Who’s Winning?
Thanks to Saint Jimmy (Russian American) for recommending this essay... Who’s Winning? By FABIO VIGHI ‘The West has become a totalitarian space – the space of a self-defensive hegemony defending itself against its own weakness.’ (Jean Baudrillard) One of the most frequently referenced scenes in Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (1973) features a despondent Gene Hackman slumped in front of a small black-and-white television, half-heartedly watching a game of American football. When his wife walks in and asks, “Who’s winning?”, he mutters: “Nobody. One side’s just losing slower than the other.” As consciously depressing Hollywood films like Night Moves foresaw, the crisis of the 1970s was already signalling the end of capitalist socialisation: a structural and soon-to-be global socioeconomic, cultural, and psychological debacle that is now entering its phase of rapid escalation (though Hollywood this time is in full denial). As it’s becoming increasingly clear, the s...