Page 56 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 56
from walter benjamin to the end of cinema
the fascinating aspects of new communication technology, maybe does not
represent much more than just a higher degree of a not so essentially dif-
ferent structure.
Clash of Identities
We cannot deny new complexities and new shapes of the social, political,
economic and cultural realities, and for that matter, even less the extent
to which contemporary social sciences are able to reflect and even to in-
tervene within such context. Yet at the same time, it seems that the scope
of such interventions is rather limited as it has always been. A widespread
consensus that we happen to live in the time of profound changes, which
evades our conceptual apparatus, actually indicates the problems of under-
standing the confusing movements of parallel-unsynchronised transitions.
It seems that the functioning of institutions, which so far seemed so prop-
er, are all of sudden on the verge of becoming obsolete. Descriptions of the
contemporary situation and suggestions of concepts and solutions are in-
creasingly vague and controversial. We could find hundreds of examples of
the discourse of uncertainty, such as this:
On what basis should common norms of today be founded? It is un-
thinkable to present such norms as a system a priori; they can only
emerge gradually from a renewed questioning on what good life is
and what life in community (vivre-ensemble) is. We can only indi-
cate a certain number of parameters. Hence, we might think that
such norms should affect a syntheses between the tradition (and
its validating of the particular identities) and the modernity (and
its validating of the universal); and not only within each political
structure, but on the world scale (Bonny, 1995: p. 24).
Statements such as this are inscribed into the global antagonisms of
today. On one hand there is the global market (with its powerful financial
organisations, multinational corporations, etc.) accompanied by the medi-
ating and by and large problematic international associations and organisa-
tions. On the other hand, there are regions and individual nations marked
by their own cultural profiles, which are forced to adapt, to change, and
to restructure their economies – albeit with often immense social conse-
quences. Any transparent formula of a reconciliation of this central global
antagonism, apart from the rhetoric of universal economic competition, de-
mocracy and human rights, is in the best-case scenario still in the making.
54
the fascinating aspects of new communication technology, maybe does not
represent much more than just a higher degree of a not so essentially dif-
ferent structure.
Clash of Identities
We cannot deny new complexities and new shapes of the social, political,
economic and cultural realities, and for that matter, even less the extent
to which contemporary social sciences are able to reflect and even to in-
tervene within such context. Yet at the same time, it seems that the scope
of such interventions is rather limited as it has always been. A widespread
consensus that we happen to live in the time of profound changes, which
evades our conceptual apparatus, actually indicates the problems of under-
standing the confusing movements of parallel-unsynchronised transitions.
It seems that the functioning of institutions, which so far seemed so prop-
er, are all of sudden on the verge of becoming obsolete. Descriptions of the
contemporary situation and suggestions of concepts and solutions are in-
creasingly vague and controversial. We could find hundreds of examples of
the discourse of uncertainty, such as this:
On what basis should common norms of today be founded? It is un-
thinkable to present such norms as a system a priori; they can only
emerge gradually from a renewed questioning on what good life is
and what life in community (vivre-ensemble) is. We can only indi-
cate a certain number of parameters. Hence, we might think that
such norms should affect a syntheses between the tradition (and
its validating of the particular identities) and the modernity (and
its validating of the universal); and not only within each political
structure, but on the world scale (Bonny, 1995: p. 24).
Statements such as this are inscribed into the global antagonisms of
today. On one hand there is the global market (with its powerful financial
organisations, multinational corporations, etc.) accompanied by the medi-
ating and by and large problematic international associations and organisa-
tions. On the other hand, there are regions and individual nations marked
by their own cultural profiles, which are forced to adapt, to change, and
to restructure their economies – albeit with often immense social conse-
quences. Any transparent formula of a reconciliation of this central global
antagonism, apart from the rhetoric of universal economic competition, de-
mocracy and human rights, is in the best-case scenario still in the making.
54
