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December 19, 2006
Against Gehry, Against Leviathan (part 2)
Picketing Henry Ford
This is the second part of a 2-part post in response to a piece written by Jonathan Liu for N+1, which, in my estimation, gave a sophisticated defense for the Atlantic Yards (AY) project that is representative of the position held by many proponents of the plan, even those supposedly on the Left.
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As one watches (the key word) the pseudo-debate on the AY unfold, it is difficult to imagine how a dialogue could even take place. From stage-managed meetings, to press releases, to dissembling interlocutors, as well as images circulated that have nothing to do with the realities they claim to represent, and, of course, the bullying, anonymous, high-speed culture of online sniping, authentic dialogue is nowhere to be found. When this communication becomes impossible, communities cease to exist because the interests of communities themselves become replaced by spectacle. I am not arguing that this process is occurring before our eyes, because it has certainly been in place for decades, but I do believe that, due to the grand scale and stakes of the AY and the sophistication of its planners, anyone who tries to step back for just a moment will see that the arguments about, for example, the number of jobs to be generated, though worthwhile to a degree, are ultimately enacting a fallacious dialogue. In an era defined by lies, the economic interests of a community become completely separated from the communities themselves, even as the communities fall apart due to the separations enforced by the spectacle. It means that our society has a technics instantiated to mediate reality. This is not a loosey-goosey, po-mo “Dude, we live in the Matrix, man” assertion. Instead, it means that our needs and desires have been supplanted by a largely visual repertoire of alienations, to the point that speaking about reality becomes increasingly difficult. Communal economic interests are so far removed from our everyday lives that the veritable opposite of a progressive, community-based economic benefit plan, in the form of a development plan meant to enrich a developer and hot-shot investors, can be sold as a progressive, community-based plan.
Posted by lumi at December 19, 2006 10:44 PM