crumbling identity politics
having succeeded in an industry skeptical of outsiders, mr. gerstner feels free to assess it. the computer industry tends to go astray, he said, when it "tends to reach to promise value in utopian schemes"—the paperless office, the cashless society, the notion that shopping web sites would bring the demise of bricks-and-mortar stores.
- steve lohr, "he loves to win. at i.b.m., he did," new york times 10 march 2002
... like watching that bald cult guy they found with his nikes in place and his balls cut off and actually understanding him as a person. you're seeing dysfunctional clichés (skins, junkies) tapping the snooze until all of a sudden they're middle-aged, abandoned by their wives and kids ... aryan-supremacist dads barbecue for their extended colored family. they date mixed-race girls and channel their aggression into raves while pretending they're still committed to their ideology. banal daily routines become comical as skins put on blinders to shield their crumbling identity politics from themselves.
- absinthenyc, "let's go all the way: immersionists who go so far in they can't get out," vice volume 9 number 1
posted March 10, 2002 in print