Pornopolis
Another contribution…somebody from my Facebook wrote this post and I thought it was very provocative. I’m not sure I agree with it, but it is a beautiful linguistic construction, working much like a Buddhist Koan to agitate the mind without giving it an easy out. Anyways, I welcome people to discuss it in the comment section, let’s wrestle with it.
Politics is the pornography of human suffering.
Alexander F. Key
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 2:55 pm. It is filed under aphorisms, concepts, politics.
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Pornography for whom? I imagine the answer is “for those who know what politics are for.” And I think the comparison to pornography is apt. For me, politics consists of a shifting language, one that is difficult to experience in a satisfactory way for those who are simply consumers of the language. Relationship with and understanding of the object over which one obsesses is elusive, though the illusion of connection–the virtual reality–that feeds the obsession is powerful enough to stand in for the real thing, in short bursts–and for longer periods for those who keep believing, for whatever reasons. For the producers of such language, however, the grunts, moans, yelling, and bad acting must seem like useful tools for 1) getting one’s material needs met and 2) having some connection, however superficial and fleeting, with those who consume said language in the course of meeting their own needs. The primary purpose of “2,” above, it seems to me, is to exercise power over the viewer of the bad drama that unfolds and spreads its legs on many, many stages every day.
wow, i feel at a loss…this is an interesting statement to work with, because it does activate something true…and as you said, the relationship between politics and pornography is apt, precisely because it is often understood as happening ‘over there’, while a viewer awaits expected things to unfold.
the same paradox is found in both…watching people do what it is we all want to be doing ourselves, but watching because it is what is most readily available…
and it is this availability that acts as a defense of your argument as to the ‘purpose’ of #2, and i would have to agree…
in other words, the organized formal exercise of politics is the means by which human suffering is extended, by virtue of keeping them in the role of viewer…if pornography did not exist, many would leave home seeking the real thing…if we did not have a representative government, would we be forced to govern ourselves? is this an anarchist byway, i don’t know…
k
it didn’t seem as though you were at a loss.