Page 210 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 210
from walter benjamin to the end of cinema
totally different, American slogans and pointed phraseology entered the
ideological discourse of various traditionalist political groups. Among such
slogans we can find the “right to life”, coined by the Family Division with-
in NCCB (National Conference of Catholic Bishops) in USA in 1970. (All
references to the American anti-abortionism are to be found in Petchesky,
1986.) Later on, when the front against abortion broadened, miscellane-
ous forms of the protestant fundamentalism, groups of the orthodox Jews,
Mormons and black Muslims entered in to its ranks. This strongly reli-
giously marked social bases of the New Right was joined by a number of
various organisations of far Right such as Young Americans for Freedom,
John Birch Society, and World Anti-Communist League to name just a few.
Interesting connections to the Republican Party were visible. On the way
to power the Republicans made use of zealots in this groups and organisa-
tions, but in spite of a degree of anti-abortionist rhetoric and some legis-
lative set-backs concerning women’s freedom of choice, the actual politics
under Reagan did not totally succumb to all aspirations of the far right. The
problem of abortion appears to be a politically mobilising issue by being al-
ways caught in a series of equivalences, which visibly mark the field of the
conservative discourse: to advocate “life” means to support “the family”,
which further on means to uphold “morality”, that under a historical signi-
fier is identified as adherence to “America”. The logic of such discourse is a
reduction of differences: “/.../ the logic of equivalence is a logic of the sim-
plification of political space, while the logic of difference is a logic of its ex-
pansion and increasing complexity” (Laclau, Mouffe, 1985: p. 130).
Art and Society
Part three of the book turns to art and its social signification. Are we now-
adays abandoning all links between art and human happiness? It looks
very much so that one can never get rid of ethics. The perspective taken by
Bourdieu – and not only him – does not abolish all these aspects; it actual-
ly puts a stronger emphasis on them. However, one question remains per-
tinent in its radical articulation in the last instance: have artists ever really
existed, or were they just figments of theoreticians’ and critics’ imagina-
tion? The answer depends on historical moments and on social changes as
well as on the shifts in economic and political (power) structures. On this
background, another question arises as well: who believes that art has ever
been truly defined and clearly determined? This, on the other hand, does
not mean that art “functions” without definitions. On the contrary, one can
208
totally different, American slogans and pointed phraseology entered the
ideological discourse of various traditionalist political groups. Among such
slogans we can find the “right to life”, coined by the Family Division with-
in NCCB (National Conference of Catholic Bishops) in USA in 1970. (All
references to the American anti-abortionism are to be found in Petchesky,
1986.) Later on, when the front against abortion broadened, miscellane-
ous forms of the protestant fundamentalism, groups of the orthodox Jews,
Mormons and black Muslims entered in to its ranks. This strongly reli-
giously marked social bases of the New Right was joined by a number of
various organisations of far Right such as Young Americans for Freedom,
John Birch Society, and World Anti-Communist League to name just a few.
Interesting connections to the Republican Party were visible. On the way
to power the Republicans made use of zealots in this groups and organisa-
tions, but in spite of a degree of anti-abortionist rhetoric and some legis-
lative set-backs concerning women’s freedom of choice, the actual politics
under Reagan did not totally succumb to all aspirations of the far right. The
problem of abortion appears to be a politically mobilising issue by being al-
ways caught in a series of equivalences, which visibly mark the field of the
conservative discourse: to advocate “life” means to support “the family”,
which further on means to uphold “morality”, that under a historical signi-
fier is identified as adherence to “America”. The logic of such discourse is a
reduction of differences: “/.../ the logic of equivalence is a logic of the sim-
plification of political space, while the logic of difference is a logic of its ex-
pansion and increasing complexity” (Laclau, Mouffe, 1985: p. 130).
Art and Society
Part three of the book turns to art and its social signification. Are we now-
adays abandoning all links between art and human happiness? It looks
very much so that one can never get rid of ethics. The perspective taken by
Bourdieu – and not only him – does not abolish all these aspects; it actual-
ly puts a stronger emphasis on them. However, one question remains per-
tinent in its radical articulation in the last instance: have artists ever really
existed, or were they just figments of theoreticians’ and critics’ imagina-
tion? The answer depends on historical moments and on social changes as
well as on the shifts in economic and political (power) structures. On this
background, another question arises as well: who believes that art has ever
been truly defined and clearly determined? This, on the other hand, does
not mean that art “functions” without definitions. On the contrary, one can
208
