> On Monday, October 25, 2004, at 05:56 PM, michaelP wrote:
>
>> James, John, Malcom: we don't really need the bushmen and
>> neo-con-artists to
>> declare total war, since the wholesale desertification of the earth by
>> 'normal' business (the total using up of every being in the cycles of
>> production, consumption and distribution: gestell) has long long since
>> been
>> total war (world war III & IV). If we could see that the real terror
>> comes
>> from this implacable phenomenon and not especially from the so-called
>> terrorists (of either persuasion, islamist or neocon); to not see this
>> is
>> errorism indeed...
>
> That is in part what I'm arguing isn't it? Technology, from Heidegger's
> perspective, is the problem. But I disagree with your metaphorical use
> of the term 'total war'. Gestell may very well be reflected in the
> 'total mobilisation' of all resources effected by capitalist
> globalisation over the last half century with its resultant drastic
> environmental effects but this current generation of westerners have
> yet to be exposed to the ravages of total war as were our grandparents
> 60 years ago.
Yes, Malcom, but I am not employing so much a "metaphor"; as an example of
total mobilisation (Juenger), the total war of gestell is a setting upon
every thing as merely for using up; the death of beings-as-beings and the
very staying-away of be-ing. The actual wars you mention are only
consequences of this total war. If actual wars and terrorism etc do not
bring this total war home to us then perhaps the buggering of the climate
etc might...
>
> War is real terror, just ask the Iraqis and Afghans, and the young
> soldiers sent to conquer them in the name of freedom. I think it's
> important to recognise that the 60 years or so of relative peace and
> prosperity for us westerners has set us up for yet another planetary
> conflict. In this sense the end of the Nazi regime and the formation of
> the UN order did not usher in a new era of democracy and freedom, it
> just allowed the old system to continue on its merry way to the next
> seemingly inevitable conflagration. That's a commonplace theme of
> course, but we do seem to be historically privileged to see the whole
> structure unravel before our eyes as modernity reenacts itself as a
> history of calamity.
>
> In this sense the neocon extremists are just an effect of Gestell but I
> find them rather disturbing in that they seem to be part of the same
> self-consciously willful phenomenon as Heidegger's Nazi's. They are the
> last people I would have controlling the reins of our new predatory
> world order and from the perspective of the critique of the 'will to
> will' they do not augur well for our future.
Agreed, but also the islamists and other reactionaries (they are also the
true progeny of the hitlerian thuggery).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Malcolm
regards
michaelP
>
>
>
> --- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
>> James, John, Malcom: we don't really need the bushmen and
>> neo-con-artists to
>> declare total war, since the wholesale desertification of the earth by
>> 'normal' business (the total using up of every being in the cycles of
>> production, consumption and distribution: gestell) has long long since
>> been
>> total war (world war III & IV). If we could see that the real terror
>> comes
>> from this implacable phenomenon and not especially from the so-called
>> terrorists (of either persuasion, islamist or neocon); to not see this
>> is
>> errorism indeed...
>
> That is in part what I'm arguing isn't it? Technology, from Heidegger's
> perspective, is the problem. But I disagree with your metaphorical use
> of the term 'total war'. Gestell may very well be reflected in the
> 'total mobilisation' of all resources effected by capitalist
> globalisation over the last half century with its resultant drastic
> environmental effects but this current generation of westerners have
> yet to be exposed to the ravages of total war as were our grandparents
> 60 years ago.
Yes, Malcom, but I am not employing so much a "metaphor"; as an example of
total mobilisation (Juenger), the total war of gestell is a setting upon
every thing as merely for using up; the death of beings-as-beings and the
very staying-away of be-ing. The actual wars you mention are only
consequences of this total war. If actual wars and terrorism etc do not
bring this total war home to us then perhaps the buggering of the climate
etc might...
>
> War is real terror, just ask the Iraqis and Afghans, and the young
> soldiers sent to conquer them in the name of freedom. I think it's
> important to recognise that the 60 years or so of relative peace and
> prosperity for us westerners has set us up for yet another planetary
> conflict. In this sense the end of the Nazi regime and the formation of
> the UN order did not usher in a new era of democracy and freedom, it
> just allowed the old system to continue on its merry way to the next
> seemingly inevitable conflagration. That's a commonplace theme of
> course, but we do seem to be historically privileged to see the whole
> structure unravel before our eyes as modernity reenacts itself as a
> history of calamity.
>
> In this sense the neocon extremists are just an effect of Gestell but I
> find them rather disturbing in that they seem to be part of the same
> self-consciously willful phenomenon as Heidegger's Nazi's. They are the
> last people I would have controlling the reins of our new predatory
> world order and from the perspective of the critique of the 'will to
> will' they do not augur well for our future.
Agreed, but also the islamists and other reactionaries (they are also the
true progeny of the hitlerian thuggery).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Malcolm
regards
michaelP
>
>
>
> --- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---