Sunday 30 January 2011

Reflections on reading Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx (9)

The ninth night

The last echoes of an old song drift on the air before the cold breeze of the new dawn disperses it.

Two thousand years
Two thousand years
Of your
God damn Glory (18)

“A new order of the ages (19) has begun”, a world order of global elites with an all-embracing ideology, the politics of ‘Sixram rising up into the gaps vacated by the messiah’s fainthearted followers. Lines of blond giants, flex their six packs, marching to the military beat of ‘This Gift’, (20) their gift to the people; gleaming torsos, slicked back hair and shining teeth. The ground shakes as they pass, young girls throw flowers and boys join in behind, mimicking the ‘Sixram quickstep march. People lean out from first floor windows to watch them pass, they keep their ground floor windows shut. The new politics of ‘Sixram a pure notion of embodied essence; it knows itself in its own shape and is the spirit of change. The aim of this movement is to supersede the cardinal distinctions and to shape self-consciousness.

Behind closed doors a different truth is whispered in the older tongue of Swen. A post-colonic patois learnt from the oppressor, now the lingua franca of the underclass.

“A new universe is begun”, dark separated from light, matter hidden within energy, its power based on exchange. The physics of this domain are weightless, gravity is not a force to fear, magnetism rules and metals valued more than life. In this universe star systems can flicker shuddering into being, while ancient worlds can suddenly switch off. The people of this place have little sense of history, their politics a strange affair of butterfly alliances; voters pressing buttons of desire, selecting politicians on their acts of song and dance. A socialist will dance a jig and win a term in power, a fascist sing an excerpt from an operatic medley and find himself a spokesman for the poor. All candidates will swear an oath in front of watching billions, to speak the truth and hold on tight to Volta’s words of wisdom. (21)
The electronic networks will now open to their new charge and political particles readjust and reform elemental matters. Political interpretation in this universe changes totality with observation. Positive or negative disclosures reverse polarity and entire systems can be torn apart on viewing. Those who wish to enter this field are therefore rigorously trained and moulded from their youth.

(1) The dominant discourses are observation and (2) change. (As all observations change the system, we have to account for the reasons they were made).

1) There is a three phase system in place. a) A political current is active. b) An information channel is open, its tele-technics have been registered. c) The academic current is now passive. Its power source now coupled with the ghost of electricity.

2) There is trust in a closed circuit. It contains both the weak force of rhetoric and the strong force of ideology. Note: This system has many relays, each of which is prone to fusing, in particular when in conjunction with the weak messianic force.

18 Jefferson Starship (1970) Blows against the Empire RCA Records Track one, side two: Sunrise Written by Grace Slick

19 New Order of the Ages can be translated into Latin as ‘novus ordo seclorum’ a phrase found on the back of the United States’ one dollar note.

20 New World Order (2009) This Gift: on the record label; This Space For Rent
New World Order is a pop-rock band with a wide range of influences ranging from pop-punk to indie-rock to post-hardcore. Their music combines melodic and aggressive guitars with vocal harmonies of pop sensibility.

21 Volta did not believe Galvani's theory that animal tissue contained a form of electricity. In order to disprove Galvini, Volta built the first voltaic pile to prove that electricity could not be generated by animals and to further prove that it was generated by the contact of metals in a moist environment. They were both it turns out, right.

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