Doing Something So That Nothing Really Changes | Occupy Wall Street,The Matrix & a Vulgar Joke
In the good old days of Really Existing Socialism, a joke popular among dissidents was used to illustrate the futility of their protests. In the fifteenth century, when Russia was occupied by Mongols, a peasant and his wife were walking along a dusty country road; a Mongol warrior on a horse stopped at their side and told the peasant he would now proceed to rape his wife; he then added: “But since there is a lot of dust on the ground, you must hold my testicles while I rape your wife, so that they will not get dirty!” Once the Mongol had done the deed and ridden away, the peasant started laughing and jumping with joy. His surprised wife asked: “How can you be jumping with joy when I was just brutally raped in your presence?” The farmer answered: “But I got him! His balls are covered in dust!”
The Occupy Wall Street protests, which have been taking place for a few weeks now I suppose, got me thinking about our “right to protest.” This sad, vulgar joke told by philosopher Slovoj Žižek reveals the predicament of the dissidents: they thought they were dealing serious blows to the party nomenklatura, but all they were doing was slightly soiling the nomenklatura’s testicles, while the ruling party carried on raping the people.
Although I tend to support what the protesters are all about (i.e. bringing about political change and ending political and corporate coruption), it seems to me that the story above might give us a closer approximation of the situation that we are really facing.
To get at this idea of doing something so that nothing really changes, Peter Rollins uses the plot of the Matrix Trilogy in his new book to illustrate his point:
…in the second and third installments [of The Matrix Trilogy], we discover something truly surprising. This group of freedom fighters who have dedicated themselves to the destruction of the machines are actually supported by the machines. The machines secretly encourage the freedom fighters, help them build Zion, and provide them with their Messiah. We learn that there have been many cities before Zion and many Messaihs before Neo. We thus discover that Neo is not really on the side of freedom but actually a vital part of the oppressive system itself. It turns out that the machines initially attempted to build a Matrix where rebellion was impossible, a world that was, however, modeled upon human perfection. But the results were disastrous; it failed. The machines realized that people needed to have the ability to fight. Hence they created release valves in the system, opportunities for people to resist in a way that was ultimately authorized by those in control. In short, the freedom fighters were the very thing that the system allowed in order to ensure nothing significant really changed. Indeed, true change only happens when an anomaly enters the world of the machines.
So I guess the question is this: Is our right to protest meaningful in any significant sense? Or is it merely a fail safe release valve built into the oppressive system which enslaves us, and which ensures that certainly no substantial change actually occurs?
great post. for me i wonder if the movement is a positive in that it could be the occasion to even start thinking there is another option for organizing our economic order. when the joke was told there were multiple live options...but that was before 'the end of history.'
I'm with you Tripp. If anything comes out of it i'd like to see limits on all political offices, and no corporate donations to campaigns. That'd be a good start.