This article was recently published in the the Commoner Webjournal. Maria Rosa della Costa is also the author of essays in a new volume published by Autonomedia, "Revolutionary Writing".

Anonymous Comrade writes

"If we submit the world "locality" to the litmus test of
the word "hunger," we find that it is
valid for at least seven good reasons, which means
that it is impossible to face the problem of
hunger if we do not take into account the question of
"locality."

I have reflected for years on this issue, on this
constant creation of hunger and misery
which, produced primarily by land expropriation, has
characterized capitalist development since its
origins.

Diane Ludin writes "Hello,
Just got this from Cyber Society List and thought to post it as
Wolfgang Staehle is one of the artists in the show. Diane

[Hi all, here is Paul Virilio's foreword from his "Unknown Quantity"
exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. It is available on the Net at the Fondation Cartier site. John.]

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Foreword

by Paul Virilio

"Contemporary civilization differs in one particularly distinctive feature
from those which preceded it: speed. The change has come about within a
generation," noted the historian Marc Bloch, writing in the
nineteen-thirties. This situation brings in its wake a second feature: the
accident. The progressive spread of catastrophic events do not just affect
current reality, but produce anxiety and anguish for coming generations.

hydrarchist writes: This essay was published recently in the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest.

"Absurd Responses vs. Earnest Politics:

Global Justice vs. Anti-War Movements; Guerrilla Theater and
Aesthetic Solutions"

by Ben Shepard

“Start the bombing now!!!!!” “Start the bombing
now!!!! “Two four six eight, we are people who hate, hate,
hate!!!!” A cacophonous block of church ladies in drag
calling themselves ‘Perms for Perma-War” screamed
with the formally earnest crowds throughout the anti-war march
in Washington DC on October 27th. What was going on? Different
people had different explanations. But for most involved, the
feeling was the world was witnessing an absurd situation – a “war on terrorism” a sitting vice president predicted
could last 50 years – which required an absurd response.
1984 slogans, “war is peace” and “freedom
is slavery,” had skipped from civics lessons to the front
and center of a national political consciousness. The notion
that ‘ignorance is strength’ had ceased to be seen
as a cautionary tale but was now considered an asset. “When
I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly
who they were… it was us vs. them and it was clear who
them was,” the future president explained on the campaign
trail back in 2000, continuing, “Today, we are not sure
who they are, but we know they are there.”

Anonymous Comrade writes:

The Vertigo of Philosophy:

Deleuze and the Problem of Immanence

Christian Kerslake

One of the few terminological constants in Deleuze's philosophical work is the word "immanence" and it has therefore become a foothold for those wishing to understand exactly what 'Deleuzian philosophy' is. That this ancient and well-travelled notion is held to have been given new life and meaning by a Deleuzian approach is evidenced in much recent secondary literature on Deleuze, and, significantly, in one central theoretical section of Hardt and Negri's Empire, which takes up the theme of 'the plane of immanence'. Yet on closer inspection it becomes clear that what is at stake in Deleuze's contribution to the history of this term is actually quite elusive. I will claim here that 'immanence', despite appearing to connote philosophical transparency, is in fact a problem for Deleuze; indeed perhaps it is the problem inspiring his work. Not for nothing does Deleuze suggest that 'immanence is the very vertigo of philosophy.'