A View On Current Politics in Austria

Why I Am Ashamed of Being an Austrian
By Oliver Haag

At a scholarly conference in Australia last year, I was addressed by an Australian scholar and former diplomat (ironically, in a somewhat undiplomatic manner) who informed me that Austria must be the most redneck state in the German-speaking world; she was referring to the Waldheim affair, the racially-motivated murder of four Romany men in Oberwart and the right-wing government coalition between the People’s Party and the Freedom Party during the late 1990s and early 2000s. She went on to talk about the outright racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric and politics of the late Jörg Haider, and his famous dictum of the ‘proper employment policy in the Third Reich’ (‘ordentliche Beschäftigungspolitik’); she wondered why it was deemed acceptable and considered to be far less shameful in Austria to be what she termed a ‘racist asshole’ than being gay (she was referring to the furore that has been stirred up in the Austrian media after the late Haider was finally outed as gay, with a court ruling that it was against the law to defame Haider as a homosexual; quite obviously, in stark contrast to his homo/bisexuality, the fact of his being anti-Semitic and fascist did not seem to bother any of the conservatives).
I was quite embarrassed during this discussion—simply because I could not find an argument from which to dissent. This scholar was very correct in her utterances. Austria’s reputation (if it has a reputation at all) has deteriorated severely over the last decade. Germany’s way of mastering the past has fared much better and been perceived as decidedly more honest and self-reflective than that of Austria. Germany is seen to be the less conservative, sexist, racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic country.

Austria’s image deteriorated even further during the first week of March 2010, when right-wing politician Barbara Rosenkranz, listed in the famous Handbook of Austrian Right-Wing Extremism (DÖW 1993: 107, 155, 316, 355, 402, 427), declared herself to be running for presidency and, simultaneously, argued in favour of making the denial of the Holocaust legal. In Germany and Austria, the denial of the National Socialist crimes—seen as a form of hate speech—is a legal offence. While most of my Australian and British colleagues and friends deem such a law as counter to the freedom of speech (and thus principally worthy of critical discussion), the centrality and context of Rosenkranz’ argument is nonetheless alarming. After all, her plea for allowing people to say that the Shoah had never happened was one of the first (and thus crucial) statements after declaring that she would be running for office. Furthermore, what is even worse, her argument reflects a whole context and climate which renders it possible for extreme right-wing figures in Austria to get as far as running for the office of President of the Republic. Significantly, the shock wave through official Austria was comparably small; only the Green Left party and a few members of the Social Democratic Party considered it worthy to oppose Rosenkranz. The acting Federal President found a few empty words of critique; and that was it. The rest has been silence and Austria continues, as it has always done, to be conservative and to show a profound tolerance towards fascist thinking.

Therefore, quite evidently, the Australian scholar was astoundingly correct—there is no shame in Austria being extreme right-wing yet still, a respected politician. It has become acceptable to overtly declare that National Socialism was not that bad at all. This shamelessness makes me, in turn, very ashamed of my country. In fact, I have never been more ashamed of being an Austrian.


Further Reading:

• http://www.leedspsc.org.uk/?p=2408
• Oleksyn, V. ‘Nazi past back to haunt Austria as right-winger eyes top job’; retrieved: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Nazi-past-back-to-haunt.6121918.jp
• Haaretz article (3 March 2010): ‘Austria Jews slam controversial far-right presidential candidate’; retrieved: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1153581.html

Alain Badiou – Second Manifesto for Philosophy

LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS!

Upcoming in July, 2010

Twenty years ago, Alain Badiou’s first Manifesto for Philosophy rose up against the all-pervasive proclamation of the “end” of philosophy. In lieu of this problematic of the end, he put forward the watchword: “one more step”.
The situation has considerably changed since then. Philosophy was threatened with obliteration at the time, whereas today it finds itself under threat for the diametrically opposed reason: it is endowed with an excessive, artificial existence. “Philosophy” is everywhere. It serves as a trademark for various media pundits. It livens up cafés and health clubs. It has its magazines and its gurus. It is universally called upon, by everything from banks to major state commissions, to pronounce on ethics, law and duty. In essence, “philosophy” has now come to stand for nothing other than its most ancient enemy: conservative ethics.

Badiou’s second manifesto therefore seeks to demoralize philosophy and to separate it from all those “philosophies” that are as servile as they are ubiquitous. It demonstrates the power of certain eternal truths to illuminate action and, as such, to transport philosophy far beyond the figure of “the human” and its “rights”. There, well beyond all moralism, in the clear expanse of the idea, life becomes something radically other than survival.
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Polity (July 7 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0745648614
ISBN-13: 978-0745648613

a first reaction -by renata ( waiting for others' !)

I wanted to thank all participants to the discussion had last Thursday.
Thanks for all comments and suggestions but in particular for the comment as far as the 'old' character of tools chosen to tackle subjects that are arguably new.

As far as the urgency to work on aspects of Italian society, my intention with Rarestance2009 is by no means to infer that such topics as berlusconism should represent a research imperative for scholars operating in Italy, but, rather, to recognize a field of study and to point out the interesting difference between the Australian recent experience and the Italian one.

I had no chance to discuss some aspects - important to me- about notions of embodiment and embodied ethics but elaborating on this it would take far too long here.
I very much look forward to another opportunity to hopefully hear more of your ideas about all we discussed around notions of Sexuality Media and Power in Italy today.

Sexuality media and power. Naples,25 Feb.2010

A round table on the topic of Sexuality Media and Power has taken place in Naples, Italy, on Thursday 25 February. The discussion proposed by Annamaria Crispino, Lorella Zanardo's documentary, Il Corpo delle Donne (http://www.ilcorpodelledonne.net/?page_id=89), Paola Di Cori and Renata Summo-O'Connell has generated a rich debate involving participants and speakers.

This has been the first opportunity for the Rarestance2009 Collective to actually propose to the wide public a critical debate around current contemporary Italian culture.

I include below the list of topics proposed for a future publication. Please contact Rarestance2009 via email at: rarestance at gmail.com if you wish to participate.

TOPICS

European critical democracy

The mythical core of European postmodern transnational fascism.

Cosmopolitan distance and interstices between cosmopolitan Europe and Italy

Migrations and Italian postcolonial melancholia

National Identity in Italy.

The cretinisation of women in contemporary Italian culture.

Aesthetic Rave. The female body and politics of oblivion and transformation in the berlusconi era.

Necrotic influences and cultural and epistemological models during the Berlusconi years.

Women in modern Italian society in the context of the Berlusconi decades.

Body of the South: women and land. Berlusconi, Southern clans and the politics of oblivion.

Deus ex Machina. Sociolinguistic considerations regarding language in the public sphere in Berlusconi times.