[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by dead_battery

the fashion was straight lines, blocks, squares, robot like stuff

It shifted to the curvilinear, at which point science stopped being celebrated for its function, its efficiency, its universality, and became a thing of elegance, individuality. Zaha Hadid, Goldie's snaking drum edits, the iMac, bestselling books on string theory. The point where technology/science started to replace vodka as the opiate of the masses.

Zaha Hadid's yacht (an opiate, but obviously not for the masses):

 

[dead_battery]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

It shifted to the curvilinear, at which point science stopped being celebrated for its function, its efficiency, its universality, and became a thing of elegance, individuality. Zaha Hadid, Goldie's snaking drum edits, the iMac, bestselling books on string theory. The point where technology/science started to replace vodka as the opiate of the masses.

Zaha Hadid's yacht (an opiate, but obviously not for the masses):

 

that's brilliant. i probably see a lot less of this elegance than the rest of you since i live surrounded by bumpkins who think electricity is witchcraft.

[dead_battery]

the more you guys ask me to talk, the more stupid i feel

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by dead_battery

i live surrounded by bumpkins who think electricity is witchcraft.

In a way that's my point. Not that you live around bumpkins but that the curvilinear, for me the defining 'shape' of a postmodern/neoliberal aesthetic, just as the square defined modernism's, remystified technology, in a way turning electricity back into witchcraft. Postmodern theory did this to the point where we were encouraged to admire the elegance of its argument more than its practical use, going from theory as tool to theory as art. Everything has become aestheticised, including protest. The Libertines lyric, "did you see the stylish kids in the riot?" Nails it. Death by elegance.

[dead_battery]

10/10

[foreverasskiss]

2014 is so old man like we. we've all had our dicks sucked by our fav porn star by now so who really gives a doo doo. pop music is a over-exaggeration of the past, so i let the government handle my shit now because i don't care about nothing outside my immediate thoughts and cares.

the further i get from any decade is favorable on my part. don't want no anger or apocalypse. just lack of shallowness.

[dead_battery]

As a contraceptive method, feminism could have made masturbation obligatory, promulgated a sexual strike among heterosexual and fertile women, and advocated lesbianism en masse; made it obligatory to tie the fallopian tubes at adolescence - and legalized abortion and made it free - if not permitting infanticide when necessary. And there is a political fiction scenario that could have been even more promising, it was possible from a biotechnological point of view, to require all women who are of child bearing age to take a monthly microdose of testosterone, as both a contraceptive method and a political method of regulating gender. Such a method would have ended once and for all sexual differentiation and the hegemony of heterosexuality. This doesn't mean that cis-females (on testosterone) would stop having sex with cis-males, but the act would not continue to be interpreted as purely heterosexual. It would have no reproductive goal; in addition, it would no longer be a question of an encounter between two people of opposite sexual orientations, but rather, with two people of gay orientation with the added possibility of vaginal penetration. Post war feminism could have concerned itself with the management of the cis-male body and declared it to be of national interest: castration, male homosexuality, the obligatory use of condoms, the sealing of the seminal channel, mass administration of Androcur (to lower the production of testosterone in cis-males) and so on. Yes, there were other possibilities, but liberal feminism made a pact with the pharamcopornographic regime. - Beatriz Preciado - Testo Junkie

[dead_battery]

depression is a subsidiary aspect of thanaticism. You are supposed to be depressed, and you are supposed to think that’s your individual failing or problem. Your bright illusory fantasy-world is ripped away from you, and the thanatic reality is bared – you are supposed to think its your fault. You have failed to believe. See a shrink. Take some drugs. Do some retail therapy.

[dead_battery]

hex

[dead_battery]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFuIB...=share&index=3

youtube is "featuring" videos about the "cancer conspiracy" to me. fuck off and die you pieces of shit.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

so much rage. the times were different. people were pissed off. nowadays, most bands seem to be slightly annoyed at stuff instead of pissed off.

I think that is the defining aspect of the 2000s era (not just musically, politics, economics, culture, everything is too damned 'whatever').. the last time people of any genre of music made a record that was even remotely pissed the fuck off was 1999.. We fear lost the Battle For Los Angeles

[dead_battery]

http://piercepenniless.wordpress.com...02/07/justice/

This reduction of political activity to a system of lobbying via moral shame is more widespread – many also talk about strike action or more targeted protest action in the same way. But it’s a rare case where mere moral embarrassment can avert economic policy or force a capitalist employer to behave better – were it otherwise, we’d already be living post-capitalism.

Relevant to your discussion of the decline of anger in culture.

Got to say though, nothing quite gets you going than the likes of THIS

Maybe if we can't have the kind of anger RATM had, we could still have a kind of disgusted anger that was aware of its own futility. Even that would be better than the sunshiney indie crap we've been barraged with ever since bands like RATM went into decline.

[dead_battery]

i think that's pretty astute suchfriends - the defining characteristic of 00's culture was the loss of anger.

i dont think people became more conformist, just too disgusted and exhausted and disempowered and confused to even WANT to do something.

[dead_battery]

im amazed at how testify by RATM can be read as a literal prophecy of what would happen in the years after it was released.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by dead_battery

Maybe if we can't have the kind of anger RATM had, we could still have a kind of disgusted anger that was aware of its own futility. Even that would be better than the sunshiney indie crap we've been barraged with ever since bands like RATM went into declin.

The entire problem with RATM is after 1992 they weren't angry either! They gave into themselves, they collapsed under the fame like Nirvana did, but in a different way. You're right, its not just bands like Rage, in rap the Fugees became an early version of the Black Eyed Peas (i.e. a commercial piece of cultural shit), dead prez dropped off the radar and Killah Priest was so discouraged he went into a kind of monastic approach to underground rap scene.

 

It seems that the entirety of the 2000s has been one big, cosmic, fucking shoulder shrug. People were "pissed off" during the Bush era, but did it end the wars? Reduce the growing corruption? Empower the people? Obama is a symptom of our collective sigh of complacency. People have sincerely
adopted the, "Hey it could be worse, love it or leave it" cynical optimism.

[dead_battery]

yeah, and also the biggest problem of all the fact that from the 00's on the only kind of understanding we had of ourselves was as individuals, and so our rage cant connect to a wider project in any other way but consumerism. so you end up with people medicating themselves in lonely depression. everything becomes a personal problem.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by dead_battery

im amazed at how testify by RATM can be read as a literal prophecy of what would happen in the years after it was released.

I'm glad you picked up on the less than subtle rage reference.. I really liked that band, lyrically. If folks read the lyrics sheet and had no idea who that band was or have any of the MTV baggage, I think they'd be impressed. Self/Titled is still a masterpiece of intellectualized angst, and not just of the teenage variety. It was pissed off for a good fucking reason, it so poetically encapsulated ALL the post-Vietnam, fuck Reagan rage that defined that era..

1992 was a watershed year, we had the LA Uprising that year for a reason. It was a conclusion of the previous 25 years.. The corporations had finally sunk their teeth back into America, dominating LA real estate. Schools had collapsed under their own weight as a kind of racist retaliation to LBJ's efforts at a great society. In 1876 the US Federal troops withdrew from Southern occupation and ALL of the black institutions were destroyed, Jim Crow was retaliation for those uppity Negros. Well, 1980 "its morning in America" era is THE SAME FUCKING THING. White, redneck, rich America said, "FUCK LBJ AND HIS SOCIETY." They took back. Jim Crow returned in different ways, under corporate guises. Why are over half of Americans working in shit service jobs for minimum wage or slightly more? Oh right, corporate America took over and put everybody "in their place."

Rage Against The Machine Self Titled reflected what everybody in LA felt like before 1992. The Uprising was the final turning of the tide.. After that LA felt like we could take it back. To live in post-Uprising LA from 1993-2000 was a beautiful thing, to watch what was realistically a Third World nation suddenly shake off all its shit and start inching towards becoming Finland...

But like I said, I fear we lost the Battle For Los Angeles....

We got greedy, we started to think it was easy, and that became our complacency. We gave LA back to the assholes. We gave the country back to the assholes. We traded our reality for Starbucks and Samsung.

"What do you want a Lexus or justice, a Beamer or substance?" Dead Prez

[dead_battery]

must spread rep

[dead_battery]

when these arrive in the post i'll do reviews or something

 

 

kroker is one of the best theorists writing today.

[dead_battery]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

I'm glad you picked up on the less than subtle rage reference.. I really liked that band, lyrically. If folks read the lyrics sheet and had no idea who that band was or have any of the MTV baggage, I think they'd be impressed. Self/Titled is still a masterpiece of intellectualized angst, and not just of the teenage variety. It was pissed off for a good fucking reason, it so poetically encapsulated ALL the post-Vietnam, fuck Reagan rage that defined that era..

1992 was a watershed year, we had the LA Uprising that year for a reason. It was a conclusion of the previous 25 years.. The corporations had finally sunk their teeth back into America, dominating LA real estate. Schools had collapsed under their own weight as a kind of racist retaliation to LBJ's efforts at a great society. In 1876 the US Federal troops withdrew from Southern occupation and ALL of the black institutions were destroyed, Jim Crow was retaliation for those uppity Negros. Well, 1980 "its morning in America" era is THE SAME FUCKING THING. White, redneck, rich America said, "FUCK LBJ AND HIS SOCIETY." They took back. Jim Crow returned in different ways, under corporate guises. Why are over half of Americans working in shit service jobs for minimum wage or slightly more? Oh right, corporate America took over and put everybody "in their place."

Rage Against The Machine Self Titled reflected what everybody in LA felt like before 1992. The Uprising was the final turning of the tide.. After that LA felt like we could take it back. To live in post-Uprising LA from 1993-2000 was a beautiful thing, to watch what was realistically a Third World nation suddenly shake off all its shit and start inching towards becoming Finland...

But like I said, I fear we lost the Battle For Los Angeles....

We got greedy, we started to think it was easy, and that became our complacency. We gave LA back to the assholes. We gave the country back to the assholes. We traded our reality for Starbucks and Samsung.

"What do you want a Lexus or justice, a Beamer or substance?" Dead Prez

small victories are still important.

what you have, even though you feel defeated, looks like utopia compared to the place i live. and where i live almost IS utopia compared to some other places in the world

rome wasn't built in a day. likewise a technologically advanced post capitalist society free from militarism and poverty won't spring up over night.