asymmetric warfare (nod to blackbox)
Extract from The Focus Group (1998)
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Mick: (TURNS TO CASS) Would you say that we have any kind of - how should I phrase this - inviolable credo, Penny ?
Cass: Not exactly a credo, Kieth. More a general drift. A set of questions. We inhabit a quadrant of our own.
Mick: Precisely. Thankyou. And if you’re going to ask, as you quite possibly are, what is that quadrant ? I’d have to say it isn’t easy to put a finger on it. The redistribution of wealth chestnut comes into play. We’re not what you’d call trickle-downers. Sticking a pin in the multi-national balloon is part and parcel. We’re pushing for new structures of societal consensus. Certain things - arms manufacture, excessive car usage, contrived democracy - will be put against the wall and despatched. And we’d aim to reappropriate some of the good things in life. Like thought. Any of this making any sense ?
David: (NODDING) Sort of -
Mick: Good. Now, the point at which you’re being brought in is this. We’re not stupid. We know that all of the above hardly represents a cakewalk. You have to send out a few smoke signals to let the others know that you’re out there on the wings. That their days are being, no matter how slowly, counted down. And to do this - to send out these signals - you do have to be prepared to break some eggs. It’s Hegelian: the group exists, it’s evolved as a phenomenon, therefore society needs us. (BEAT) Let me put it another way - it’s common knowledge that a migraine doesn’t have all that much to do with the head. It’s more down to the unacknowledged stress that the rest of the body is suffering. It’s the body’s way of reminding itself - Ow! I’m hurting! Right ?
David: Uh - right.
Mick: Good. Well, we’re aiming to be that migraine. We intend to become a localised expression of a communal pain. Exactly how we’re going to do it will be revealed if and when you sign up and we agree to have you. But if you do sign up, I think it’s only fair to warn you that, as far as we’re concerned, you’re cannon fodder. We’re going to be sending you over the top in your plimsolls. We need more bodies, and that’s exactly what you’ll be.
Cass: We’re all bodies, David. I think you should make that clear, Keith. Only - yours, David, will be a barely charted body. Which makes it no less valuable. Just less well known.
Mick: How does it sound ?
David: It sounds mad.
Mick: Mad ?
Cass: Is that a good thing or a bad thing ?
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Mick: (TURNS TO CASS) Would you say that we have any kind of - how should I phrase this - inviolable credo, Penny ?
Cass: Not exactly a credo, Kieth. More a general drift. A set of questions. We inhabit a quadrant of our own.
Mick: Precisely. Thankyou. And if you’re going to ask, as you quite possibly are, what is that quadrant ? I’d have to say it isn’t easy to put a finger on it. The redistribution of wealth chestnut comes into play. We’re not what you’d call trickle-downers. Sticking a pin in the multi-national balloon is part and parcel. We’re pushing for new structures of societal consensus. Certain things - arms manufacture, excessive car usage, contrived democracy - will be put against the wall and despatched. And we’d aim to reappropriate some of the good things in life. Like thought. Any of this making any sense ?
David: (NODDING) Sort of -
Mick: Good. Now, the point at which you’re being brought in is this. We’re not stupid. We know that all of the above hardly represents a cakewalk. You have to send out a few smoke signals to let the others know that you’re out there on the wings. That their days are being, no matter how slowly, counted down. And to do this - to send out these signals - you do have to be prepared to break some eggs. It’s Hegelian: the group exists, it’s evolved as a phenomenon, therefore society needs us. (BEAT) Let me put it another way - it’s common knowledge that a migraine doesn’t have all that much to do with the head. It’s more down to the unacknowledged stress that the rest of the body is suffering. It’s the body’s way of reminding itself - Ow! I’m hurting! Right ?
David: Uh - right.
Mick: Good. Well, we’re aiming to be that migraine. We intend to become a localised expression of a communal pain. Exactly how we’re going to do it will be revealed if and when you sign up and we agree to have you. But if you do sign up, I think it’s only fair to warn you that, as far as we’re concerned, you’re cannon fodder. We’re going to be sending you over the top in your plimsolls. We need more bodies, and that’s exactly what you’ll be.
Cass: We’re all bodies, David. I think you should make that clear, Keith. Only - yours, David, will be a barely charted body. Which makes it no less valuable. Just less well known.
Mick: How does it sound ?
David: It sounds mad.
Mick: Mad ?
Cass: Is that a good thing or a bad thing ?
posted by maldoror at 08:49
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coriander in the marinade?
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