November 2003
Deleuzing Me
An excellent article by Tobias that critiques Adbusters' adoption of an authoritarian viewpoint, a frightening mirror of the same tactics used by mainstream media and the capitalists they despise. With some surprising insights about postmodern philosophers (specifically, Derrida) and how the Vancouver-based expensive leftist mag fails to even do basic background research in their treatment of them.
For a while, when they started, they seemed fresh and necessary, particularly in the wake of No Logo and Michael Moore's works. I credit them for bringing media literacy and criticism into high schools. But where once they disarmed the messages of the High and Mighty with deconstruction and wit, now they seem to have embraced the tiresome, humourless, haranguing politics of the first-year university student (or possibly, the Cultural Revolutionary).
Collective action and personal engagement are necessary. But at another level, continually focusing outwards, shouting slogans, reducing arguments to black and white "you are with us or against us" issues results in burnout, cynicism, and intellectual bankruptcy. Balance requires not that we retreat from the world, but to engage the internal: one's own ethics, self-improvement, self-actualization, listening, learning. Taking the long view, trading unfocused passion for reason (not reasonableness, necessarily...)
What can one do in one's own life to bring about positive social change? A million people choosing to become vegetarians for their own personal, "selfish" reasons arguably has a greater effect than a million people marching for vegetarian rights...The not-so-invisible hand of the market at work.
[Portions edited 12/02 for clarity and, well, frickin' wordiness.]
