Ideology and Power in the Age of Lenin in Ruins

328 Pages·1991·19.782 MB·English

by  Arthur Kroker, Marilouise Kroker

Canadian Journal of
Political and Social Theory
Revue canadienne
de theorie politique et sociale
Ideology and Power
in the Age of Lenin in Ruins
15th Anniversary Issue
Volume 15, Numbers 1-2 &3(1991)
(cid:9)
CanadianJournal ofPoliticalandSocialTheory
Revuecanadiennedetheorie politique etsociale
Editors
Arthur Kroker and MarilouiseKroker
EditorialBoard
WilliamLeiss(SimonFraser) FrankBurke(Queen's)
Michael Weinstein (Purdue) EileenManion(Dawson)
DeenaWeinstein (De Paul) DavidCook(Toronto)
Eli Mandel (York) Ray Morrow (Alberta)
AndrewWernick (Trent) Pamela McCallum(Calgary)
FilmReviewEditor
FrankBurke(Queen's)
Editorial Correspondents
Gregory Baum(Montreal) RussellJacoby(LosAhgeles)
Geraldine Finn(Ottawa) DanielDrache(Toronto)
Jean-GuyVaillancourt(Montreal) Michael Dorland (Montreal)
Charles Levin(Montreal) LarryPortis (Paris)
JohnFekete (Peterborough) Berkeley Kaite(Ottawa)
Loretta Czernis (Toronto) Stephen Pfohl(Boston)
ChrisSharrett(NewJersey) ReneGadacz (Edmonton)
Editorial Assistant: FayeTrecartin
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CoverDesign:MarilouiseKroker Coverphoto:MarkLewis
ISSN0380-9420PrintedinCanada
Volume 15, Numbers 1-2&3(1991)
Ideology and Powerin the Age ofLenin in Ruins is a special triple
issuecelebratingthe 15th year ofpublicationofthe Canadianjournal
of Political and Social Theory.
We would like to thankmembersoftheeditorialboardfor theirhard
work andintellectual supportas well as theJournal's readership forits
deep intellectual involvement over thepast fifteenyears. We arevery
appreciative as well of the superb work of Faye Trecartin, editorial
assistant. Finally, we would like to express our appreciation to
Concordia University, particularly to the Department of Political
Science andto theDean oftheSocial Sciences fortheiractive support
of the CJPST.
Arthur and Marilouise Kroker
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CONTENTS
Ideology andPower inthe Age ofLenin in Ruins ix
Arthur andMarilouise Kroker
What is tobeDone? Art and Politics after the FALL...
Mark Lewis
I. Disappearing Ideology
Four Theses on Ideology 21
Anthony Giddens
The .Impossibility ofSociety 24
Ernesto Laclau
La Langue Introuvable 27
Michel Pecheux and Fran~oise Gadet
Some Conditions for Revolutionizing Late Capitalist Society 35
Jurgen Habermas
On the Genesis ofIdeology in Modern Societies 46
Claude Lefort
Concepts ofIdeologyin Marx 87
Gyorgy Mdrkus
Ideologyand the Weltanshauung ofthe Intellectuals 107
ZygmuntBauman
II. Power and Seduction
Cynical Power: The Fetishism of the Sign 123
ArthurKroker and Charles Levin
(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)
When Bataille Attacked the Metaphysical Principle of
Economy 135
Jean Baudrillard
Baudrillard's Seduction 139
Brian Singer
Sign and Commodity: Aspects ofthe Cultural Dynamic of
ofAdvanced Capitalism 152
Andrew Wernick
Baudrillard, Critical Theory and Psychoanalysis 170
Charles Levin
III. DemonPolitics
Hobbes and/or North: Rhetoric ofAmerican National
Security 191
Frederick M. Dolan
The Dark Night ofthe Liberal Spirit and the Dawn
of the Savage 210-
MichaelA. Weinstein
Ressentiment and Postmodern Politics 225
MichaelDorland
Promotional Culture 260
Andrew Wernick
...and the Insurrection ofSubjugatedKnowledge
We Objects Object 285
Eileen Manion
The End(s) ofWoman 301
N. Ricci
IDEOLOGY AND POWER
IN THEAGE OF LENININ RUINS
Arthur andMarilouise Kroker
WhentheBerlin WallFinallyCameTumblingDown
What isthefateofideologyandpowerIntheageofLenininruins? Nowthat
bureaucraticsocialismstandsunmaskedasanactuallyexistingideologyofstate
dominationinallofthesocietiesofEasternEurope,whatisthedestinyofMarx's
understandingofideologyasonlyafalsificationofcapitalistrelationsofproduc-
tion?AndnowthatpowerinWesternEuropeandNorthAmericadissolvesinto
thesign ofseduction,whatis tobethefateofthepoliticalsubject,outside, that
is,theclosedhorizonofbothtechno-capitalism andsocialistrealism.Whenthe
BerlinWall finallycame tumbling down,alloftheoldcomfortablemarkersof
politicaldebatesuddenlyshattered, revealinginitswakeadesperateurgencyto
rethinking the meaning ofideology and powerin aworld dominatedby the
eclipseofthepoliticallegitimationofstatesocialismandbytheseemingtriumph
everywherenowoftheritualsofprimitivecapitalism.TheEastgoesThatcherite;
theWestgoes Green;andtheUnitedStatesgoes virtual(technology).
LenininRuins
Ifthe twentiethcenturycan be plugging towardsits conclusionwith such
violentenergy,thatisbecausewewitnessnowthesimultaneousdecomposition
andsuccessofitstwofoundingmoments:thesearchformaterialistfreedomand
forcollective justice.Notdeclineinthetraditionalsenseofafinalcatastrophe
whichmarkstheendofonehistoricalepochandthebeginningofanother, but
anewhistoricalmodeoftransformation-hyper-decline-inwhichcommunism
andcapitalism canexistnowaspureforms: stripped oftheirillusionsandun-
masked oftheirinterests.Historicalmanifestations,that is,ofwhatPietrSloter-
dijk has described in the Critique of CynicalReason as "enlightened false
consciousness." The myths ofcommunism and capitalism, then, as floating
signs-degree zero-points-forthecancellationandimminentreversibilityofall
the polarities: the mutation ofthe (socialist) struggle forjustice into cynical
power; and the materialistdream ofthe (liberal) flight from politics into the
triumphofcynicalideology.Like "strangeattractors"inastrophysicswhichcan
exercise such adeadlyfascinationbecauseoftheirabilitytoalternateenergy
fieldsinstantly, themythsofstatecapitalism andstatecommunismarealternat-
LENININ RUINS
ingsidesoftherationalisteschatology:thesymptomaticsignsoftheappearance
ofthebimodern condition.
Bimodernism?Thatisthecontemporaryhistoricalsituationinwhichthegreat
referentialpolaritiesinstantlyreversefields,changing signsinadizzyingdisplay
ofpolitical repolarization. A violent metastasis in which all the referential
finalitiesofthepoliticalcodeofthetwentiethcentury-capitalismandcommu-
nism most ofall-beginto slideinto oneanother, actually mutating into their
oppositesas theyundergoafatalreversal ofmeaning.No longerjusticeversus
theacquisitiveinstinct,powerversus ideology,(socialist)historyversus (con-
sumer) simulation, or(economic) liberalism versus (political)democracy, but
nowtheinstantreversibilityofallthereferents.Afataleclipseoftheempire of
thesigninwhichcapitalismandcommunismdoabighistoricalflip.Notjustthe
mythofcapitalism indesperateneed ofthecommunist"other"tosustainitself
orcommunismasabarrieragainsttheuniversalization ofthecommodity-form,
but now communism aping the economic form ofprimitivecapitalism, and
capitalism taking on the political form of the command economy of late
communism. The capitalist societies, then, as the forward frontier of the
communistvalorization ofpower;andcommunistsocietiesasthelast andbest
of all the primitive capitalisms. In one, the inspiring faith in commercial
accumulationandtheresucitationoflawofvalueoftheproductionmachine;and
in the other, the radical depoliticization of the population, its actual body
invasion,byatotalitarianimage-reservoirunderthecontrolofacynicalpolitical
mandarinate. In one, the recuperation of the productivist myth ofFranklin
DelanoRooseveltasapolicyofeconomic reconstruction; andintheother, the
Leninistuseofallthemassorgansofmediamanipulationasawayofcoordinating
privateopinionwith thewarmachine.
Sothen,Spengler again:butthis timetheecstacyofthedeclineoftheWest.
Thehistoryoftwofamiliargenocides:ofthe(capitalist)logicofexterminismin
thenameofreason;andof(communist)murderinthenameofcollectivejustice.
Not capitalism and communism as fatal antagonists, but as the deepest
fulfillmentofthedreamoftheWest:thedream,thatis,oftheuniversalizationof
therationalisteschatologyastheradiatingcodeofpolitics,economy,cultureand
subjectivity.Theonethehistoryoftheindividualsearchforcommercialfreedom
under thesign ofmissionary consciousness; the other the struggle forsocial
justice underthe code ofhistorical materialism. Thefirst, the penetrationof
subjectivitybythelanguageofthetechnologicaldynamo;thesecond,theexter-
nalizationofsubjectivityintothepublicorthodoxiesofsocialistrealism.Theone
adaring,butultimatelyfutileattempt,tomutetheleviathanofpoliticsbymaking
democratic aspirationssubordinatetoliberalcapitalism;theotherarevolution-
aryeffort tosuppressideologyinthenameofpower.Ahistory,that is,ofafatal
dedoublement in the Western mind which, playing on the more ancient
philosophicalterrainofjusticeandfreedom,created,andthendestroyed,within
thespaceofasinglecenturytwodeeplyentangledmyths.Ontheonehand,the
communist myth, scientistic in theextreme and ruggedlymaterialistic in its
practice,whichstood(andfell)onthepossibilityofsubordinatingthedemonof
capitalistdesire tothehistorical sovereigntyoftheState.And;ontheother, the
IDEOLOGYAND POWER
capitalist myth, individualistic in.its genealogy and contractual in its social
execution, which held out the possibility of maximizing humanfreedom by
bringingtheobjectalive,by,thatis.,creatingasystemofobjectsinwhichliberty
wouldaccruetothephysicsofmarket exchanges.Likeallmythswhichseekto
solvetheriddleofhistory, themythsofcapitalismandcommunismsuffer,inthe
end,thedesolationofapurelyaleatoryfate:inallthesocialistsocieties,thestate
acquiresorganicity;itactuallycomesaliveinthepoliticalformofwhatSartrehas
called "The Thing"-cynicalideology-and eats itspoliticalsubjects;and, in the
capitalist societies, theobject comesalivein theconsumer languageofseduc-
tion-cynicalpower-and,likearadiatingpositivity,firsteatsspaceandtime,and
thenconsumessubjectivityitself.Thehistoricalmythsofcapitalismandcommu-
nism as both suffering a common biological denouement: two big eating
machines which requirefortheiroperationtheradicaldepoliticization ofthe
population, the softeningup ofthe masses, that is, as a prerequisite to the
libidinal feast ofcynical power and cynical ideology. What Heideggeronce
prophecied would be the triumphant appearance of the dark language of
"harvesting"-thewill to exterminism-oftheliving energies ofsocial andnon-
socialnatureas theprimaloftwentiethcenturypolitics.
TheEnd(s)ofHistory
In Modris Eksteln'sRites ofSpring, it is recountedhowduring the trench
warfareofWorldWarIsoldiersfrombothsidesbeganonoccasiontoactuallylive
in noman'sland,thatindefinite terrainwhich, belongingto noone,became a
privileged imaginarycountryin opposition to the ruling empires ofthewar
machine.Whenthiswasdiscovered,theopposing GeneralStaffs,bothGerman
andBritish, immediatelyorderedthe shelling of these troops,findingin their
neutralpresence animminentthreattothesovereigntyofthegreatpoliticalsig-
nifiersofthewarmachine.
Thistextconsistsoftheoristsofnoman'sland,occupantsofthedeterritorial-
ized terrain of the intellectual imagination: standing midway between the
epochal referents ofpower and ideology. While they have real theoretical
differences, theycommonly sharetheposition ofintellectual witnessesto the
transformation ofthepolitics ofthe rationalisteschatologyat the end ofthe
century.Theirwritingsarelikeexplosiveblastsfromthepent-uppressuresofthe
weakpointsofthewarmachine:pointsoftensionwhicharesounreconciledin
politics andeconomy, that theyfindfinallyatheoreticalpurchase.
Ideologicalblasts,asinthecaseofthewritingsofGiddens,Habermas,Mirkus,
Baumann, Laclau and Lefort: theorisationswrittenin theshadow ofMarxism
where the irreconcilability of democracy and state capitalism are put into
question. Here, thepoliticalhistoryofthe twentieth century is rewrittenby
connectinganewthequestionofideologyto therealityofdomination.
Powerblasts,writtenwith andagainstthetheorlsationsofjeanBaudrillard,
wherethe concernis notsomuch with theend(s) ofhistoryas withthefinal
declarationoftheendofhistory:thedeathofhistory,andofpoliticsandsociety