Today is day 2 of the global strike for Gaza. As two unemployed artists, I called my friend yesterday about how we strike against our usual behavior patterns. I thought about my enjoyment of the same ongoing resistance against the usual weight of normalcy. If anything, it felt like a relief. Was the call for strike an oppressive superego injunction that strikes upon my need to oppose, or was it a retaliating superego that fights against the usual sadistic commandment to obsessively Enjoy?
Repetition exhaustion is bound to happen with any repetitive action. It’s not without reason that there are the cliches of students falling asleep during history classes. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the interest and positive response to my post yesterday about answering Najla Said’s questions concerning Israel and Palestine.
Today, I thought to read out my review on the book “The Man-Not” by Tommy J. Curry that I posted last week, as I received some posts today which was still obsessing over issues of sexual abuse and children.
Lacan refers to the study of psychoanalysis as the study of the rim. The edge. Neither the content nor the vessel itself, but the edge. Sexuality, or rather the accusation of sexual perversion, has been weaponized, as the specter of 19th-century Victorian ideals still haunts us. The same obsession and tactics have been employed to accuse any dissidents of the state or ideology. In fact, sexual misconduct is a menu item that one can purchase on the dark web, next to assassinations and other extortions.
The same strategy was applied to Malcolm X, though the FBI had difficulties proving anything despite their surveillance. But today, evidence is no longer needed. We judge those we deem unacceptable not by their actions but by the accusations. The society is divided into those who are innocent until proven guilty and guilty no matter what.
Racism and hatred are the definition of unconditional hate, while liberal imperialism is the implementation of conditional love. If you assimilate, speak our language, and behave precisely as you are commanded to, we may consider you human.
Day 2 of #StrikeForGaza