Facism as Superficial Intercultural Extremism
burkha, toplessness, sunglasses, beards, and flu masks
Partially amended (September 2016) in the light of current media coverage of French preoccupation with the iconic bare-breasted Marianne — symbol of the French Republic. This bares comparison with the recent preoccupation in the USA with the erection in a number of cities of statues of the Republican presidential nominee — Donald Trump — bare-assed. Both cases are indicative of emerging forms of national psychosis in a period of so-called “post-truth politics” marked by bare-faced lying by the highest authorities
Introduction
Extremes of bodily representation of identity
Facialization of identity — enabling engagement with the soul?
Identification imperative
Confusions relating to facism
Face negotiation and loss of face
Requisite variety to encompass multidimensional identity (Annex A)
Collapsing the space of sustainable dialogue
Challenges to facist identity and identification (Annex B)
— Possible covert agendas of facism: encoding the Great Games
— Mono-sensorial vs poly-sensorial identity | Discrimination against the sight-challenged
— Discrimination against the facially-challenged | Discrimination against the traumatized
— Premature closure regarding the meaning of identity | Problematic history of dress codes
— Passing conventions of fashion vs. fundamental, enduring cultural values
— Quantitative measures of appropriate exposure
Faces of Citizens vs Fasces of the State: a legislative dilemma?
Justice and the burkha
Burkha as metaphorical mirror for imperious culture? (Annex C )
— Mirroring facelessness of citizens in governance of democratic societies
— Mirroring covert strategies, cover-up and denial
— Mirroring constraints on choice in a consumer society
— Mirroring full-body cognitive imprisonment
— Mirroring uncertainty, the unknown and the unconscious
— Mirroring the threat of confrontation with death
— Mirroring capacity of future response to extraterrestrials and otherness
Conclusions
References
