[spectre] Re: (fwd) Sign the Petition: Release Ai Weiwei

[Calin Dan]

Probably AW is a swell guy. And probably jumping into the bandwagon of yet 
another collective protest letter in his support should not have anything to 
do with the fact that one likes his work - or not. But it actually does. 
Because it is AW as a whole package that one would support, and not just one 
of the numberless anonymous individuals that go daily through the mince-meat 
machine of the system(s).

Now imagine the Cold War period: making a difference then was much more b/w. 
If you were a dissident, you were AGAINST  the regime, and then you went to 
prison, you got the Nobel prize, and then they took you out of your country, 
to be a dissident elsewhere.
Currently, things are complicated. It is probably complicated for AW himself 
to find out what he is - a dissident, a political voice, or an accomplice of 
a powerful regime that profiles itself globally? Probably the three all 
together.
It is obviously complicated (if I look at the sudden animation on this 
otherwise quiet announcements list) for us, lurkers of political changes 
happening at such large scale, to choose what stand do we want to take. It 
is even more complicated to decide if the whole AW hype is not a 
disinformation stunt that uses cynically the avatars of an individual in 
order to deflect attention from more sensitive issues (you make your own 
list here). Of course, atht does not delete from the picture the fact tha a 
swell guy is in legal troubles.

The unpleasant (I hope it is unpleasant for us most) question remains - why 
on earth do we need a celebrity to have problems in order to begin looking 
in the direction of a country that rolls over practically ALL of our 
standards concerning individual affirmation, freedom of speech and 
information, protection of the environment, free affirmation of ethnic and 
religious identity?? (you can make up your own list here as well).

While thinking in terms of "me = not famous enough, vs. AW = spoiled brat of 
the international media" is a stand point weakened by subjectivism, having 
so much to say about NOT DOING anything could be justified only when and if 
one is already involved in some sort of process of change, there, with the 
risks attached. I have to repeat - there, and not here, where indeed, you 
can still pull it out alive from an encounter with the authorities in 
charge, and with that have a nice life in what a Chinese - American 
colleague names "the privileged condiiton of being an European".


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matze Schmidt" <matze.schmidt at n0name.de>
To: ""Ryszard W. Kluszczynski"" <rwk at uni.lodz.pl>
Cc: <spectre at mikrolisten.de>
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2011 9:30 AM
Subject: Re[2]: [spectre] Re: (fwd) Sign the Petition: Release Ai Weiwei


>> are you sure Matze you understand what you are saying?
>> cultural revolution?
>> you are really sweet
>
> I don't think that this is somehow sweet.
> Weiwei ist deeply related --and he claims this here and there in
> interviews -- to the Chinese cultural revolution. Of course his function
> as Chinese artist, as symbolic 'worker' in the west is to tell the story
> of the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s in a way that it was the
> end of civilization and the true grimace of communism. Hence his
> function is to disavow the nation of China today -- within the framework
> of the fight of the economical declining nations and conglomerates of
> nations (USA, Europe, Japan etc.) against China. Needless to say that
> what he does all happens just on the level of symbolism.
>
> Matze
>
> ______________________________________________
> SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe
> Info, archive and help:
> https://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre