(THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM AS ORGANIZED DISCOURSE)
The graphic to the
right (Topologies
of the
Two Party System)
reflects the cumulative result of my
empirical studies of popular discourse available over the internet.
It depends heavily on my reading of Simon
Clarke, Social
Theory, Psychoanalysis and Racism (Palgrave Macmillan,
2003), especially on his discussion of Melanie Klein's paranoid-schizoid
and depressive
positions. This text provided me with a conceptual
framework that helps make sense of
the mass of empirical materials now at our disposal. (I
continue with what might be called the underlying ethic of this
endeavor: faced with the new technology and the enormously expanded
semiotic universe that it opens up, failure to apply these texts and
disciplines is by far the worst, the most irresponsible and
intellectually untenable course of action that one might take.)
I know that the graphic to the right has the elegant and pristine look of a purely abstract, empirically problematical formulation so common among social theorists. Nevertheless, it is derived from the muck of "reality" accessible over the Internet (a tiny fraction of which is presented in the panel to the right). (The graphic image is of the Lorenz attractor, borrowed from Wikipedia's article on Chaos Theory.)
The quote below is from Herbert L. Calhoun's amazon.com review critical of Clarke's, Social Theory. I hope this effort meets one of Calhoun's objections--the poverty of instructive examples that ought to be drawn from the whole of contemporary U.S. society.
I know that the graphic to the right has the elegant and pristine look of a purely abstract, empirically problematical formulation so common among social theorists. Nevertheless, it is derived from the muck of "reality" accessible over the Internet (a tiny fraction of which is presented in the panel to the right). (The graphic image is of the Lorenz attractor, borrowed from Wikipedia's article on Chaos Theory.)
The quote below is from Herbert L. Calhoun's amazon.com review critical of Clarke's, Social Theory. I hope this effort meets one of Calhoun's objections--the poverty of instructive examples that ought to be drawn from the whole of contemporary U.S. society.
The
author confesses that the multilayered nature of racism is so complex
that theory requires ample examples in order to consolidate any sense
of final understanding. Yet he does not live up to this promise. The
piece is bereft of instructive examples. The few examples the author
offers never quite rise to the level of providing solid explanations of
the content of his theories. Many pregnant possibilities seem to have
been overlooked and left out even though they begged for exhibition and
illustration: The whole of contemporary U.S. society, post-Apartheid
South Africa, and Brazil's so-called racial democracy, were just a few
examples that would have been wonderful illustrations of the utility of
the author's often heavy-handed theoretical machinery.
Topologies
of the
Two Party System
LEFT
RIGHT
TOPOLOGY depressive* paranoid-schizoid*
POLITICAL STYLE progressive proto-Dorian
COG MODE formal + concrete pre-operational + gestural
+ psuedo-concrete
*Simon Clarke, Social Theory, Psychoanalysis and Racism (Palgrave Macmillan,2003)
Robert M. Young, Mental Space (online book). I have only glanced at this--it is January 22, 2012, when I came across it referred to in the review to the right--the day after the South Carolina Republican primary. I must hurry!
TOPOLOGY depressive* paranoid-schizoid*
POLITICAL STYLE progressive proto-Dorian
COG MODE formal + concrete pre-operational + gestural
+ psuedo-concrete
*Simon Clarke, Social Theory, Psychoanalysis and Racism (Palgrave Macmillan,2003)
Robert M. Young, Mental Space (online book). I have only glanced at this--it is January 22, 2012, when I came across it referred to in the review to the right--the day after the South Carolina Republican primary. I must hurry!
What is a
"semiotic regime"?
On this page certain elements are brought together:
Developmental Divergence (Cognitive Development in History)
Ressentiment and the Mechanisms of Defense
1. A system consisting of elements: media institutions (bds of dirs); advertisers; political links (campaign contributions); popular cultural formations. This is fairly straightforward (see Thomas B. Edsall, Building Red America: the New Conservatiove Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power (Basic Books, 2006)
What makes it more interesting is the implications of the figure to the right
2. a structured/topological space (rhetorical elements + generative structure) on the semiotic manifold of the public sphere
3. associated with each topological subspace is an input-output matrix for a subset of institutions (KE in Progressivism)
Imus case
Fox News
3. four cases (demo, rabids, bailout, tea party vs. Stewart-Colbert)
4. a developmental and performative approach to decoding the semiosphere
----
This is a frequent form of expression--the racist carricature--but the overt racism should not obscure the underlying dynamic process of projection of the repressed and displacement of rage, on the one hand, and the creation of a suitable object as the target of sadistic aggression on the other. (see beatings, etc.)
What makes a target suitable is that it must be annointed by higher authorities--portions of the Catholic clergy during the middle ages, organizations like Fox News-Freedom Works today--signals are given, and a carnival of rage follows.
This can be seen in the etiology and phenomenology of the anti-Muslim hysteria whipped up by Fox News (below)
re obamacare above
Thus, pro- and anti-war demonstators' signs provide two distinct topologies* on the semiotic manifold of the public sphere.
Rabids vs. Thoughtfuls (below) also provides two distinct topologies on the semiotic manifold.
By "topologies" I mean the following: take the set of all statements made in a well-defined bounded discursive space (the two-party space).
First, the rhetorical elements form two disjoint
sets.**
Second, there is a structure on each data set: a left structure and a right structure. (These structures are over-determined.) {each data set has both a psychoanalytic and a cognitive dimension}
Second, there is a structure on each data set: a left structure and a right structure. (These structures are over-determined.) {each data set has both a psychoanalytic and a cognitive dimension}
These psychological-semiotic structures are provided by Simon Clarke, Social Theory, Psychoanalysis and Racism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). The Clarke text is deployed as interpretive grid.
The cognitive structures on the discursive manifold are provided in the next section (Cognitive Development: the Evolutionary Context).
Note that the psychological dimension of the Right has already been discussed as the culture of Ressentiment and the Mechanisms of Defense. (I have not yet dealt with the Left as discursive set on a semiotic manifold.) Now I go one theoretical step further: the Mechanisms of Defense provide the structure on the set of all right-wing semiotic productions. In Clarke's text, this is the paranoid-schizoid position (after Melanie Klein).
The psychological structure on the set of all left-wing semiotic productions is given by the depressive position (Melanie Klein again).
Note that the discursive manifold of the public sphere does not include elite discursive activity, such as the internal correspondence of the Keynesian elite. (see Person to Cooke)
polarities: Enlightenment vs. Ressentiment; ancien regime vs. modernity and science
pro-war
demo signs:
"Traitors Go to Hell!"
"Deport
Anti-war Protesters!""Treason!"
anti-war
demo signs: "End
the War Now!"
"U.S. Out of Iraq!""Support the Troops! End the War!"
A man, active in right to life and similar efforts, living in a small home in a modest lower middle class section of Bridgeport, Connecticut, hears over the phone from his wife that their two year old daughter has just told her that she was molested by the next-door neighbor, whereupon the father grabbed a knife, exited through his kitchen window and across the narrow alley into the home of the guy next door and stabbed him to death.
At the time of the killing the story got extensive media coverage, and stimulated a wave of responses.
Later it was determined that it was all a tragic mistake, and the killer was convicted of murder.
These responses have been organized into two categories--rabids and thoughtfuls.
These two sets of responses also provide two distinct topologies* on the semiotic manifold of the public sphere.
A third example of
a
well-defined bounded discursive space, this one
from memory:
The Congressional debate on the auto industry bailout produced a similar disjoint bifurcation of a well-defined discursive space (Cong. Record trascript). On the Left were references to the input-output matrix of auto production in the United States, and concerns about the systems impact of an auto
industry collapse. While poorly expressed (and never using
the
Chicago Fed's map of US parts plants: Delphi
and Midwest Auto Parts), the Left's
cognitive operations
were focused on facts and concepts appropriate to a discussion of
economic policy.
On the other hand, the Right confined iself to primarily moralistic arguments and accusations about rewarding the bad behavior of auto executives. Of course the attacks on Detroit, as the iconic symbol of blacks and unions, were just one more performance of a r*c*st semiotic. Absent from the set of of Right rhetorical elements were economic data and economic concepts--a striking omission in a debate on economic policy. Instead it is the shibboleths of a provincial Protestantism that were repeatedly deployed.
Indeed, GOP economic policy statements are nothing more than the shibboleths of a provincial Protestantism, and ought not be taken as real conceptualizations of things economic. These statements are easily debunked by real economists (Zombie Economics, see Paul Krugman, Brad de Long on the Ryan kill Medicare "plan" krugman). However, by taking them seriously (that is what Krugman does when he addressed these statements as economic) the critics inadvertently lend credibiity to the pre-scientific cognitive performativity of the right. The specific performative domain of today's rightwing politics is primarily preoperational and gestural.
There are psuedo-factual statements on the right: Jon Kyl says abortion services are “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does” is an example. But this is actually a demonic accusation cloaked in a factical expressive modality, what I call a psuedo-concrete-operational expressive modality. Of course, one might say John Kyl simply lied . . . but that would 1) be too simplistic, and 2) miss the whole point of this kind of analysis, which focuses on the audience and the audience reaction to statements made by political actors.
The Congressional debate on the auto industry bailout produced a similar disjoint bifurcation of a well-defined discursive space (Cong. Record trascript). On the Left were references to the input-output matrix of auto production in the United States, and concerns about the systems impact of an auto
industry collapse. While poorly expressed (and never using
the
Chicago Fed's map of US parts plants: Delphi
and Midwest Auto Parts), the Left's
cognitive operations
were focused on facts and concepts appropriate to a discussion of
economic policy.On the other hand, the Right confined iself to primarily moralistic arguments and accusations about rewarding the bad behavior of auto executives. Of course the attacks on Detroit, as the iconic symbol of blacks and unions, were just one more performance of a r*c*st semiotic. Absent from the set of of Right rhetorical elements were economic data and economic concepts--a striking omission in a debate on economic policy. Instead it is the shibboleths of a provincial Protestantism that were repeatedly deployed.
Indeed, GOP economic policy statements are nothing more than the shibboleths of a provincial Protestantism, and ought not be taken as real conceptualizations of things economic. These statements are easily debunked by real economists (Zombie Economics, see Paul Krugman, Brad de Long on the Ryan kill Medicare "plan" krugman). However, by taking them seriously (that is what Krugman does when he addressed these statements as economic) the critics inadvertently lend credibiity to the pre-scientific cognitive performativity of the right. The specific performative domain of today's rightwing politics is primarily preoperational and gestural.
There are psuedo-factual statements on the right: Jon Kyl says abortion services are “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does” is an example. But this is actually a demonic accusation cloaked in a factical expressive modality, what I call a psuedo-concrete-operational expressive modality. Of course, one might say John Kyl simply lied . . . but that would 1) be too simplistic, and 2) miss the whole point of this kind of analysis, which focuses on the audience and the audience reaction to statements made by political actors.