Obama, Certainty, Silence

I’ve just listened to the repeat of Radio 4’s Analysis - this week on certainty. It’s an ever so gentle beeb riposte to Obama’s s “Yes, We Can”. As is the nature of these things it tends to skate the surface, but it’s a pretty good listen.

By contrast, one of the things I’ve enjoyed in the aftermath of O-Day has been the conspicuous silence of the bleakly hopeless, post-Deleuzean polit-blogs. In part, I guess, this comes down to the fact that Zizek, in move strangely lacking in his trademark contrariness (last time he welcomed Bush), had already declared for Obama -  and Badiou seems to have kept pretty quiet (I can’t find anything, and his pronouncements usually find their way into the  Kpunk-Belt) - so there’s nothing to gloss upon, and anyway - where would the default pessimism fit in?

The few who have said anything have mostly skirted the issue or else ended up looking a bit foolish. (The negativity one-liner at revolutionary boredom is intentionally flippant I know, but compare the Zizek message on appearances - or, if you buy it, think of Badiou’s commitment to event. Good call on Mob Rules though).

Perhaps, for the moment at least, optimism and certainty have their place, and it’s interesting that a community so vocally concerned with the relationship between thought and action should be paralysed by this.

D