Description
Publisher / Executive Editor:
Eldon Garnet.
Editors:
Carolyn White, Judith Doyle, and James Gronau.
Contributing Editor:
Sylvère Lotringer (New York).
Associate Editors:
Gerald Owen, and Andrew Payne.
Art Direction:
Carolyn White.
Editorial Assistant and Business:
Sharon Brooks.
Advertising Representative:
Natalie Olanick.
Cover Photo and Design:
Carolyn White.
Table of Contents:
Dot Tuer, ‘The Site of an Imaginary History’; James Wines, ‘On the Subject of World Expositions’; Impulse Interviews James Wines and Richard Blagborne; Alexander Wilson, ‘The Managed Landscape’; David Burgess, ‘The Orillia Opera’; Will Straw, ‘Heavy Metal’; Tim Jocelyn, ‘Artists Furniture and Functional Art in New York’; Claudio A. Santon, ‘The Mystery of Leonardo’s Bicycle’; Miguel Rakiewicz interviews Nestor Almendros; Mike Glier, ‘Men At Home’; Susan Speigel, ‘Theatre of Architecture’; Silvia Kolbowski, “December 1984”; Midi Onodera, ‘Ten Cents A Dance (Parallax)’.
Editorial:
Is it out of fear or out of strength. I told him, I think it is out of fear. She said, the equation, suppressing in the name of freedom, is impossible to resolve. What difference does it make to us that they call it defence as our bodies fall.
History is always expecting.
“Our people in South Africa knew that they hate apartheid. They are fighting against it. But after apartheid -what then? That is the question we are trying to answer here.” Principal of the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, Mazimbu.
The institutions of freedom in our culture have become institutions of control. The legal system describes the moral order under which we are being asked to live. Freedom is a set of legal restrictions. The struggle with freedom has become a struggle with the law, with the existing institutions.
“We are entering a period in which our legal culture and constitutional law may be transformed, with even more power accruing to judges than is currently the case.” Appeals Court judge appointed by Ronald Reagan.
As the institutions become more entrenched, the question of moral harm of community or Institutional control versus the privatization of morality becomes central.“These institutions are designed to achieve compromise, to slow change, to dilute absolutism.”
Historically the liberal position has been to argue for individual rights. This position is consistent with freedom of speech. But what occurs when a man makes a career out of publishing racial lies, do we still respect individuals and their right to free speech, or do we respect the truth of history, the right of the victim? The right of the community versus the right of the individual, but to the detriment of the community. Should a censor board have the power to protect individuals against their own will, to self-righteously and forcefully impose an unwanted morality, to police and regulate the community to ensure that it does not experience questionably harmful material (and harmful to whom, the community or the individual viewer)? Or should individuals have the right of choice, to decide for themselves whether to see a particular movie, or read a particular book or magazine. And should the President of the United States ignore the vote of the House of Representatives and the Congress not to visit the cementary at Bitburg, following the imperative of his own will? Should the ruler of a country surpress the sexual activity of one group in the name of a nation’s morality? Should sex between consenting adults in the privacy of their own bedroom, or the viewing of video tapes in the privacy of one’s home be the topic of government regulation? Should the president of a democratic country continue his attempt to give financial and moral support to the previous supporters of a dicatorship against an elected popular government? Is this what the Third World countries have to look forward to after completing their initial liberation?Only the name and excuses differ.
“But,” he said, “I remember Chomsky describing in detail the consequences of changing even a small part of the system, implying in his extensive extrapolation the impossibility to commit even the simplest change.”
“Is that a defence or a weapon?” she asked.
Eldon Garnet
