{"id":11701,"date":"2013-08-16T13:46:20","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T18:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=11701"},"modified":"2013-08-16T14:33:24","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T19:33:24","slug":"mcgowan-on-michael-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2013\/08\/16\/mcgowan-on-michael-moore\/","title":{"rendered":"mcgowan on michael moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

McGowan, Todd. Enjoying What We Don\u2019t Have: The Political Project of Psychoanalysis<\/em>. 2013.<\/p>\n

When [Michael] Moore succeeds as an activist filmmaker, he mobilizes the<\/strong> enjoyment<\/span> of the spectator and works to align this enjoyment<\/span> with increased freedom and equality.<\/p>\n

Highlighting Bush\u2019s obscene enjoyment<\/span> fails as a political strategy because the people who identify with Bush do so precisely because of this<\/strong> enjoyment<\/span>, not in spite of it.<\/p>\n

If Bush doesn’t read reports, skips meetings, vacations too much, or stumbles when talking to reporters, such failures provide possibilities for identification. Popular identification with a leader occurs on two distinct levels. On the one hand, we identify with the strength of the leader and see ourselves expressed in that strength. This identification affirms our ego and provides pleasure. On the other hand, we identify with the weaknesses of the leader. This identification is the key to our ability to enjoy the leader. The more [Moore’s film] takes the side of knowledge against Bush\u2019s obscene enjoyment<\/span>, the more it cements the identification between supporters and him through a<\/strong> shared enjoyment<\/span>. 188<\/p>\n

Many figures on the side of emancipatory politics see the documentary as a valuable tool because it provides knowledge that traditional media outlets do not. It helps people to break from the ideological manipulation that dominates them. But … the documentary form\u2019s obsession with the facts causes it to miss the role of<\/strong> <\/span>enjoyment<\/span>. … the focus of documentary form on revealing facts rather than facilitating enjoyment<\/span> hinders its effectiveness as a political tool. It seems inherent to take the side of knowledge and thereby enable opponents to enjoy<\/span> through disregarding what it teaches<\/strong>. 188<\/p>\n

[Al Gore\u2019s Inconvenient Truth<\/em>] Gore warns against excessive enjoyment<\/span> \u2013 overuse of electricity, driving environmentally unfriendly vehicles, consuming without educating oneself, and so on. The entire film is an act of consciousness-raising and enjoyment-restricting<\/span>. By seizing on Gore\u2019s film as a rallying point, the forces of emancipation again cede the terrain of<\/strong> enjoyment<\/span> to conservatism<\/strong> … 189<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McGowan, Todd. Enjoying What We Don\u2019t Have: The Political Project of Psychoanalysis. 2013. When [Michael] Moore succeeds as an activist filmmaker, he mobilizes the enjoyment of the spectator and works to align this enjoyment with increased freedom and equality. Highlighting Bush\u2019s obscene enjoyment fails as a political strategy because the people who identify with Bush … Continue reading “mcgowan on michael moore”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jouissance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11701"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11703,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701\/revisions\/11703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}