Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 10:25:04 +0100 From: "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.com> Subject: Re: Ethics of Aesthetics? Glen Eden what Eden? Utopian dreams are always heterotopian ones in the final analysis. Remember that Hugh lives in one of the two great failed utopian post-revolutionary societies - the USA and the Soviet Union our post-modern existence is marked not by social systems that can be considered successful but by failures. What has the phrase 'human beings' got to do with it - surely a utopian society has to be founded on recognition of the relative value of human beings against all other sentient beings - it is not possible to know ever what they know, want and believe. As a consequence it is not possible to produce ethical judgements and behaviour using notions of self, subject and other. "There are many beings who are sentient and capable of experiencing pleasure and pain but are not rational and self-conscious and so not persons. I shall refer to these as conscious beings. Many non human animals fall into this category, so must new born infants and some intellectually disabled humans..." (Peter Singer - What's wrong with killing....) The question of the aesthetic is interesting but reminds me of Benjamin and the aestheticisation of politics and life in fascist germany... Which is extendable into the everyday post-modern existence through the phantastic excesses of the aestheicising all-pervading media. Whilst I don't agree with Lefebvre's version of marxism I do have some sympathy with his approach to the 'trivial' details of everyday life and the 'ubiquity of alienation' which is a satisfactory response to the banality of attempts to make aesthetics a response to these banal horrors. There is a necessity to recognise that a work of 'aesthetics', a work of 'art' should have a deconstructive and critical relationship to the social. The work becomes instrumental in allowing the reader/viewer to see through and into the dominant ideologies of the time... Neitsche argued that life was either boredom or terror, he didn't say anything about the media being able to produce both at the same time. .. regards sdv > I agree that life is justified only as an aesthetic experience, but not all > aesthetic experiences are justified by life. > Everyone not only has the right to live, but also to feel alive, otherwise > what is the point? > Maybe the authority of history could be disregarded, but not all of the > lessons of the past... > > Cheers, > Glen.
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