Mark Fisher on privilege, twitter, commentariat, etc.

[caleb]

http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=11299

Awful lot of absolute shite in this article: Fisher's MASSIVE hard-on for Russell Brand and the People's Assembly, his romanticised view of "Old Labour" (never existed, mate), and the fact he seems to only understand class as a cultural category. His personal politics are probably definitely just as bad as those he's criticising, and you can smell the stench of an academic from miles off with his penchant for making up his own categories and banging on about them - mate, 'capitalist realism', 'neo-anarchism' and fucking worst of all the 'Vampire Castle' are not going to fucking take off, you're a fifth-rate Zizek.

But still, some interesting stuff in here. Some of it seems to be pilfered from Urban, even.

 

[butchersapron]

The most frequent object of this resentment is Owen Jones, and the attacks on Jones – the person most responsible for raising class consciousness in the UK in the last few years – were one of the reasons I was so dejected.

er.

 

[butchersapron]

He actually says:

nincompoop

It doesn't matter what i say - or anyone - because Fisher and other teachers now come reflexively armoured - this will be an example of whatever they're on about. This is enclosure via democracy - via the flat social media.

To recap:

Never in my lifetime has capitalist ideology been weaker; neo-liberalism is now played out as a force which has forward momentum (though that isn’t to say that it can’t continue in perpetuity as a zombie). Now isn’t the time to further withdraw from institutions but to reoccupy them. In fact, part of the reason that neo-liberalism became so dominant is that we did withdraw, persuaded that mainstream media was dead and that parliamentary politics was a waste of time. But the very success of neo-liberalism indicates that these things are far from dead. Of course, both parliament and the mainstream media are deeply decadent in the UK, Italy and many other countries, and it will take some time – perhaps a decade at least – before we could make a difference. But it seems to me that, if we want to recover the future, now is the time to re-engage with such institutions.

Read that. Fucking hell.

 

[caleb]

Hearing various things about him being a scab too, voting against strike action, etc. Anyone know anything more?

 

[butchersapron]

The next night, it was clear that Brand’s appearance had produced a moment of splitting. For some of us, Brand’s forensic take-down of Paxman was intensely moving, miraculous; I couldn’t remember the last time a person from a working class background had been given the space to so consummately destroy a class ‘superior’ using intelligence and reason. This wasn’t Johnny Rotten swearing at Bill Grundy – an act of antagonism which confirmed rather than challenged class stereotypes. Brand had outwitted Paxman – and the use of humour was what separated

Note: 'outwitted' means, that we must take part in their games, we must fight on their terrain, and if we lose we must fight again. On that same terrain. And join the people assemblies. Note also: given space - not imposed a space on them. Given a space.

I would be very surprised if he were a scab. Do not think that's true at all.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

The part worth engaging with is his assessment of "left twitter" and the campus left. The neologisms, personal admiration for particular public figures and strategic proposals are of little interest.

I hadn't actually bothered to read this before, but I can see why it gave the twitteristas a dose of the sulks.

 

[butchersapron]

The moralising left quickly ensured that the story was not about Brand’s extraordinary breach of the bland conventions of mainstream media ‘debate’, nor about his claim that revolution was going to happen.

Could you point to this claim Mark?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Hearing various things about him being a scab too, voting against strike action, etc. Anyone know anything more?

Voting against strike action does not make you a scab! (I have no idea if he did either, but lets not mix these thing up).

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Could you point to this claim Mark?

He's talking twitter.

 

[butchersapron]

It is right that Brand, like any of us, should answer for his behaviour and the language that he uses. But such questioning should take place in an atmosphere of comradeship and solidarity, and probably not in public in the first instance

Why is it a private issue mark?

 

[butchersapron]

He's talking twitter.

He's talking about some people on twitters reaction to the claim that "that revolution was going to happen" in the paxman interview. Did he claim any such thing?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Why is it a private issue mark?

That doesn't say it's a private issue, does it?

 

[caleb]

Voting against strike action does not make you a scab! (I have no idea if he did either, but lets not mix these thing up).

Yeah, of course not. That was meant to be read as 'I've heard he crossed a picket line [is a scab] and that he has voted against strike action'.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

He's talking about some people on twitters reaction to the claim that "that revolution was going to happen" in the paxman interview. Did he claim any such thing?

Ah, I misread what you were questioning. As for your actual question, I don't know as I've never watched the interview and couldn't be arsed doing so.

 

[caleb]

But the people spreading that seem to be the Novara Media lot, who are just as shite and want to be the British Jacobin. They can fuck off too.

 

[butchersapron]

Class consciousness is fragile and fleeting. The petit bourgeoisie which dominates the academy and the culture industry has all kinds of subtle deflections and pre-emptions which prevent the topic even coming up, and then, if it does come up, they make one think it is a terrible impertinence, a breach of etiquette, to raise it. I’ve been speaking now at left-wing, anti-capitalist events for years, but I’ve rarely talked – or been asked to talk – about class in public

No it's not, it's the exact opposite - it's the old mole, always there, but only seen now and again. What does petit bourgeoisie mean here? Does it just mean classically middle class? I think it must - why not say that?

 

[butchersapron]

That doesn't say it's a private issue, does it?

It says that it should be first off - it's already enclosing public behaviour to the private policing of comrades.

 

[butchersapron]

But the people spreading that seem to be the Novara Media lot, who are just as shite and want to be the British Jacobin. They can fuck off too.

They're all down the gym doing toning up their protest entrepreneurship.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

It says that it should be first off - it's already enclosing public behaviour to the private policing of comrades.

It's contrasting policing by moralist twitter storm with the approach you might take to someone you actually viewed as a potential ally or comrade who said or did something off base. Ie by having a word first rather than monstering them for breaching the code. Now whether Brand should fit such a category is another question.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Don't think I'd file the Novara people with Jacobin. They are more radical than that, at least as of now.

 

[butchersapron]

It's contrasting policing by moralist twitter storm with the approach you might take to someone you actually viewed as a potential ally or comrade who said or did something off base. Ie by having a word first rather than monstering them for breaching the code. Now whether Brand should fit such a category is another question.

It's one step away from, it's their own own business, if they weren't offended what's it to do with you?

And again, forget twitter, this is how he thinks he should be dealt with full stop. How comrades should be dealt with. Not politically - which is the way to go here - but by a few trusted people having a quiet word in private and some private agreement come to. Fuck that.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

It's one step away from, it's their own own business, if they weren't offended what's it to do with you?

And again, forget twitter, this is how he thinks he should be dealt with full stop.

I don't think you can forget twitter, because that's what's shaping his view. Remember, within a few days the Brand stuff had progressed to people who are not obviously barking in other respects demanding no platform for Brand and denouncing Novara for breaching "safe spaces" by suggesting they might invite him on. That's the context.

 

[butchersapron]

The second half, lumbering title aside, is much better.

 

[butchersapron]

I don't think you can forget twitter, because that's what's shaping his view. Remember, within a few days the Brand stuff had progressed to people who are not obviously barking in other respects demanding no platform for Brand and denouncing Novara for breaching "safe spaces" by suggesting they might invite him on. That's the context.

That's the context - but the context is not the claim entire. That his public behaviour is a matter best dealt with privately is.

 

[J Ed]

What makes Russel Brand left-wing anyway? He's a misogynist and a conspiracy theorist. Is the left really so weak that it has to find inspiration in the worlds of someone who follows David Icke?

Then again, Galloway had Max Keiser in parliament the other day. ffs.

 

[caleb]

Don't think I'd file the Novara people with Jacobin. They are more radical than that, at least as of now.

Have a listen to their last show, celebrating the election of Bill de Blasio and asking whether Labour will adopt similar tactics for the London mayoral elections ffs! Ignore the pseudo-Autonomist garb, these are posh boys who want books out on Verso and jobs in academia.

 

[butchersapron]

Top notch mark!

This priesthood of bad conscience, this nest of pious guilt-mongers, is exactly what Nietzsche predicted when he said that something worse than Christianity was already on the way. Now, here it is …

 

[butchersapron]

Really enjoying the 2nd half:

Because they are petit-bourgeois to the core, the members of the Vampires’ Castle are intensely competitive, but this is repressed in the passive aggressive manner typical of the bourgeoisie. What holds them together is not solidarity, but mutual fear – the fear that they will be the next one to be outed, exposed,

 

[Nigel Irritable]

That's the context - but the context is not the claim entire. That his public behaviour is a matter best dealt with privately is.

If we are going to get past the twitter specifics, its probably best to get past the Brand specifics too. As a general rule, starting by raising dodgy opinions privately and respectfully rather than going straight to public denunciation is a reasonable approach, if your goal isn't actually about policing the boundaries of the in group.

But I do think that the twitter/Brand specifics are quite useful to look at, because the response was particularly intense and reached particularly bizarre conclusions.

 

[butchersapron]

Now we get to it:

But the problem with neo-anarchism is that it unthinkingly reflects this historical moment rather than offering any escape from it. It forgets, or perhaps is genuinely unaware of, the Labour Party’s role in nationalising major industries and utilities or founding the National Health Service. Neo-anarchists will assert that ‘parliamentary politics never changed anything’, or the ‘Labour Party was always useless’ while attending protests about the NHS, or retweeting complaints about the dismantling of what remains of the welfare state. There’s a strange implicit rule here: it’s OK to protest against what parliament has done, but it’s not alright to enter into parliament or the mass media to attempt to engineer change from there.

Note the lack of escape offered via people assemblies.