From Free Life, Issue 22, April
1995
ISSN: 0260 5112
Gazing Up Your Arse
Drawing on the work of Foucault, Denzin argues that the cinematic gaze must be understood as part of the machinery of surveillance and power which regulates social behaviour in contemporary society. The cinema makes its key players voyeurs who spy upon the lives of others. But it also turns the audience into voyeurs who eagerly follow the lives of the screen characters as if they were real.
Description in publishers' catalogue of forthcoming book, The Cinematic Society: The Voyeur's Gaze, by Norman K. Denzin (University of Illinois) Sage Publications, London, March 1995.
Pig Ignorant
John Turner, Professor of Modern History and Dean of the Graduate School at Royal Holloway College, University of London, revels in his ignorance of contemporary economic thought:
The fact that economies in the real world simply do not conform to the neoclassical model ... was important to Keynes, and is apparently not a point which has ever occurred to the New Right despite the accumulated evidence.
John Turner, "Three Wishes for Britain", Times Literary Supplement, 10 February, 1995, p. 13.
When will these statist bozos stop mouthing these tired old cliches. Free market economists and those who have learnt its lessons - presumably what he means by the "New Right" - do not base their policies upon "neo-classical models". Both Austrian and Chicago schools alike are well aware of the limitations (or even downright absurdities) of neoclassical models.
The Socio-Economic Theory of Late Socialism
Brilliant analysis from the pages of Socialist Worker:
Capitalist competition is wrecking the search for a decent elephant toe clipper.
An intense battle is being waged between firms to produce a more effective device so that zoo keepers can safely cut jumbo's nails.
In the United States there are two main challengers. One gently holds the elephant by gradually shifting a moveable wall until the animal is held tight.
The other, which costs over £60,000, grasps the elephant in a cuddly embrace and rotates it until the feet are held up invitingly for the clipper to work.
This "hugger" instrument is being heavily marketed and its makers have even taken out a patent for a giraffe restrainer.
Competition - honestly, this is all straight out of the Wall Street Journal - has left elephants bemused, wondering if their best interests are being served.
However, proving that labour is the source of all health, London Zoo uses quite a different method.
Keepers are taught the Indian languages of their elephant's place of birth and are encouraged to develop relationships with them rather than whirling them about in a "hugger".
The result, according to Zoo spokesperson Kirsty Watson, is that the elephants learn to stand on three legs and present their feet for a pedicure.
So, like the elephant, never forget that capitalism stinks and that cooperation works best.
Anon, "Battle of the Nail Clippers", Socialist Worker, 4th March, 1995, p. 4.