tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post4972152516442040992..comments2024-03-28T08:37:58.136+01:00Comments on Limited, Inc.: a rainbow ArmageddonRoger Gathmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-32405924153329869702020-06-09T11:26:48.820+02:002020-06-09T11:26:48.820+02:00Your aunt is right, and I am wrong to say that dem...Your aunt is right, and I am wrong to say that demos are not worth squat. And she is especially right to reference theater, for there is something very sacrificial at the heart of the political process that comes out in the demonstration. That said, demonstrations, to be more than squat, need a demonstration culture, which we are seeing crystallized in the U.S., suddenly. My experience of demos against the wars in Iraq - the Gulf war one and the occupation - were that the demonstrations did squat. I thought about why for a long time - I think it is very much a matter of those demos not hooking up with the existential situation - with the inequality, the racism, the systematic domestic violence - but narrowcasting. I think that this started to change with the Gilets Jaunes, who have sparked a long train of demonstrations, I think, which preceded the pandemic. So let me rephrase myself in honor of your aunt, a woman who was smarter than me: a demonstration is squat if it doesn't express the full existential urgency of its object, which depends upon the situation from which it arises. Arghh, I'm falling into blah blah blah here! Hope you will excuse me. Roger Gathmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-80344722031784613272020-06-08T05:08:59.840+02:002020-06-08T05:08:59.840+02:00Hello, I cannot really argue against what you say ...Hello, I cannot really argue against what you say about demonstrations being covered and then forgotten. And that the demonstrations against the Iraq war did not stop the war. But worth squat? I'm just one of those young ones who perhaps doesn't know much. I try to read and learn though. And I had an aunt who was a friend of yours, which is how I started reading this blog. She took me to a few demonstrations when I was little, and talked to me about them. I don't remember it all but I have her notebooks to remind me. She talked and wrote about it in terms of theater. I suppose theater doesn't stop wars either. I remember her talking to me of ancient Greek theater. The Furies in Aeschylus who made a bad pact she said and went below the earth. But they will return from the dead and protest and demand justice for the living. It seemed a like a strange ghost story when I was little. I'm not sure I understand it much better now, but protesting and demanding justice is not nothing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com