LOVE

This is an interesting piece by Boyd Rice that I’d been meaning to post for a while. Although his work is slightly controversial (he eventually went on to be associated heavily with the Church of Satan and Nazism) I find his earlier work to be some of the most interesting and progressive music of the late 20th Century.

The piece for me illustrates this notion of ideology, and it aims at shifting our understanding of “love” in the same way that its meaning was shifted throughout the history of colonialism. Yet what is interesting about this piece, is the way it bitterly reflects on the attempts against the “white love” or “benevolent assimilation” that Rafael describes. It also reminded me of what we had discussed today concerning the “mass production of stupidity” and perhaps how the overwhelming materialism of capitalism or consumerism aims to make us lazy by convincing us we are satisfied. An interesting example of this is the Ikea scene in Fight Club. In this way, satisfaction in any form can be seen as an indication of ignorance on one’s behalf, in the same way the fallic center of Lacan’s chain of symbolance is ultimately unattainable.

As for the image, last night I went to see Lars Von Trier’s new film Antichrist, and a lot of incredible issues are raised in that film that allowed me to make some clearer connections. It seems that we have a very particular idea of what humanity is, how humans act, and we base our relations with each other based on certain set roles that as Antichrist touches upon, are based in a history that acts on a very subconscious level. This idea of humans as mutually reciprocating beings, who’s ultimate end is “the preservation of mankind” as Rousseau quite idealistically claims, is truly a false one. There is a common theme that I have noticed between many of the people like Boyd Rice, Kenneth Anger, Bobby Beausoleil, and some other greats who happened to also be in the Church of Satan, and that is the idea of the superman. This shared belief is that the basis of nature is a ruthless power struggle in which each is left to fend for himself. There are no limits to how powerful or strong something ought to become, and any means against infinite growth is oppressive. Although these ideas are typically associated with nazism and central to many satanic cults, these are also the underlying drives of the capitalist free market economy, and this ideology has been used brutally to attain the position of the worlds leading power that the US holds today. This political structure, supported and strengthened throughout history, expresses itself most gruesomely in the devilish colonial practices that many of the “leading” countries submitted the less developed ones too.

Rice’s use of the word “LOVE” picks up on the same twisted reality that Rafael and Todorov examine in their texts. Beneath the image, the line”doing whatever is necessary” seals this idea of love as the historic cover up for the worlds most shocking acts of cruelty. We often struggle to find a meaning for love. We think of love as something that can’t be explained in words, it’s an emotion that brings us to do things we would otherwise never do. It literally drives us crazy, making us “head over heels.” Love in the political sense acts the same way, as a cover up for the things we cannot bear to remember but that made us who we are, or made our country what it is. Boyd reveals love in the political sense for what it truly is, “doing whatever is necessary.” Progress at the expense of others people’s lives, protection of one people at the expense of the Other, assimilating one culture and society at the expense of their history and cultural identity.

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