Friday, February 19, 2010

Vaneigem

jr over at ladypoverty has written two excellent pieces on the Spectacle. in response, i just wanted to post this (rather lengthy) quote from Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life:
The repressive unity of power is threefold: coercion, seduction and mediation. This is no more than the inversion and perversion of an equally threefold unitary project. The new society, as it develops underground, chaotically, is moving towards a total honesty - a transparency - between individuals: an honesty promoting the participation of each individual in the self-realisation of everyone else. Creativity, love and play stand in the same relation to true life as the need to eat and the need to find shelter stand in relation to survival. Attempts to realise oneself can only be based on creativity. Attempts to communicate can only be based on love. Attempts to participate can only be based on play. Separated from one another these three projects merely strengthen the repressive unity of power. Radical subjectivity is the presence - which can be seen in almost everyone - of the same desire to create a truly passionate life. The erotic is the spontaneous coherence fusing attempts to enrich lived experience.
if i have some time later on this month, i'll try and write more about this.

2 comments:

JRB said...

Man, that's deep! Speaking of erotic, I've really been wanting to get my hands on that one. Thanks a lot for posting this. We'll have to have a book club discussion on it sometime!

thebaronette said...

I know! It's such clear and brilliant summary. The excerpt I read was just one chapter out of the book, so I'm kind of dying to get a copy too. Just gotta finish Harpo Speaks and a few others first.