Masao,
the true nature of this time we live in is that, here in america, say,
you are granted the right to say almost anything you please in the public
sphere... this is a public right. However, as a practical matter of
survival, few people will say what they "really think". There is a great
deal of revenge practiced through private channels. Powerless people, weak
people, who are at the mercy of institutions, are very vulnerable to acts
of revenge. Their careers will be destroyed, people will avoid them out of
fear, their writings will not be referred to, their names will be forgotten
in discussions, if they are so stupid as to speak too clearly to the
realities of power.
Intellectuals, artists, culture people; they are powerless toys of the
system, they are educated to think of themselves as having something
important to say, but then they discover they have been bred like a
subspecies of exotic dog; they exist to amuse, to divert, for a momemt,
before everyone gets back to the cool business of power and the compromises
it demands.
You speak to the ideal of an uncompromised life, but the realities are
lethal for the stubborn fool who refuses to suck the cock of power.
Everyone knows this, some have the stomach to say it while they're sober,
and some have to get very drunk before they'll let the words come out.
I know a crtic, famous for his clear thinking, his tough stances, who
allowed himself to be bought off. It was painfully obvious to all who
looked on. But his act had a deeper semiotic function than simply making a
public gigolo of himself... it was an act of surrender... an act of
obedience, self abnegation; he would allowed to be the lion in the circus,
but back on the street he would suck cocks... it was the only way open to
him...
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