Max Forte channels H.L. Mencken re: Libya

I'm not going to ruin it for all three of you who read this site. Just go check out this post by Max Forte over at the all-nuanced edition of Zero Anthropology. Here is a selection from one of the choice bits:

As observers of the complexities around the social negotiation of constructed meanings, it would do us well to remember that democracy is inscribed as a gesture of erasure, that human rights exist as an absence through an erasure that is the sign of their own creation. What we urgently need then are less of the over-determined portrayals of reality that lead to debased forms of point scoring– “dictator!” “murderer! “bastard!”–and more sophisticated treatments of the contingency of discourse, while tacking back to the free floating signifiers that constitute the flows of democracy instantiated in the reflexive negotiation of identity best understood as friction where the practice of inscription is embodied but ever perched on the border with the simulacra of memory qua narrative.

I think I am going to put "simulacra of memory qua narrative" on some academic t-shirts and see if I can cash in on this while the fire is still hot. Nuance, after all, is in.*

*If this post doesn't make sense, that's ok.

Things vs People (Zero Anth on the AAA & Egypt)

Max Forte on the recent response of the AAA to events in Egypt:

In a first-rate public exercise of missing the point, the American Anthropological Association released a statement on 02 February, in conjunction with the Archaeological Institute of America, misleadingly titled “Statement of Support for Egypt.” After getting past the brief formality of noting that Egyptian lives and rights are being trampled upon, the statement goes on to focus on the fate of the artifacts housed at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities–visited by countless tourists, and a specialized class of tourists known as archaeologists. Self-interest, anyone? Indeed, the statement is 190 words, of which at most 31 are devoted to Egyptian lives and rights, and 150 are devoted to the blessed artifacts.

Read the rest here, then sit back and ponder the meaning of anthropology.

Events in Egypt (everything is fine love the egypt government)

Along with tons of others out there, I have spent a good part of the last 24 hours watching AJE's live coverage of the events in Egypt, and reading all of the reports and posts about these events. The Guardian UK also has a page with live updates, here. Max Forte has a new post over at Zero Anthropology: "Focus on Egypt." Daily Kos has an open thread going right now, as well as a large collection of posts, reactions, thoughts, and links about the protests. Twitter has also played an interesting role in spreading news about these events through a series of topics and tags (ie #Jan25; #Egypt, etc).

Above: screen shot of a popular tweet that has been all over twitter the last few days.

As numerous people have already pointed out, social media has played a key role in all of this (but it's also important to realize that what is happening extends beyond these forms of media). This short BBC video talks about "Protests and the role of social media." Max Forte (in the post that I already linked to above) has also highlighted the role of blogs in these protests:

"Egypt’s bloggers are playing an increasingly important role in broadening the scope of acceptable political and social discourse, and self-expression,” and Egyptian bloggers work as human rights activists, although this has been diminished by various government crackdowns and the turn to other social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. While usually targeting the Muslim Brotherhood, the government “has also used the Emergency Law in some recent cases to target bloggers and labor demonstrators.

One of the most blatant moves of the Egyptian government was the decision to close down social media (internet access, cell phone use, etc) to attempt to control popular unrest. Not a good decision--and this speaks to the power of these tools when it comes to political organization and expression. Of course, this whole story is developing as we speak, so it remains to be seen how things will play out. More about this later on.

UPDATE:

There are tons of media depictions of the unfolding events in Egypt--videos, reports, photos, images, tweets, blog posts, etc. Sites like YouTube are flooded with all sorts of footage, shot by media professionals and people with cell phones. Social media is certainly playing an undeniable role in all of this--and there are endless examples out there that provide unique insights into how actions, thoughts, sentiments and ideas are being communicated. Pretty fascinating stuff. Here's just one of many:

UPDATE II:

Barbara Miller at anthropologyworks posted "Understanding Egypt," which has a ton of good references for anyone looking to learn more about "culture, society, and contemporary change" in Egypt.

Hey, it's just a game: Virtual War, Violence, and Real War

Have you seen some of the new commercials for the US military, by chance? One thing that I have noticed with some of these is that they often look a lot like video games. Here's a slightly older ad that has the video game feel to it:

And here is an ad about a video game that the US Army supposedly developed (from 2007):

A new post by Max Forte over at Zero Anthropology got me thinking about all of this. Apparently, there was some controversy about a new video game that allowed users to play the part of the Taleban:

So what are these video games for? What purpose(s) can they serve, if any, besides entertainment? How seriously do users take them? How seriously should we think about these sorts of questions? For me this brings up questions about the relationship between violence, realistic video games like this, and desensitization. I was pretty young during Gulf War I, but one thing I remember clearly is how much the TV news coverage looked like a video game. It was all so detached, clean, and put together. But the video games today--like Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor--aren't exactly detached. These games are realistic, close-up, and bloody. Still, they generate detachment because they are "just games" and fall under the "entertainment" category. All of this makes me think of the Wikileaks release of footage from Iraq earlier this year, and how the soldiers sounded like they were just playing another game. Do video games cause violence? I doubt it. But can they help generate a kind of systematic, dehumanized detachment? Good question.

UPDATE 10/5: I found one of the new commercials that I talked about at the opening of this post. This one is a USAF commercial that looks a lot like a video game. Interesting to think about why they choose to present recruiting commercials in this way. Check it out:

John Stanton, Zero Anthropology, HTS

John Stanton has another new post about the HTS program over at Zero Anthropology. If you are looking for some long term coverage of the whole HTS issue, Stanton is a good place to start. Here is an excerpt from his latest:

Critics of HTS such as the observers/sources for this series of articles on HTS, Dr. Max Forte, Dr. David Price, Dr. Hugh Gusterson, Dr. Alberto Gonzalez, Dr. Robert Albro, and the American Anthropological Association have made the point over and again that HTS is ethically challenged at the management level and does, in fact, operate as an intelligence support program. For stating their views they have been pilloried by McFarland, Fondacaro and Carlough (McFate) and their supporters in and out of the military (sources report that the officer currently conducting the AR 15-6 is being “bad mouthed” by some in HTS management). Even the venerable Ben Connable who authored “All Our Eggs in One Broken Basket” in TRADOC’s Military Review was criticized for expressing the view that the effort was cannibalizing military funding and in-house capabilities.

Read the rest here.