
>     extraterrestrial
>     terror? Is capital now entrained in the duration of terror? (As we are
>     entrained in the durations of its spectacular technological means.)
>
>     Simon Taylor
>
>     www.squarewhiteworld.com <http://www.squarewhiteworld.com>
>     www.brazilcoffee.co.nz <http://www.brazilcoffee.co.nz>
>
>
>     Nicholas Ruiz III wrote:
>     > As a reflection of the transparency of evil (Baudrillard), the whole
>     > lot of it, Mumbai, etc.--is commerical art...and the millions of
>     > downloads, transmissions and commentaries are its market, paid
>     for in
>     > broadcast fees, cable and satellite subscriptions and financed by
>     > advertisers: with media art critics and all!  We are enveloped by a
>     > postmodern Roman media coliseum, where gladiatorial urges are
>     elicited
>     > and fulfilled, where spectators take part in the war games,
>     which are
>     > repeated endlessly and archived for posterity on the Network.
>     >
>     > NRIII
>     >
>     > Nicholas Ruiz III, Ph.D
>     > Editor, Kritikos
>     > http://intertheory.org
>     >
>     _______________________________________________
>     empyre forum
>     empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>     http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Verena Andermatt Conley
>
> Department of Comparative Literature and Romance Languages
> and Literature
> Dana Palmer 202
> Harvard University
> Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
> tel: 617-495-2274; 617-496-6090
> fax: 617-496-4682
>
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>
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