Let them hate, so long as they fear!

[imomus]

Rock icon Morrissey has caused outrage among US fans with reported comments that he wished President Bush had died. The former Smiths frontman informed a Dublin crowd on Saturday that former president Ronald Reagan had died, the Manchester Evening News reported. He went on to say he wished the current president, George W. Bush, had died instead.

I'm surprised to hear that this has caused some sort of furore in the American media. It seems a much less controversial position than 'Shoplifters of the world unite and take over' or 'Meat is murder' or 'Viva hate!'. With 'Die, Bush!', Morrissey is simply articulating a kind of dinner party truism. People all over the world (the well-heeled as well as the poor, Europeans as well as Asians) wish that Bush would die, or disappear. What differs, though, is the method by which we choose to imagine him eradicated. Each of us kills our inner George W. Bush in our own way.

To amuse myself, I imagine Morrisseyesque ways in which 'George W. Bush' might die. 'George W. Bush' might die in a hotel fire in Birmingham, wrapped in sheets gritty with Mr Kipling crumbs. 'George W. Bush' might die in an accident involving a runaway Morris Minor on the B46 bypass at Hemel Hempstead, while crossing the road to visit a grocer's shop. 'George W Bush' might sever important ankle arteries while removing bicycle clips outside the Salford Asian Boys' Cycle Club and bleed to death under the steely, indifferent gaze of homosexual National Front skinheads. But probably 'George W. Bush' will die of paper cuts inflicted by his well-thumbed copy of the Collected Poems of Palmer's Green spinster Stevie Smith.

It's an amusing parlour game. It's worth remembering, though, that hating on Bush is an ambivalent gesture, not necessarily destructive to Bush's cause or role. As many observers have pointed out, the Bush regime seems to have put into practise the Emperor Caligula's motto 'Let them hate, so long as they fear!'

Slavoj Zizek wrote (and I think this is a key to Morrissey's work in general, as well as to this specific statement about Bush): 'We do not escape from guilt, we escape to guilt, we seek refuge there. By assuming guilt, the son attempts to keep intact the image of the father as the representative of the Law. In other words, the desire for parricide is already an illusion that veils the impotence of the father.'

Comments

[bicyclette.livejournal.com]

oh, slavoj...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think Slavoj's Dictum applies to Morrissey particularly well if we replace 'the father' with 'the fatherland'. Morrissey, while seeming to challenge its conservatism, actually constructs the England he love-hates, his 'fatherland', just as the parricide who seems to be challenging the power of the father actually creates that power, or an illusion of it. 'The provincial town they forgot to bomb' doesn't really exist outside of the Morrissey song that affects to deplore it. Morrissey, weaned on the English music press, has taken to heart its most famous strategy: 'build 'em up to knock 'em down'.

Re: Zizek on "rockism"

[instant-c.livejournal.com]

I think this applies to your thoughts on rockism as well. When I saw Zizek speak last year, one idea that really got my attention was the power of guilt.
His example was how our fathers generation was meant to visit the grandparents on sunday, that they must go, and must behave. OUr generation in the same situation is told, You don't have to go, but you know how much they love you". We are made not only to choose against ourselves, but feel bad for not wanting to do so. I would be interested in what Zizek you are reading(he releases so much material). Also, the Title of Dr. Currie's new book?