September 4, 2005
I'm sick with the flu at the moment and so I'm unable to read Arendt on politics as performance in my attempt to overcome the narrow definitions and understandings of political philosophy.
I will try and do some reading on the plane to Canberra. In the meantime we have two cartoons that view the US from the outside.Tis the best that I can do in my current state.
This cartoon about the rhetoric and reality of empire, is from the social democratic left in Australia:
Heinrich Heinz, Outposts of tyranny
This cartoon, which exposes the dark side of America's racial divide, is from Jordan:
Emad Hajjaj
The media images of a flooded New Orleans discloses the third world conditions that the poor in New Orleans live in. They were left to fend for themselves as the Republican Bush administration did little to try to save its most vulnerable citizens.
Update:5 September
The commentaries around President Bush's first visit to New Orleans resonant with politics as public performance and theatre. You could that President Bush's performance in New Orleans was pretty poor compared to the heroic one after 9/11. It lacked compassiom and sensitivity to suffering even though the breakdown of society resulted in people driven becoming "barbarians" who had come to live in the "conditions of savages" in the Superdrome and the convention centre.
President Bush's 9/11 perfomance had the mark of greatness. It was fiercely agonal and full of passion. He became the war President protecting the homeland in the war on terror.
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