Peterson. Dramatization and De-Dramatization of The End: The Apocalyptic Consciousness of Modernity and Post-Modernity

36 Pages·2016·0.71 MB·English

by  Scherpe Klaus R.

Dramatization and De-Dramatization of "The End": The Apocalyptic Consciousness of
Modernity and Post-Modernity
Author(s): Klaus R. Scherpe and Brent O. Peterson
Source: Cultural Critique, No. 5, Modernity and Modernism, Postmodernity and
Postmodernism (Winter, 1986-1987), pp. 95-129
Published by: University of Minnesota Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1354358
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Dramatization and De-dramatization
of "the End": The Consciousness
Apocalyptic
of and
Modernity Post-Modernity*
Klaus R.
Scherpe
In thea geo fposthistoriteh, ee nd of thew orld[ Weltuntergancga]n no longer
be a topic, at least not a dramatic one. The historical, philosophical,
and theological power of the apocalypse to conjure up images of the
end, in order to make life more meaningful, seems to be exhausted. As
Hans Magnus Enzensberger remarks in his "Two Notes on the End of
the World": "Finality, which was formerly one of the major attributes
of the apocalypse, and one of the reasons for its power of attractions,
is no longer vouchsafed us."' The nuclear catastrophe, viewed as
"pure" terror, as the fatal consolidation and refinement of all the vital
power of labor and knowledge, excludes every metaphysical reflection
and paralyzes our fantasy and imagination. The transformation of the
catastrophe into a multi-media show with its proliferation of images,
stories, and commentaries from the treasure trove of Biblical, literary
*Translated by Brent O. Peterson.This article originally appeared in Postmoderne.
Zeichene inesk ulturellenW andels( rowohltse nzyklopidie4 27), Andreas Huyssen and Klaus
R. Scherpe, eds. (Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1986), 270-301. All translations,
unless otherwise noted, are those of Brent O. Peterson.
1. Hans Magnus Enzensberger, "Two Notes on the End of the World," trans.
David Fernbach, in CriticaEl ssays,R einhold Grimm and Bruce Armstrong, eds. (New
York: Continuum, 1982), 235.
95
96 Klaus R. Scherpe
and psychoanalytic exegesis can only confirm the loss.2 The novel fea-
ture of the impending end of the world is its producibility. Not only has
it become producible but, perhaps, even interchangeable:a n ecological
disaster and the catastrophic developments now underway in genetic
engineering are both just as suitable for snuffing out human existence
or making it unrecognizable. The producibility of the catastrophe is
the catastrophe. If this formulation is valid pretext for the postmodern
condition, beyond the historical trends and exhausted "grand nar-
ratives," as Lyotard puts it,3 then there really is no more space for a
narrative dramatization of the end of the world. "The actual nuclear
event will not occur, because it already has occurred," says Bau-
drillard.4I f this explosive force has already penetrated things, if the "fis-
sion" implicit in the decentering and deterritorialization of every
substantive assumption about collective rationality and about the role
of subjective agency in the historical process is already complete, then
the theory has itself taken on catastrophic dimensions.
2. The examples on the West German book market are legion; here is a selection of
theoretical and literary reassurances:J ohannes Beck, Heiner Boehnke, Rainer Stoll-
mann, Gerhard Vinnai, Westunterginge(R einbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1984);
Hans-Jiirgen Heinrichs, Die katastrophalMe odeme( Frankfurt/Main:Q umram, 1984);
Leonard Reinisch, ed., Das Spiel mit der Apokalyps(eF reiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder,
1984);" Schrecken"K onkursbucAhr beitsschriftfVire runuftkri9ti (kn .d.); Michael Hesemann,
Findetd er Weltuntergansgt att? (Kiel: Chiva, 1984); Gerhard Marcel Martin, Gefahru nd
Sinna pokalyptischVeri sionen(S tuttgart:K reuz, 1984); Klaus Christian Wanniger, Predigt
fiir RonaldR eagan:D er Prisidentu nd die Apokalyps(eD iisseldorf: Erb Verlag, 1984); the
essays by Peter Widmer, Klaus Horn, and Horst Eberhard Richter in Psyche1 2 (1984);
Udo Rabsch,Juliuso derderschwarzSeo mmer(T iibingen: Gehrke, 1983); Anton Andreas
Guha, Ende:E in Tagebuchau s dem3 . Weltkrieg(K 6nigstein/Ts: Fischer, 1983); Mathias
Horx, Es gehtv oran:E in Ernstfall-Roma(nB erlin: Rotbuch, 1982); and Horx, Gliickliche
Reise:R omanz wischend enZ eiten( Berlin: Rotbuch, 1983). For a treatment of more of the
recent literature of the end see Thies Lehmann, "Eisberg und Spiegelkunst: Notizen
zu Hans Magnus Enzenbergers Lust am Untergang der Titanic," BerlinerH efte1 1 (May
1979): 2-19; Reinhold Grimm, "Eiszeit und Untergang: Zu einem Motivkomplex in
der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur,"M onatsheftefudre utschenU nterrich7t3 , no. 2 (Sum-
mer 1981): 155-86; and Michael Schneider, "Politik als Psychose und die Lebeminner
des Untergangs," in Schneider, Nur toteF isches chwimmenm it dem Strom( Koln: Kiepen-
hauer & Witsch, 1984), 34-75. The following literature was not considered for this arti-
cle:Jacques Derrida,A pokalyps(eV ienna: B6hlau, 1985) and Hans-Dieter Bahr, Sdtzei ns
Nichts:V ersuchii berd en Schrecke(nT iibingen: Gehrke, 1985).
3. Jean-Francois Lyotard, TheP ostmodernC onditionA: Reporto n Knowledget, rans.
GeoffBennington and Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1984),
xxiii, 15, 37, 38, 51, 60.
4. See Baudrillard, Michael Rutschky, Ulrich Sonnemann, and Heidrun Hesse,
Todd er ModerneE: ine Diskussion( Tiibingen: Gehrke, 1983), 104.
Consciousness of Modernity and Post-Modernity 97
ForJean Baudrillard the "nuclear is the apotheosis of simulation."5
The nuclear bomb is nothing more than the final sign in the game of
simulation. But it is not so much "reality" as our understanding of
realityt hat collapses. In Baudrillard'sr eflectiono n the "agony of reality,"
the capitalist system of exchange is, in a sense, expanded to subsume
every phenomena and every discourse, which are themselves inter-
changeable - including all the categorical assumptions of traditional
Marxism. In the complete dominance of dead labor over living labor
embodied in the "bomb" every dialectic of production crumbles,
which excludes both the revolutionarye vent and the nuclear explosion.6
And it is apparently only in this impossibility, in the total absence of
"eventfulness" [Ereignishaftigkefirto] m reality, that the theory can retain
for itself some of the fascination that has always been a component part
of the apocalyptic idea. Baudrillard claims for his theory, and for him-
self as a theoretician, an awareness of "objective irony" and "radical
indifference."7 This awareness is achieved when reality is displaced
into the time frame of the future perfect tense: "it will have been ... it
will have happened." What he predicts is, perhaps, no more and no
less than a shift in the grammar of the end of the world.
It is difficult to escape the suggestive force of a social theory like the
one proposed by the latest popular philosophers of French poststruc-
turalism, Baudrillard and Lyotard, especially given the aggressive
fashion with which they address their German audience. Its power
might be a result of the "subversive ecstacy" unleashed by a theory that
is able to totalize various individual phenomena, as well as complete
discourses, by sucking (almost like a vampire) every differentiation,
argumentation,a nd every scrap of evidence from them. The "emotional
antipathy to universals" (when made accessible with the help of a set of
dialectical tools) and the final renunciation of historical referents,
which have become unrecognizable under the flood of information
produced by society, herald a new form of Nietzsche's "joyfulw isdom"
- also, and especially in conjunction with, "final matters."
5. Baudrillard, Agonie des Realen, trans. Lothar Kurzawa and Volker Schaefer
(Berlin: Merve, 1978), 51.
6. Jean Baudrillard, Der symbolischTe auschu nd der Tod, trans. Heinz Feichinger
(Miinchen: Matthes & Seitz, 1982), 27. In the current "catastrophic end" of industrial
society Baudrillard sees the consequences of the Marxist"dialectical euphoria for pro-
ductive forces."
7. Baudrillard, Todd er Modere, 103f.
98 KlausR . Scherpe
This is not the place to wage a final battle with the "s tructural"t heory
of exchange, which is the radical product of the theory of simulation,
nor is it the place for political dissent, which is necessary when Bau-
drillard,l ike Glucksmann,8a dvocates a high level of nuclear armaments
as a consequence of his theory. Criticism and dissent have already
been registered by competent people.9 What is at issue here, with
reference to the threatened impoverishment of modernity's critical
potential, is the unique phenomenon represented by the transforma-
tion of social theory and socio-critical discussion into a new aesthetic
consciousness, or at least into aesthetic values, most notably in the fas-
cinating power of"indifference." The statement that finality has lost its
power of attraction, that the "big bang" no longer has its theatrical fas-
cination, can only bejustified as an aesthetic expression. It is precisely
the abstract reality of the destructive potential of nuclear weapons that
creates a thoroughly concrete reality, namely that of the threat, which
apparently continues to fascinate the aesthetic consciousness.
When railing against the dominance of instrumental reason, the
aesthetic consciousness of modernity always admitted its allegiance to
"another state of being," i.e., to the explosive break or rupture with the
continual inertia of linear social development. In the literature written
at the turn of the century this was symbolized in the "life of danger"
that contrasted with the normality of ordinary bourgeois life. The
images and conundrums that were intended to challenge the Weimar
Republic's secure, fact-oriented consciousness exhibit an aesthetic fas-
cination with representations of the "state of emergency [Ausnahmezu-
stand]." Postmodern consciousness seems to have lost the ability to
imagine "another state of being" with its explosive force. How and
why, we might ask, do terrorism, threats, and, more comprehensively,
nuclear deterrence still retain a specifically aesthetic fascination in
our era?
Postmodern thought thrives on the destabilization of signifiers, on
the destruction of the symbolic order. In a certain sense postmodern
thought is predicated on the finality of "reality," which it only per-
8. Andre Glucksmann, Philosophidee rA bschreckun(gS tuttgart:D VA, 1984).
9. Lothar Baier, "Glucksmanns Macht des Schwindels," Merkur4 26 June 1984):
477-482; Stefan Breuer, "StrukturalesW ertgesetz und Todesrevolte: Skeptische An-
merkungen zu Baudrillard,"M erkur4 26 (une 1984): 477-82; and Axel Honneth, "Der
Affekt gegen das Allgemeine: Zu Lyotards Konzept der Postmoderne," Merkur4 30
(December 1984): 893-902.
Consciousness of Modernity and Post-Modernity 99
ceives voyeuristically. When viewing the "modernist project" retro-
spectively, one does not even remember the concepts that were pro-
claimed dead, one after another: God, metaphysics, history, ideology,
revolution, and finally death itself;n ot even "sacrificald eath" is accorded
an "independent existence."'? Structuralist thought already seals the
fate of the subjective and the humane, freezing them out to the extent
that they are based on substantialist assumptions. Poststructuralist
thought adopts the only conceivable perspective left, a sense of deja vu
for everything that was proclaimed dead; all that can be done is to add
more items to the list. Baudrillard's theory of simulation seems to have
been constructed for the sole purpose of eradicating the last remnants
of substantialist assumptions and rational calculations. If death had
been accepted as the last possible bastion of revolutionary conscious-
ness, it too would be eliminated as a referent in the next publication, left
1
to drown in the infinite sea of indifference. The accelerating effect of
the theory, through which the historical temporality of observed phe-
nomena is made to disappear, can be imagined metaphorically as a
vampire or a rapacious Moloch. Finally, the theory even incorporates
the eschatological consciousness of the apocalypse. Baudrillard calls
the catastrophic effect of the threat emanating from simulation an "im-
plosion," not an "explosion";12 it results from the fact that under pres-
sure from a merely simulated reality every social energy is expended
internally in the "play of signifiers," evaporating and disappearing in
some "catastrophic process."
Of note is not only the curious manner in which this form of theoriz-
ing constantly creates new objects in order to make them disappear,
but also the complaint that is always inscribed in this signifying game;
in spite of all the indifference there is a noticeable defense against the
loss of "eventfulness." One has to surface for a moment from the
stream of verbal indifference, with which Baudrillard floods every
indication of possible differentiations, to remember the thoroughly
10. See the grotesque discussion on the topic "Tod und Revolte" that German
intellectuals carried on with Baudrillard in Todd erM odeme,9 9ff.
11. Although Baudrillard had still advocated sacrifice as the last possible revolt in
his book L'changes ymboliqueet la mort,h is most recent book, Les Stratetesfatale(sP aris:
Grassett, 1983), drops the idea: "The principle behind extermination is not death; it is
statistical indifference" (52). From now on, the ultimate result of a revolt not achiev-
able through exchange is the "hostage."
12. Baudriflard, Agonied es Realen,6 4.
100 KlausR . Scherpe
original potential of the protest that poststructuralist thought since
Foucault has mounted against ideological consciousness. The break
with a history that was firmly identified with the discourse of power was
not a spontaneous act but rather one carried out under protest against
rationality's functional system, against the prison-house of language,
against the terroristic sense of security contained in the grammatical
rules of social consciousness and institutions.I t is probably not accidental
that Baudrillard, who has perhaps taken the destabilization of sig-
nifiers further than anyone else, is the most energetic, even polemical
proponent of the loss of "eventfulness."
On the one hand, Baudrillard proclaims a condition of the absolute
absence of events; only "pseudo-events" occur: "The whole scenario
of public information and all the media have no other function than
maintaining the illusion of eventfulness or the illusion of real actions
and objective facts."'3 Everything that happens is conditioned by the
illusion that something "really" does take place. And yet, Baudrillard
continues to regard "the event" as the actual danger and threat in the
"system" and to the system. The strategy of nuclear deterrence only
appears to be directed towards preventing an "emergency"; in reality
[?!] its purpose is to ensure the strengthening of the system of protec-
tion, obstruction, and control of the "event." "The deterring effect is in
no way related to the nuclear inferno ... but to the much larger prob-
ability of a real event, that is, to anything in the system that could pro-
duce an event and throw everything else out of balance."'4 Why, one
could ask, does the "system" direct all its energy towards something
(the incalculable event, the intrusion of the uncontrollable, the rev-
olutionary shock) that is not only not real, but that cannot even claim
the illusion of reality? Even Baudrillard's theory of simulation, in
which the crisis of overproduction in capitalism is to be understood as
the "total" shift of production into reproduction, can only ground the
abstractioonf an absenceo f eventsb y referringt o the dynamico f eventsw hose
presence is at least latent. His position has consequences for the idea of
the "catastrophic" nature of the present social situation and for the
aesthetic means with which it can finally be thought.
One consequence is the assertion of an "objective irony," an attitude
of indifference characterizedb y the statement "Everythingh as already
13. Ibid., 62.
14. Ibid., 53.
Consciousness of Modernity and Post-Modernity 101
happened," and Baudrillard willingly concedes that this attitude pos-
sesses a certain "seductiveness" or "passionate" quality. The aesthetic
fascination is apparently contained in the subject's almost ecstatic sur-
render and submission to the indifference emanating from the object
and to the incomprehensible "objectivity"o f the system, whose purely
abstract existence constitutes the catastrophe. Yet another conse-
quence is the recourse to eventfulness, whose non-existence is apparent-
ly not so complete, since it is not only destroyed by the system but also
produced anew. Eventfulness itself produces a threatening dynamic,
which can be noted, if nowhere else, as an acceleration towards the
end. To be sure, this acceleration can be, indeed has to be, described as
the system's own continued functioning, but in this motion energies
are set free that require or even demand an event "here and now"
(death, revolution, catastrophe). "The revolution will never rediscover
death if it doesn't demand it immediately."15A lthough Baudrillard has
disavowed this pathos in the course of articulating his theory (perhaps
one should speak of"pseudo-progress"), the de-dramatization carries
with itself a notion that requires the validity of one particular illusion
within the state of disillusion [Illusionslosigkeitn],a mely, the "inten-
sification" of the catastrophic condition. The "pseudo-revolution" of
May 1968 is accorded a certain "eventful tone": "All in all, it was an
intensive event, timely and with a special tone."'6 The formulation
alone shows that Baudrillard at this point is still betting on the aesthetic
fascination with the intensity that can emanate from such an event. In
the relatively uneventful 1980s Baudrillard announces his affinity to
the "fatal strategy of the era," which wants to counter the absence of
hope for the future by calling for an anticipation of the end, wishing for
the sudden event of total destruction in place of the deadly "waiting."
"Apocalypse now" is the last possible event that can be pitted against
the abstraction of eventlessness. The aesthetic consciousness of post-
modernity insists on "objective irony" when confronted with the social
situation of "pure" reproduction. Yet, the aesthetic fascination with
events does not seem to have disappeared completely in the process.
If my observations are correct, then "playing with the apocalypse" is
an integral part ofpostmodern social philosophy. One consequence of
15. Baudrillard, Der symbolischTe auschu nd der Tod,2 95.
16. Baudrillard, "Das Jahr 2000 wird nicht stattfinden. Nach der Geschichte:
Herrschaft der Simulation," Spuren6 (May/June 1984): 28.
102 KlausR . Scherpe
the "postmoder condition" is that the de-dramatizationo f the end has
become a dominant image - in spite of the fact that among Baudrillard's
followers, especially among his German followers, a re-dramatization
of the end is at hand. Baudrillard's theory represents itself as a par-
ticularc onstellation of aestheticco nsciousness,whiicsh s upposed to embody
postmodernist thought. This consciousness has been fatally enriched
with reflections on the "end of finality"a nd is therefore identifiable as a
theory of catastrophe, or as a theoretical catastrophe when compared
with the consciousness and theory of crisis contained in modernism. 17
The specifically aesthetic dimension of the consciousness of catas-
trophe refers to a particular constellation in the theory and literature of
modernism visible in Germany since the end of WWI. If postmodern
knowledge insists, as Lyotard writes, on treating its own development
as discontinuous, catastrophic, and irrevocably flawed,'8 the aesthetic
consequences of such a position can already be seen in the aesthetic
representations of this epistemological paradox produced at a point in
history when the social process of modernization and rationalization
was so obvious that it became necessary to posit "different conditions"
for art and for aesthetic reflection ("freedom from rules," the "state of
emergency," productive destruction). When Baudrillard reflects on
the permanent "recycling" of all social phenomena and discourses
and speaks of a "world irradiatedw ith norms," in which every instance
of heterogeneity and contradiction is made to disappear, he is radical-
izing ideas whose roots lie in the theoretical and literary critique of
civilization put forth by writers like ErnstJiinger, Carl Schmitt, Walter
Benjamin, Franz Kafka, or Thomas Mann - however different the
proportion of destructive to liberating criticism in their ideologies. If,
in view of his post-historical theory, Baudrillard fancies himself to be
theorizing under conditions of seductive or impassioned aesthetic "in-
difference," from which he is nevertheless able to remind us of the
aesthetic intensity of events, he merely accentuates aesthetic phe-
nomena that have been constantly reflected in the development of
modernism. The historical difference is, however, not to be denied:
where Baudrillardi ncludes a remnant of eventfulness in his theory retro-
17. In his Die katastrophaMle oderneH ansJiirgen Heinrichs defends the notion that
CriticalT heory would have to prove itself as a"theory of catastrophe" if it were around
today (66).
18. Lyotard, PostmodernC ondition3, 8.
Consciousness of Modernity and Post-Modernity 103
spectively, modernism in German literature and in German literary
theory since Weimar had banked on the power of the revolutionary
event.
The more it comes to be accepted, the more the postmodern phe-
nomenology of society and art will have to accept its own historicity,
not its dialectical sublation but rather its historical significance. Post-
modem theory prefers to think of itself in terms of the "death of moder-
nity," as the liquidation of modernity's enlightening potential and as
the praxis of contradicting and deconstructing its utopian hopes. On
the other hand, criticism of postmodernity, as formulated by Habermas
and Burger,19c onsists of the "completion of the project of modernity"
without it ever becoming clear how the arguments implicit in the call
for a renewal of the Enlightenment discourse through communicative
acts could defend themselves against the destructive forces, which are
every bit as much a part of the "project of modernity" as its Enlighten-
ment impulses. One needs to differentiatea mong the various positions
at stake in the current dispute between the "modern" self-defense of
reason and its "postmodern" self-destruction. To begin with, there is
the double character of the "project of modernity," the recognition of
its enlightening and its destructive energies. This would allow for a
more precise understanding of the success of postmodernity's radical-
ization of modernity's destructive energies, which is itself the result of a
failure to make use of the Enlightenment's potential for protest.
* * *
In essays and literaryw orks written in the late 1920s and early 1930s
by the extremely problematical German author Ernst Jiinger, it is
already clear that in the era of "instrumental time . .. every form of
revolutionary dialectic" has to be regarded as "absurd."20J iinger's
assessment of the world, in which technical rationality and media's
abilityt o capturea nd transmite verythingh ave proven fatalt o the "event,"
is more than a distant reminder of Baudrillard's theory of simula-
tion:
19. SeeJiirgen Habermas, "Der Eintritt in die Postmoderne," Merkur2 0 (October
1983): 752-61; and Peter Burger, "Das Altern der Moderne," in Ludwig von Friede-
berg andJiirgen Habermas, eds. Adono-Konferen1z9 83 (Frankfurt/Main:S uhrkamp,
1983), 177-97.
20. ErnstJiinger, Der ArbeiterH: errschafut nd Gestalt( 1932; Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta,
1982), 108.