Laibach

The political commentary of the Liabach through art and music is a very unique form of political activism; it has been described as ‘intervening in its obscene virtual supplement.’
After watching the video posted before it was very interesting some of the ideas discussed particularly, this notion that ‘the Liabach take the system more seriously than it takes itself’ I just find this a fascinating concept that the fact this group took on the ideologies and beliefs of the Slovenian society and government to make people aware of the issues facing them. This tactic took the beliefs of the Solvian people to the masses through their music. This clip also discussed this idea of transgression that the fact this group is conforming to these ideologies in the truest form of conformism they are ‘bringing to the light of day the true transgression’. From what the clip was saying I felt it was saying that society is full of parody and political cynicism which can not be taken too seriously however, this group is truly doing something powerful and unique by conforming to political systems they become a part of these inclusive groups being able to comment and highlight highly charged issues within soviet society for example, “One of the strategies of dissidence in the last years of socialism was therefore precisely to take the ruling ideology more seriously/literally than it took itself, by ignoring its virtual unwritten shadow.”

Also, the first part of the book ‘Interrogation Machine’ raised some important ideas in relation to Liabach. This foreword discusses this code of knowledge or series of rules and injunctions. It describes that the Liabach and ‘their performances directly staged the underlying inconsistent mixture of ideological fantasies that sustained it and this was what made them so unbearable.” Consequently through using art and music this punk group had an enormous impact on Yugoslavia. I also found some of his ideas about whether Laibach can still have the same impact today really intriguing. There are differing sides to this idea one being that “Today, the lesson of Laibach is more pertinent than ever: only such a direct confrontation with obscene fantasmatic core can actually liberate us from its grip”. However, he poses the question as to whether “our cynical ‘postmodern’ ideological universe, still holds a place for a Laibach-type intervention, or is such an intervention immediately ‘coopted,’ neutralized?” this is highlighted through the discussion of humiliation and brutality in the military and the Donald Rumsfeld idea about knowledge. That being, about the ‘unknown knowns’, the things we don’t know that we know. I find these ideas really fascinating and have leaded me to think and question.