Thanks to all those who left messages or emailed. Note that while Josh’s death has been a profound shake-up, I wasn’t particularly close to him. In some ways I don’t even think we particularly got along, and yet I don’t think it dishonours him for me to admit this and still publicly mourn his passing — his presence as both a former political comrade and as a fixture in a formative circle of friends ensures his significance for me, and perhaps more importantly, I’m deeply sad for those who were closest to him.
Another Fluxblog post:
Midnight Oil, “Weddingcake Island” — I have an ambivalent attachment to these guys, who’ve always flitted rapidly between self-conscious “artificiality” and “authenticity”, thus making even their best albums very strained affairs. Plus there’s the weird mix of fundamentalist Christianity, green politics and nationalism. So those who only know Midnight Oil for their rock-monumentalist declarations might be surprised by “Weddingcake Island”, from their 1980 EP, Bird Noises. It’s a gorgeously delicate instrumental that pays homage to their origins in the early 70s as a pub band for surfers.
Re Garrett: Perhaps there’s semantic drift from your part of the planet to mine, but…as an atheist I’ve always glossed “fundamentalist Christian” as entailing: belief in the literal truth of the Bible, often accompanied by a disdain for intellect, and most often an extreme social conservatism. Garrett is a Christian, yes - but not all Christians are “fundamentalist Christians.” But given his current political prominence, you’re probably more aware of his beliefs than my brief googling could cough up. What aspects of his beliefs strike you as “fundamentalist”?
Well, he’s a Pentecostal, born-again Christian, and I call such Christianity “fundamentalist” by definition. By even having a concept of social justice, Garrett does go against the grain of how fundamentalist conservatism is usually configured, but that’s nothing new — for example, reactionary Islamism usually runs under the banner of anti-imperialism. Indeed, one thing that the current wave of worldwide Islamophobia has done is actually collapse any critical terrain around Islam. Reactionary Islamist movements are now just the “natural” expression of crazy, barbaric Arabs, rather than something that could have fooled Michel Foucault into supporting Khomeini in 1979. That mistake needs to be unpacked for what it was and faced squarely (and also distinguished from less reactionary movements that involve Muslims), rather than simply become evidence of “Arab backwardness” (just as fascism in Europe needs/needed to be faced squarely and not used as evidence of “European backwardness”).
I’m not suggesting that Garrett is in any way as reactionary as Khomeini was, but in the context of his current political prominence, I’d think that important questions need to be asked of his politics and their relationship to his religion. What are his sexual politics? His stance on abortion? On feminism? On the economy? Is he in favour of the globalisation of justice, or of ecoprotectionist nationalism? Why does his advocacy of conservation, hand in hand with his vivid image of black/white custodianship of the land under the banner of “one country”, have a whiff of eco-fascism about it?
Don’t get me wrong — I’m obviously still a fan, and Midnight Oil’s anti-imperialist declarations certainly played a part in my political education.