I recently learned from the commentary track on Jules Dassin's film "Night and the City" by Glenn Erikson that by the mid-sixties, right-wingers denied that there had ever been any black-listing in America during the forties and fifties. I would imagine they also downplayed the fact that fear mongering and persecution was the legitimate path to power for the Republican Party. By jettisoning the negative associations contained in the body of one out-of-control megalomaniac, other in-control megalomaniacs like Nixon could rise above.
Only in the 1970's, when films like "Night and the City" toured campuses and art house theatres did something like truth re-enter into the public conscience as the stories of those black-listed directors, and their stark films, became more relevant as Vietnam came home.
I wonder how long it will take for a clear vision of the damage Cheneyism has wrought on our land to be not just articulated, but accepted. What will be the form of this expresion? When will it be recognized by a majority of the public? How much of the public would be enticed to discern the truth from the lies? Regardless of the approval rating, the statements Cheney has made are calculated to impassion his audience with a strong narrative. And in that way, no supporters would see any connection in tactics between " Connecticut is aiding Al-Qaeda" and "Are you or have you ever been in the communist party?"
I can only hope that the wave of technology that continues to subvert the mainstream media will, in the short-term, create a more sensitive instrument for detecting falsehood. Only then will Cheney's outrageous statements sound as tinny as they truly are. Hopefully, like the delusional Harry Fabian, played by Richard Widmark in the film, his most extreme statements are marking the beginning of his political end.
8/18/2006
Counting Calories
I cannot become obsessed with the elements of my body that are real as defined by sight, touch, taste and smell, but only the signifiers that give feedback to my body image. These signifiers range from "state of body" feelings, to how one actually sees their own body in a mirror, all of which can radically alter as a day progresses as the body image is constantly reevaluated by my own conscience.
I cannot become obsessed about how my body feels, but only the body image itself. One might argue that using substances to change how one's body feels can be obsessive to the point of addiction, but it is clearly changing the perception of feeling, not the direct feeling one recieves from their body. Alcohol, when it is in our bloodstream, changes our bodies directly and immediately but more importantly it changes how we perceive our bodies. It is the impact on perception that is essential, not the dehydration, high blood pressure and impaired mental faculty.
In the same way, I won't exercise because it makes me fit, I will exercise because it allows me to change how I perceive my body image. I seek to be fit based on a measurable signifier. Enhancing the body image is dangled like a carrot. In Six Sigma speak, it is the statement "anything that can be measured can be improved". This might seem childish to those who are are comfortable with connecting the body, the signifier and the image, but for me, these are very different spheres and connecting them as related goals is impossible.
That is why I feel drawn to a a web site like this (www.fitday.com). It allows me to understand why the calorie counting craze has been so strong in our culture, all the way back to when my mother diet-ed in the 1970s. It allows you to create a portrait of your body image that is at once removed from the body itself and yet a perfect system for modifying, comparing, and adjusting. Always ripe for revision as I constantly alter my image defined by graphs of intake, output and waste. By modifying this image, I percieve I am changing my behavior.
Does it really change behavior? Of course not, but it does create obsessive behavior. What will drive me to change my behavior? Only when I willingly commit to the worship of the body image, one which I am constantly rejecting. It is a crisis of faith, one that posits that if you believe in the body image, you can attain the body image which is forever your true mirror.
I cannot become obsessed about how my body feels, but only the body image itself. One might argue that using substances to change how one's body feels can be obsessive to the point of addiction, but it is clearly changing the perception of feeling, not the direct feeling one recieves from their body. Alcohol, when it is in our bloodstream, changes our bodies directly and immediately but more importantly it changes how we perceive our bodies. It is the impact on perception that is essential, not the dehydration, high blood pressure and impaired mental faculty.
In the same way, I won't exercise because it makes me fit, I will exercise because it allows me to change how I perceive my body image. I seek to be fit based on a measurable signifier. Enhancing the body image is dangled like a carrot. In Six Sigma speak, it is the statement "anything that can be measured can be improved". This might seem childish to those who are are comfortable with connecting the body, the signifier and the image, but for me, these are very different spheres and connecting them as related goals is impossible.
That is why I feel drawn to a a web site like this (www.fitday.com). It allows me to understand why the calorie counting craze has been so strong in our culture, all the way back to when my mother diet-ed in the 1970s. It allows you to create a portrait of your body image that is at once removed from the body itself and yet a perfect system for modifying, comparing, and adjusting. Always ripe for revision as I constantly alter my image defined by graphs of intake, output and waste. By modifying this image, I percieve I am changing my behavior.
Does it really change behavior? Of course not, but it does create obsessive behavior. What will drive me to change my behavior? Only when I willingly commit to the worship of the body image, one which I am constantly rejecting. It is a crisis of faith, one that posits that if you believe in the body image, you can attain the body image which is forever your true mirror.
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