FundamentallySound Blog

I've been spending a lot of time online these days. More than usual, maybe because I am looking for something to do in my breaks between programming a SuperCollider patch for a performance tomorrow night at the Lab.

One of the blogs I've been reading a lot is Neomarxisme. It's full of debate between two basic ideological stances on Japan: that of a kind of Japanese mysticism as offered by Momus and a economic and cultural dystopianism as explained by Marxy (whose site it is). Sometimes the debates become strangely personal, maybe because everyone involved has such a large stake in that little collection of islands across the Pacific, some are tied in financially, others through relationships. In one case, that of my old friend Robert Duckworth, a regular pundit on Neomarxisme, he's actually renounced his US citizenship. This is something I'd love to hear him speak about more. Was it a political act? An aesthetic one? A pragmatic one? How does it feel to renounce your citizenship, Robert? His commentary often takes the form of visual or verbal provocation with little explanation. His blog seems like snapshots of a life lived in the fourth dimension.

One line of attack which is resorted to with regularity, usually by the expats living in Tokyo, tries to discredit the perspectives of those who do not live in Japan as being shallow because they are somehow just a "tourist." I couldn't disagree more, some of the most astute cutting observations are made by those who are not embedded in the mesh of daily life, they are then free to observe the big picture and connect the dots that the people living the life of the domestic resident are unable to see. Lars von Trier never set foot in America yet he makes some of the most painfully accurate observations of this country of anyone I have ever seen. Roland Barthes sketched a picture of Japan that was part of my inspiration in moving to Tokyo. They both painted in wide strokes, and I am grateful that they did. I love to read Baudrillard's accounts of America, he came here and he saw the country and explained it via his own theoretical framework.

Which brings me to America, this big country that I've been living in again for the last seven months. I am convinced that this country has deep cultural insecurities, probably due to its large-scale denial of the problems running under the surface. I've never seen a country that is more vulnerable and reacts so viciously to foreign criticism, or criticism of any kind for that matter. I just have to wonder was it always like this? Luckily I live in a sort of cultural enclave, but even here in San Francisco, I have to face the extreme dogmatism of the rest of the country, I am forced to engage Bush's viewpoints and those of his supporters. In fact the whole world does.

The disappointing reality though is that the rest of the world seems to be more deeply engaged with American policy than the people of this country. It seems America has resigned itself to a silent acceptance stemming from a naive trust on the part of its residents towards its leaders and an education system that does not inspire engagement with the country's power structures. I am not optimistic about the prospects of this country in the new century, far from it.