The tendency to activate deterritorializing forces
of progress that
sweep away the old forms, on the one hand, and to
activate intense
reterritorializations, such as violent
fundamentalisms and
nationalisms, is itself a dynamic that is internally
generated by
global capitalism. The reterritorializations and are
not a form of
resistance to modernization, but are part of the
same dynamic.
Furthermore, this dynamic is not the result of some
ahistorical,
eternal law but rather is a tendency of the global
political-economic
system in its current form. Different
political-economic systems would
generate different dynamics.
~David
On 9/26/06, { brad brace } <bbrace@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>
> A maintaining dynamic provides stability, while a
> modernizing dynamic forces change. We tend to be
satisfied
> with a view of the world as a theatre of conflict
between
> stability and change. Collecting a congeries of
phenomena
> under the rubric of modernization, we project a
future that
> will be purified in a certain direction. With only
the
> craven desire for stability to overcome, the
victory of
> modernization seems assured, and the world must
progress
> toward the mechanized, the artificial, the
commercial, the
> secular, the individual, and the international.
There is,
> however, an oppositional force of self-conscious
resistance
> on behalf of the bodily, the natural, the
creative, the
> sacred, the collective, and the local. This
countervailing
> force is underestimated because we have not yet
learned, as
> we have with modernization, to gather its
disparate signs
> under one label. Oppositional actions do not
connect
> directly; they align independently in negative
response to
> modernization, the force also called, depending
upon
> context, progress, development, secularization,
> industrialization, westernization, or colonialism.
The goal
> is not maintenance; the orientation is
progressive, but the
> dynamic is recursive. The mind scans the past to
imagine
> the future. Consider the popularity of hobbies
involving
> handicraft, the concern for environmental
conservation and
> historic preservation, the profusion of civic
festivals, the
> resurgence of ethnic identity, the escalation of
nativism,
> and nationalism, the institution of reactionary
values in
> politics and education, the convergence of
alternative
> ideology and spiritual yearning in religious
revival, the
> new age cults, in Christianity and Judaism, in
Buddhism,
> Hinduism, and Islam. In detail it is too much to
encompass:
> The Mahabharata in ninety-three installments on
Indian
> television, mosques destroyed in Bosnia and built
in
> Afghanistan, powpows in Oklahoma, martial arts in
Japan, new
> music in Colombia, glass painting in Poland and
Romania,
> rosemaling in Norway and Wisconsin, political
order in Iran,
> rebellion in Chechnya, separatism in Quebec,
fundamentalism
> in Christianity, the Mao cult in China, Kwanzaa in
> Philadelphia, the Eid parade in Dhaka city,
Saraswati Puja
> at Jagannath Hall... But take it all together,
name it
> revitalization, and it is a power to balance
modernization.
>
> brad brace sound:
> http://69.64.229.114:8000
> http://bbrace.net/undisclosed.html
>
>
>
>