Letter from Fitzroy #01

The Art of Forgetting

For most Australian voters the difference between political parties and their respective factions has been effectively blurred. Debate is negotiated via rhetoric. Debate is usurped by language that does not inform and media campaigns that seek to undermine public critique and memory.

The powers that be would have us believe that we must relax, not react to the issues of our time. We are being taught to be fearful, as did the medieval religions of Europe, rather than pursue knowledge within the construct of a social economy (if we were to adhere to some of the more fundamental and original tenants of capitalism) that supports, not robs us of opportunity, wisdom, collaboration and community.

Some say humans don’t learn, that it is consciousness that does... If so, I hope this amorphous uber-self of humanity translates into tangible structures that would see the end of poverty in all its forms: physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional.

Are we to sustain a legacy of forgetting, or will history teach us that self-flagellation is that which awaits each step of our evolutionary struggle, or rather, devolutionary demise?

As a species we have won the battle for supremacy over our environment, but we are losing the skill and will to sustain that which we inherit. So it goes...

Download - Secession Propaganda 01.

Posted on November 14, 2003

Comments

This afternoon we had coffee at Remain's Cafe. Gary told us someone had walked in earlier, read my Letter from Fitzroy, exclaimed it was bullshit, ripped it off the wall and made for the exit... Gary asked if he wanted to Endorphin poster to!


Posted by: andrew on December 15, 2003

Well, a few criticisms here Andrew. One is that you are critiquing political rhetoric by using political rhetoric. This is OK, but it detracts from your central thesis.

And I agree that there has been a rise in apathy in the Australian polity but the legitimacy of government lies in the citizens who vote for government; or in other words it is your fault as well. A country is bigger than its present administration and a nation is bigger than its state. And by recognising that a democracy has its contradictions is not an end in itself.

You also have your contradictions and bias as well; it is impossible not to have bias. And you defer to history but you use no evidence to support you claims so that 'we the people' can have a conversation with your evidence. 'We the people' believe that human poverty and suffering is your fault. You are failing us; again it is your fault.

And to attribute change in human society to 'evolution' is highly dangerous ground. It is attributing change to some 'natural' phenomena rather than the institutions that the people built that you claim no longer represents our interests. Hitler and Napoleon both used a similar argument to dismantle their respective democracies that the people built. Again it is your fault.

A society has many social realities and nodes of power not just this inverse discourse that is often the most contradictory, politically inept and intellectually imprisoned discourse. By deferring power to some imaginary place that you haven't got the courage to have a conversation with you are also deferring responsibility. You are the most powerful person in the world. All the world's ills are your fault. The high ground of inverse discourse is not cast in stone. It can also shift as power can and does shift. 'We the people' want some answers from you Andrew. It is your fault.



Posted by: Craig on May 05, 2004

Hey, that guy who ripped this piece off the wall at Remains, it wasn't you was it Craig?

That piece is more poetry than prose, but that doesn't excuse me from being responsible for what it has to say. At the very least, I am flexing my democratic right to say what I feel, to try to understand what it is I observe and how it manifests in my being and the world around me.

The evolution issue is an interesting one... no, I don't absolve responsibility for our ills to evolution, but within the scheme of history, the history of our species, perhaps evolution does play a part...?


Posted by: andrew on May 05, 2004