Schizophrenic Culture,

Transcription

1 Schizophrenic Culture, Week 14 Lecture 1 29 April

2 Picasso, Guernica [1937] 26 April 1937: German saturation bombing of Guernica (Spain) Trains: Frankenstein s creature 2

3 Controversy: does telling the truth about Allied bombing lessen Germany s / Hitler s guilt? Does it make you unpatriotic? A traitor to the nation? 3

4 20 th Century: percent of direct casualties that were civilians : World War I 05 % : World War II 50% : Vietnam 80% 1990s: Balkans/Persian Gulf 85-95% Working for Reconciliation: A Caritas Handbook (Vatican City: Caritas Internationalis, 1999) 4

5 B. Schizophrenic Liberalism: Cold War Culture Jean-Paul Sartre Albert Camus (1) Philosophical Expression: Existentialism 5

6 Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism "Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth." From L'Être et le Néant / Being and Nothingness, 1943 Problem for Existentialists: How to reconstruct liberal values -- reason, progress, heroism, individuality -- in post-1945 culture? a. Existence is fundamentally absurd 6

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8 ABSURDISM: RANDOM: Reality defies comprehension: no timeless truths Universe is indifferent to us. No way to avoid fate/ Fortuna/ death. Meaning comes through facing this fact. NB: identical to Freud s conclusion in Civilization and its Discontents (1927) a. Existence is fundamentally absurd 8

9 b. Human being is paradoxical and indefinable Cannot generalize; each person is unique NB: Schizophrenic Liberalism: both continuous with and yet innovative from early subjective individualism a) Hold onto radical individualism [creativity]; b) but leave behind the rational individual and the rational world NB: Influence of Nietzsche [ ]: 1. Absence of universal truths 2. Radical individualism: go against the herd Übermensch --- the overman or Superman Sartre 1940s c. Hence: Radical individualism: Existence precedes essence We must create ourselves from scratch we are nothing than what we self-create Ethic of authenticity --- imperative: affirm one s own uniqueness Bad Faith : depending on another s rules/definitions; handing responsibility for your actions over to another [cf. Sartre s No Exit: cowardice] 9

10 Religious Existentialism (2) Abstract Expressionism: [ The New York School ] 10

11 Jackson Pollock Jackson Pollock, Stenographic Figure [1942] 11

12 Picasso Pollock 1942 Jackson Pollock, Number 1A,

13 action painting 13

14 Pollock, Lavender Mist, 1950 Abstraction: De Stijl Abstract Expressionism: The New York School Two responses to cultural devastation:

15 Cultural significance of Abstract Expressionism? Schizophrenic Liberalism: 1) Hold onto radical individualism [creativity]; 2) but leave behind the rational individual and the rational world < cult of the irrational > 15

16 (3) Cold War pop culture: individual as REBEL!!!

17 1956 Popular culture: individualism vs. communalism (Communism) 17

18 Dangers: passing for human!!! a malignant disease spreading through the whole country Dangers: passing for human!!! a malignant disease spreading through the whole country 18

19 Dangers: Communists passing for Liberal!!! Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima [ ] Threnody : song of lamentation for the dead Sounds imitate drone of airplane as it delivers bomb; air-raid sirens; general chaos / meaninglessness: FORTUNA NB: Penderecki is Polish/Catholic: Auschwitz is in Poland Using Western music to end it; end of melody. From a-tonal to aleatoric [alea = dice] --- chance 19

20 Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima [ ] Think of the problem of representation post-1945 How can you represent evil / horror? Abstraction vs. realism / naturalism 20

21 Think of the problem of representation post-1945 How can you represent evil / horror? Abstraction vs. realism / naturalism in an absurd world. 21

22 C. Decolonization : Post April 1975: American Embassy roof 22

23 April 30, : 30 April --- Tanks crash through presidential palace gates 23

24 How did we get to 1975? 1939: Colonial Possessions 24

25 Africa and Asia post

26 De-colonization Problem with the word: it implies that you return to something that had been e.g., decontaminate ; de-ice Two-fold dilemma: a) Cannot recover political identities of pre-conquest times [tribes; kingdoms] b) Cannot make artificial new boundaries seem natural 26

27 Decolonization: French Indochina --- > Vietnam SOUTHEAST ASIA Post-1945 dilemma of decolonization : 19th-century pre-conquest structures don t exist; new boundaries not easily made natural Former modes of organization no longer available, e.g.: local families; hereditary tribes; kingdoms How do these newlyinvented nation-states organize their selfidentities? What will fill this vacuum of identity??? 27

28 NB: China 1949!!! ANSWER: East vs. West Bipolar Cold War World: Liberalism vs. Communism Developing country becomes a local theater in East-West Cold War Cf. USA 1840s-1850s: new state either slave or free 1945: Ho Chi Minh declares independent Vietnam educated in France Paris 1919, p. 59: a young kitchen assistant at the Ritz i.e., WILSONIAN SELF- DETERMINATION trained in USSR Vietnam identity constructed around Leninism: a peasant / agrarian society needs a vanguard French: committed to staying in Indochina French identity tied up in late 19th-c. imperialism 28

29 1949 September 1) USSR explodes bomb --- ends USA monopoly on atomic weapons 2) Two Germanies created 3) October 1, 1949: Proclamation of People s Republic of China by Mao Zedong 1949: Who lost China? and Stalin gets the bomb 1950: U.S. pledges financial support to France eventually spends $4 billion : Korean Conflict : McCarthy Hearings 1953: Rosenbergs NB: IDEOLOGICAL PROBLEM: A) Vietnamese want independence from colonial power (19th-c. arrangement) B) In principle, U.S. committed to Liberal [Wilsonian] ideals of a people s selfdetermination C) However: Liberal principles overridden by post-1945 bipolarity: democracy v. communism KURDS TODAY??? 29

30 1954: Ho Chi Minh defeats the French at Dien Bien Phu Only 73 of 15,000 French troops escape : Vietnam divided in two: Communist North and Democratic South [ : McCarthy Hearings 1954: Brown v. Board] O'Neill Media PN F7 T

31 1959: Cuban Revolution 1960: JFK president 1961: Bay of Pigs Fiasco / Berlin Wall built in August 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis 1963: JFK Assassinated 1964: Civil Rights Act / LBJ landslide / Tonkin Gulf incident / resolution 31

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33 1961: April: Bay of Pigs August: Berlin Wall NB: 600 American advisors in Vietnam 1961: 13 August 33

34 Escape from East Berlin 34

35 1962 October Cuban Missile Crisis End result: promise not to invade Cuba [--> Elian!] WWIII narrowly averted "There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. -- President John F. Kennedy, West Berlin, West Germany, June 26,

36 November 1963: 1 st : Diem assassinated; 22 nd : JFK assassinated Civil Rights Act July 2, 1964 Act of memorialization to JFK as martyr Height of LBJ s Great Society Lost Southern Democrats 44 years ago 36

37 : Turning Point in The Sixties 1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident (August 2) and Congress resolution November: LBJ Landslide 1965: Vietnam Escalation Assassination of Malcolm X 1965 [February 22] Assassination of Malcolm X 37

38 1964: Gulf of Tonkin Incident: August 2 nd Resolution: August 7 th : The President could "take all necessary measures to repel armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." USSR: Kruschev ousted by conservatives; USSR: Brezhnev appointed to restore order and pride to USSR The Domino Theory 38

39 1967 LBJ fear of provoking China a guerilla war --- i.e., North Vietnamese located in and passing as South Vietnamese; also: civilian suicide bombers Hardware : LBJ destroys the country he s trying to save Mentality shift: savagery / futility [cf. The Great War: what s the sacrifice for???] 1967: B52s bomb near Saigon Napalm: a jellied gasoline; melts skin so that cannot be removed. Thus: slowly roasts victims to death. [Dow Chemical] 39

40 Civilization? 8 June 1972; Children fleeing napalm 40

41 Agent Orange: Defoliant composed of dioxin; intended to destroy jungles where guerillas hidden [Dow Chemical] Destroying homes in northwest triangle north of Saigon 41

42 Denuded hills of Quang Tri Province [triple-layer jungle before war] 42

43 I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Apocalypse Now (1979) 43

44 An impossible War? Military needs v. Geo-Political demands: 1) BREZHNEV: Vietnam a way of reviving USSR pride after Cuban Missile Crisis 2) MAO: China on border and stealing USSR tanks! 3) JOHNSON: afraid of provoking either into nuclear exchange bombs the South! SUM: a civil war that is actually a very hot battle in the Cold War 44

45 Problem: How to explain the sense of Vietnam as a dirty war? Cf. Mary Douglas: Dirt is matter out of place. 45

46 A matter of numbers??? Perhaps. May 9, 1960 Birth control pill 46

47 A common explanation: Pacifism / War is immoral South Vietnam, May 1968: The country we re trying to save? HOWEVER: Hamburg, Civilian bombings in the last clean USA war. Isn t war always dirty? 47

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49 Factors extrinsic to the war itself????? 49