A Night with Bresson

Guy;

I certainly share the fatigue aspect of political and cultural reflection. Here in Poland it looks like the new election will be a PiS victory (Kaczynski’s party), which means Poles have about the same grasp of their own interests as do Americans or the French. In any event, I will write about that event as it happens (soon).

I wanted to touch on the Myanmar protests. Its important (as it was with Milosevic and Yugoslavia) to peer past the western media and their framing of this. The revolt began as a reaction to the military junta’s decision to raise fuel prices and the prices of other basic neccessities. The Junta was actually following the advice of the World Bank and IMF in this one — and its interesting to note how the media has always been in love with the National League for Democracy (Kyi’s party) and how the media support in the west is very much directed toward the NLD and not really in the direction of real revolution (can’t have that now can we). In any event, as I said before, the NLD wants to invite in foreign business, and courts US support and help. One doubts this will actually much help the poor of Myanmar. A footnote to this is that Kyi’s cousin led the government-in-exile of Myanmar during the 1990s. The cousin led this rather powerless group from residence in the US. The military junta has been brutal in its repression of the people in past uprisings, and this may be no different ….. although if it the beginning of the end of the military’s rule of Myanmar, I fear the new government will be yet another token client state for US interests…(footnote: Bill Kristol advocates US military intervention…..uh……gosh, what a surprise).

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As for US elections; I can’t say I really am able to find anything to support in Democrats. I certainly sympathize with people’s desire to put an end to Bush and Cheney, but honestly I see no reason to think Hillary will be better (and Im guessing she is the next President, unless Gore makes a late decision to enter and I doubt that). In any case, her policy advisors are exactly as hawkish as the neo-cons, although they do it in less vulgar fashion. But its the same. I had an argument of sorts the other night on the phone with a fellow American regards all this. She feels the Supreme Court alone is worth voting democrat. I wonder first if a court of Dem nominees would really be much better, but even if it was on some superficial level Im not sure what real impact that has. I can hear the protests to that remark, and I understand…. and yet when people get excited about a ten cent raise in the minimum wage, or a slight curbing of enviornmental rollbacks, I am at a loss what to say. This ends up, usually, becoming a debate about political personalities. The corporate media might be forced to curb some of their more grotesque propaganda, but in the end it will all be the same. CNN is, after all, barely more tolerable than FOX. I guess my fatigue comes from waking each morning and having to face the hegemony of Empire, of western Capital, and realize the destruction that looms on the horizon seems more and more inevitable. The level of delusion and unreality is breathtaking. In all of this one must confront, daily, the loss of culture. The left suffers this as much as the right. On even very sharp blogs and on the pages of socialist magazines, one hears praise for a Kushner, or a Lynch. How does this work?  I don’t know, except that it speaks to the over all errosion of rigour in art and culture. The Guardian’s Gilbert Adair has a nice piece on Bresson

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2187659,00.html

which serves to remind us of what non-placebo art looks and feels like. I am starting the new semester here (where among my jobs is the programming for weekly films) with Jean Pierre Melville’s rarely seen Army of Shadows, to be followed by Paul Schrader’s Hardcore, and then Dreyer’s Day of Wrath. It is a relief to be able to sit and watch such work …. and while Schrader might not be quite Bresson or Dreyer, this feature (with an astounding performance by George C. Scott) remains a very neglected feature from a time not that long ago when such films actually got studio release. That societies need culture should be obvious, for the delusions of voting Hillary or Rudy or Fred or O-Bomb-a are deeply interwoven with a lack of inner life, of capacity to reflect. The sadism of our Empire is evident daily (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071009/D8S5RL9G0.html) and rising tide of fascism (http://www.counterpunch.org/reichel1082007.html ), and again,Hillary will not NOT NOT be less fascist; I mean does anyone think Hillary will pull Blackwater out of Iraq or off the streets of the US????). I sometimes exercise a fantasy of making everyone watch Pickpocket or The Silence or even only the final scene of The Passanger as the start of an inoculation against the endless assault of mass media and state department PR. As the start of an inner dialogue with oneself about aggression and anger. Anger against onself, it seems to me, not against the forces that alienate and destroy. Here is a quote (recent) from the truely insane Rudy Guiliani :

“We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don’t see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.”

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And there you have it. Love authority, says Rudy. I see a society following his advice. I see it with Hillary too, and its the message of corporate media. This is why I suggest an evening with Robert Bresson. Or a quick reading (aloud) from the pages of Pedro Paramo or from the poems of James Wright or Cesar Vallejo.

And finally, its 40 years since Che was assasinated. Its good to remember this I think. The repressive logic of domination grows every minute…. and real change is required, and that starts, so I believe, with individual refusal.

John Steppling